Capitale umano e sviluppo. La rincorsa dell’economia italiana e il «corto circuito» dell’istruzione

Human Capital and Development: The Slow Growth of the Italian Economy and the Education Trap Several studies put in evidence that Italy presents, at the end of the first decade of the new century, an average capacity of innovation judged as middling and a substantially low level of education, learning and human capital. In the past, the lack of development in human capital, measured taking the degree of schooling, i.e. the number of school years actually attended, did not prevent, on the contrary, has encouraged industrial growth. In the globalization era, of the late twentieth century, a low level of education is not only an obstacle to the adoption of new techniques and innovations, but probably also to the understanding of foreign cultures. In general, it stops relevant social and economic transformation of the country, reducing the opportunities of the economic agents to active participation in the economic activity.The paper gives evidence to this basic idea. In Italy, the heavy distance between educational and production system explains the overall reduction of the innovation capacity of the entire country, and especially it reduces the spread of innovation throughout the economy. It strongly penalizes the GDP rate of growth, as a rough indicator of human development, since it is incapable of measuring non-economic (social) dimension of human welfare, but, more, the capacity of the firms to compete adequately on the markets. Therefore, promote human capital development is fundamental. It is largely linked to the school system organization, to the training in the production system and to the rules nature and contractual arrangements governing the entry into the labor market and consequently working conditions. Human development policies implications in terms of economic welfare are discussed.[...]