Meritocracy, Growth, and Lessons from Italy's Economic Decline Lobbies (and Ideologies) Against Competition and Talent

Lorenzo Codogno, Visiting Professor in Practice, London School of Economics and Political Science,Giampaolo Galli, Visiting Professor in Economics, Università Cattolica

Lorenzo Codogno is a Visiting Professor in Practice at the London School of Economics and Political Science, Visiting Professor at the College of Europe, Bruges, and Senior Fellow at the LUISS School of European Political Economy, Rome. He is also founder and chief economist of Lorenzo Codogno Macro Advisors Ltd. He was chief economist and director-general at the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance 2006-2015. He joined the Ministry from Bank of America, where he was managing director, senior economist, and co-head of European Economics, based in London over the previous eleven years.

Giampaolo Galli is a senior fellow of the Observatory on Italian Public Accounts at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, where he teaches Macroeconomics. He is also senior fellow of LUISS School of European Political Economy. From 1979 to 1995 he worked at the Research Department of the Bank of Italy; he then became chief economist and general director of the Confederation of Italian Industry. From 2001 to 2009 he was general director of the Association of Insurance Companies. In 2013 he was elected a member of the Italian Parliament (independent in the lists of the Democratic Party). He has been a consultant to the President of the European Commission and to the Economic and Monetary Committee of the European Parliament.

Introduction: Why a Book in English on Italy's Decline?
Part I. Meritocracy and Decline
1. Meritocracy, Alternatives, and a Misguided Egalitarian Culture
2. Stylised Facts on Italy's Decline
Part II. Comparative Evidence: Society
3. Legacies of a Troubled History
4. Lobbies in Government
5. Lobbies in Education
Part III. Comparative Evidence: Economy
6. Key Problems and Inequities
7. At the Root of Italy's Competitiveness Problems
8. Egalitarianism and Messed-up Incentives in the Labour Market
9. Why Are Companies So Small?
Part IV. Summing Up and Lessons
10. Summing up on Italy's Bright and Dark Spots
11. What Lessons for Other Countries?