The second day of the Festival began with a talk by Giorgio Barba Navaretti in the Common Room of Collegio Carlo Alberto, introduced by Professor Giuseppe Ottaviano. To what extent is the rule of nondiscrimination still valid in a world increasingly divided between friendly and enemy countries?
Giorgio Barba Navaretti: “The concept of the Most Favoured Nation starts from a principle of non-discrimination. As early as the Middle Ages, the need emerged for non-discriminatory treatment of merchants, especially on the basis of their nationality. And reciprocity was demanded in this. This concept is the benchmark that defines the advantages that one country should give to all others.”
Is it possible to talk about globalization before the twentieth century? And if so, what might this perspective suggest to economic and political analysis today? These are just some of the questions raised by Alessandro Vanoli, introduced by Giulio Silvano, in his talk entitled “Globalization Before Globalization” at the Risorgimento Museum.
Alessandro Vanoli: “To talk about global history is to say that history must look at global connections but without assuming that some points of connection must be more important than others. It will be research that will show this.”
How has globalization served the state and corresponded to the national interest? Sabino Cassese spoke about it at Teatro Carignano, with an introduction by Carmine Festa.
Sabino Cassese: “We are in a system in which State and Globalization proceed together benefiting each other, however, there are tensions that are creating fundamental crises. For example, the UN was created to maintain peace, but without succeeding.”
Professor Cassese continues, “The whole world culture on controls says the following things. First: that controls cannot be done by sweep, but must be done by sample. Second: that controls cannot be done on paper-paper controls-but must be done through in-depth inspections of the activity to be controlled. Third: that controls must be not process controls, but product controls. That is, one must not control how something was done, but control the result of that action. As a result, the Government Accountability Office, which is the U.S. equivalent of the Court of Auditors checks on a spot-check basis, does a few extremely in-depth checks, makes no pretense of checking only the paperwork, but wants to check deeper, and these checks report to Parliament. Preventive and concurrent checks in our country are simply a form of congestion, an exercise of power. Every time a division head of a ministry or a director general of another apparatus or even a president of a public body has to make a decision, he or she has to make a phone call to call the controller and say, “but do you agree if I do this?” This is called congestion, it’s called co-administration. And it has two negative effects: it de-empowers what needs to be empowered and it doesn’t lead to effective controls.”
He concludes, “The government has done very well to resist these temptations that have also manifested themselves in a particularly peculiar way. If you read the note circulated to the agencies by the magistrates’ association and the Court of Auditors, you read that the Court of Auditors is calling for a table of confrontation with the government on the adoption of a law. Table of confrontation is the expression that unions normally use when dealing with the state. Can what is one of the largest bodies of the state use this expression? If you accept this kind of terminology, you end up not recognizing that the state has become a kind of aggregation of corporations and interests, and has therefore lost any decision-making capacity. I think that there are therefore aspects of merit on the controls and method on the way this has been conducted that completely give the government reason, and perhaps the big corporations should rethink the way they act towards the state of which they are basically the representatives.”
In recent years, globalization, the spread of platforms and most recently inflation have contributed to profound changes in the reality of work. The consequences include an increase in flexible jobs, growing income problems for workers, and the need for true integration for foreign workers. At the Vivaldi Auditorium, European Commissioner for Labor and Social Rights Nicolas Schmit, in dialogue with Marco Zatterin, discussed this in his talk entitled “The European Union Facing the Challenges of Labor Changes.”
Nicolas Schmit: “Women find it difficult to have access to the same opportunities as men. And this is unfair and unacceptable, but we are working on it. It’s a loss for our economy, at a time when we have a shortage of skills, a world where women have better training but not access to the world of work. “Still Schmit, on the subject of the four-day work week: “A very good idea, but it’s not up to me or the government to implement it-it’s up to the social partners to decide. In many companies, the number of absences has decreased, and there is more productivity.” He went on to emphasize the need to find guarantees and hybrid solutions for telework, believing that the social partners will be the ones to find the balance.
Generation “backpacker”: how to make Italy more attractive to young people? At the Egyptian Museum, Nicolò Andreula, Giudeppe Ippedico and Giulia Pastorella discussed policies introduced in recent years to make Italy more attractive by encouraging the so-called “brain return.” Coordinating, Nicola Lipari.
Nicolo Andreula: “Reality often goes beyond the numbers. In addition to incentives, what is also missing in Italy is digital, infrastructural and social connectivity. Smartworking can be one way but we need to facilitate aggregation.”
Joseph Ippedico: “It is important to act on the causes of the brain drain. For example, preferring to a sharp cut in incentives after five years a gradual reduction of them.”
“Global enterprises in a de-globalizing world”: this is the title of the event curated by “lavoce.info,” coordinated by Paola Pica and introduced by Fabiano Schivardi. The new international context is characterized by bloc division and nationalism. What are the implications on internationalization strategies? Shortening supply chains, reshoring: what is happening? Do Europe need “European champions” or is the Western bloc sufficient? What role can Italy play? Discussing this at Collegio Carlo Alberto were Silvia Candiani, Gianmarco Ottaviano and Elena Zambon.
Silvia Candiani: “Today, artificial intelligence can help us calculate the best route and optimize the travel time of goods.”
Gianmarco Ottaviani: “Globalization in the sense of a free market also broke down due to companies from advanced countries defending their control over superior technologies. I am thinking for example of semiconductors produced in Taiwan.”
Elena Zambon: “Value creation for us centers on research. Today it takes 12 years and 2.4 billion to discover a new molecule for a drug, with failures that can go as far as the last mile.”
Between the “green” redemption, the new balance of emerging countries, sustainable finance, and the digital revolution, are we about to enter a new phase of globalization? Enrico Giovannini and Claudia Segre talk about it at the San Filippo Neri Auditorium, coordinated by Janina Landau.
Enrico Giovannini: “We are all part of one planet. We are all part of the globalized society. The conflicts of the present are blurring this awareness with the risk of a real involution.” He adds, “Italy’s population in the next few years will drop precipitously. Immigration is the only solution, not only for the labor force but also for innovation.”
Mutuality, impact economy, and profit-for-purpose models are concrete concepts united by intentionality, the ex ante intention-that is, to generate measurable and positive impacts: what if globalization were driven by these values? This was discussed at the Risorgimento Museum by Rosemary Addis, Luca Filippone, Sarah Goddard, Giovanna Melandri and Carlo Pavesio, coordinated by Virginia Antonini and Alessandro Cascavilla. The event, curated by Reale Mutua, was titled “Mutuality and impact economy as value drivers in an increasingly impersonal globalization.”
Marina Lalovic moderated the meeting between Yuriy Gorodnichenko, Nathalie Tocci and Beatrice Weder Di Mauro. The main topic was Ukraine and the role of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict within Europe.
Nathalie Tocci: “Hard to imagine Russia gaining additional territory, but we don’t know how much land Ukraine will be able to liberate. The point is that it is almost impossible for these Ukrainian counteroffensives to be followed by an agreement. So we risk finding ourselves in a regime of “no protracted peace” for six months or perhaps six years.
I fear that the split that will occur will be between the United States and Western Europe. The U.S. is holding back on Ukraine’s NATO membership while France and probably Germany are or will be increasingly supportive because it is a key guarantee for the private sector to invest and finance reconstruction. We are realizing that there are no buffer states but only border states, and we have to choose sides. Likewise, there is a realization that enlargement is a strategic necessity, both economically and for security issues.”
Yuriy Gorodnichenko: “The scale of Russian devastation in Ukraine is immense, but there is hope: see, for example, the number of new businesses registered during the war.”
Beatrice Weder Di Mauro: “So far there have been many promises of financial support to Ukraine. The US is the biggest supporter, but changes are needed: we need grants and not loans, or the debt will become unsustainable. We need to coordinate, not compete. We need an agency that is in control of all reconstruction operations and alignment with respect to eventual access to the EU.”
“What I have tried to do in this book is to bring order to all the actors involved in the world of soccer from a perspective of globalization, where economic interests and soft power are constantly intertwining”: thus Andrea Goldstein during the presentation at the Circolo dei Lettori of his book, “The Power of Football. Economics and Politics of Global Football” (Il Mulino, 2022), in dialogue with Lorenzo Casini and Eva Giovannini.
Alessandra Perrazzelli, on the digital euro: “Soon we could pay with a QrCode: the smartphone will not have a card inside it, but a code. We will have digital currencies governed by Central Banks, therefore stable and reliable.” He concludes, “It must be made clear that crypto assets are not a form of payment. They are speculation and, if things go wrong, you cannot then convert them into euros or dollars.”
Roberto Perotti: “The vaguely libertarian position of almost all supporters of cryptocurrencies is inspired by a simplistic, outdated and naive view of the role of central banks. Bitcoins as currency instead of dollars or euros? They would be the perfect recipe for a permanent recession.”
There is concern around the world that the balance of power between workers and their employers has shifted toward employers. This is also why our economies can no longer guarantee better living standards for most workers. But this is not inevitable; we can change course. This is the theme of “Employers and Market Power,” the talk by Alan Manning, in dialogue with Tito Boeri at Collegio Carlo Alberto.
Alan Manning: “Employers are actively trying to appropriate the human capital of workers in many areas. Economists make widespread use of the idea that if two parties voluntarily agree to a contract, the presumption is that both will gain. But one has to be concerned about such a practice.” Manning also stressed the need to provide workers with more information and more options in order to make it easier to change jobs.”
How is the monetary policy of central banks effective in fighting inflation? Did the ECB move promptly or late? These and many other questions were answered by Lucrezia Reichlin and Massimo Rostagno in the meeting moderated by Beniamino Pagliaro in the Vivaldi Auditorium of the National University Library.
Massimo Rostagno: “The ECB’s main role is to control inflation expectations so that they are anchored to its 2 percent target, and this is done through rate policy. The reaction function has advised the path forward.”
Lucrezia Reichlin: “This latest energy shock was the biggest since the postwar period, and it affected the energy-exporting United States very differently from Europe, which mainly imports energy, resulting in the impoverishment of European citizens.”
Reasons for Italy’s disappointing economic performance in recent years often include poor consideration of merit and distorted incentives. “Economic growth and meritocracy: is Italy wasting its talents?” is thus the title of the event curated by the University of Turin, with Lorenzo Codogno and Giampaolo Galli, coordinated by Francesco Serafino Devicienti, at the Museo del Risorgimento.
GEI business economists discussed the strategies of Italian and European companies within the geopolitical context changed by the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Coordinating the meeting inside the Intesa Sanpaolo Skyscraper Auditorium was Massimo Deandreis. Speakers included Innocenzo Cipolletta, Luciano Fratocchi, Alessandra Lanza, Anna Roscio, Emilio Rossi and Alessandra Terzulli.
Transportation constitutes a crucial and problematic element of any globalization path that is sustainable: this was discussed at the meeting “Transportation between Globalization and Sustainability,” coordinated at the Museo del Risorgimento by Paola Pica and introduced by Andrea Boitani, with talks by Angela Bergantino, Claudio De Vincenti and Pietro Spirito.
Education and creativity: how to stimulate innovation. This was the theme of the dialogue between Andrea Gavosto and Guido Saracco, moderated by Piero Bianucci. Creativity is not taught, but how can it be stimulated through appropriate pedagogies?
Guido Saracco: “We have responded to the growing complexity of the world by creating ever-changing engineers, but to specialization we now prefer interdisciplinarity.”
Andrea Gavosto: “We know that there are skills that are likely to protect us in the future against artificial intelligence in the labor market. Studies point to three of them: the ability to socialize, the ability to make decisions based on little information, creativity — however you want to define it.”
At the San Filippo Neri Auditorium Eugenio Barcellona, Maurizio Irrera and Valeria Marcenò discussed how the complexities of economic interests can be regulated in a globalized world.
“There are good and bad policies to support households against rising gas prices. For example, making cash transfers instead of implementing subsidies. And doing it based on historical consumption instead of current consumption.” Thus Benjamin Moll at the event introduced by Giulia Giupponi at the Carlo Alberto College Auditorium. The focus of the speech was on Russia’s use of gas cutting as a weapon and the decline in European economic activity. How are we resisting Putin’s energy war?
The China shock: Twenty years after China’s emergence as a major economic power, is the U.S. and European manufacturing sector still challenged? Discussing this in the Common Room of Charles Albert College, David Autor. Introducing it, Peter Garibaldi.
David Autor: “The Chinese trade shock has had different phases. China built permanent relations with the U.S., opened markets, and this caused companies to move their operations to China. China went from supplying 2 percent to 10 percent of the products in the U.S.” Then he adds, “The problem is not the number of workers and jobs, but the quality of work. People in advanced economies work more today than in the past, thanks to technology that has made every task less burdensome. It is skill that gives value to work. The China shock has taken power away from less skilled workers. Several studies have shown that using chatGPT increases the output and speed of work done, as well as discouraging resignation. AI can be complementary to humans.”
Vito Mancuso sells out at Teatro Carignano with his talk Globalization and Religions, introduced by Giulio Silvano. If monotheistic religions have always dreamed of globalizing the world, however, the world has been globalized by economics. So what is now the task of religions and spirituality in general?
Vito Mancuso: “A question to ask ourselves is ‘what is more important than money?’ The answer is: that which cannot be acquired with money. For example, time. Even if we have millions the hourglass will continue to run. Time cannot be bought. Love cannot be bought. Neither can the ability to fall in love. Neither can one’s dignity. Culture. If you don’t study, don’t feel like it, don’t put in the effort, you can’t create culture out of nothing. Esteem also cannot be bought with money. Esteem is a free gift.”
“In 1992 the Climate Convention was signed by all the countries of the United Nations, which recognized the presence of a disease for which a cure must be found. But after 31 years, not enough has been done.” This is how climatologist Luca Mercalli warned spectators at the Turin International Festival of Economics present in the Italian Chamber Hall of the Museo del Risorgimento. Introducing it, Chiara Piotto.
Mercalli added, “The best travel is the least polluting travel, so that’s what you don’t do. In northern European countries there is even a word for ‘Shame to Fly,’ which means feeling that you are weighing too much on the well-being of the planet. In medical terms: we already have a fever of 102 and will stay at 102 even with shock treatment. We are trying not to get to 42. By now the illness is the norm, we are trying not to make it severe, but tolerable.”
Geopolitics and trade in history: Kevin O’Rourke talks to us about it at the Vivaldi Auditorium of the National University Library, introduced by Carlo Cambini.
Kevin O’Rourke: “War can upset geopolitical balances and destroy trade. But those same balances are often the result of violence.” He adds, “Sometimes trade promotes war: if you trade you become dependent on others and consequently more vulnerable. When war becomes possible, trade relations can accelerate it.”
Alessandra Colombelli introduces the event entitled Global Tertiarization, with Fabrizio Zilibotti, at the San Filippo Neri Auditorium. What is this and what does this tertiarization mean for welfare, the inequalities of the postindustrial world, and technological dynamism, especially for developing countries?
Fabrizio Zilibotti: “The difference between an industrial chain of yesterday and today is that on the assembly line there are machines not people anymore. The large number of employees work to produce services. It is the so-called smile effect: much of the value added comes from what happens before and after production and not from the production itself.”
Not only climate change, but also economic and financial impacts. Carlo Carraro and Silvana Dalmazzone discuss policies to be coordinated to track changes in trade routes, value chains, and flows of goods and people. Coordinating the meeting, which took place in the Codices Room of the Risorgimento Museum, was Edoardo Vigna.
Carlo Carraro: “We would need an industrial policy that accompanies companies, that seizes the opportunity of these changes and helps transformation. This is because there are excellences in Italy that can bring home great results.”
Silvana Dalmazzone: “While the great transitions of the past (industrial and digital for example) took place driven primarily by market forces, the energy and ecological transition in general is one that needs to be done very quickly. Therefore, I am convinced that we need a more governed transition than what we have seen so far. It would take, as Carraro said, a vision. Resources, without the vision, are not enough.”
From the Intesa Sanpaolo Skyscraper Auditorium Maurizio Assalto introduces Luciano Canfora, who tells us about the ancient economies of Sparta, Athens and Rome. Indeed, these civilizations are inextricably linked to the supply of labor obtained brutally through military conquest.
Luciano Canfora: “War is the instrument that determines the slave condition and distinguishes those on one side and those on the other. We know the highest points of the economy known to us from the Hellenistic and Roman areas (the richest and most technologically advanced) because sources abound, but to what extent did they give rise to forms of economic organization similar to the modern one? We speak of a kind of ancient capitalism.” He then adds, “Lysias in a famous oration describes his father’s arms factories. The father, Cephalus, did not produce weapons for self-consumption but for the market, and in a world where war is such a usual occurrence one speaks of an immense market. The factories owned by Demosthenes’ father, on the other hand, were two: one of knives and “peaceful” tools and the other of beds: two very different commodities. Demosthenes describes his father’s productive reality, and we know how many workers there were in the factories and their value, because it is very likely that they were slaves. The owner cared that these slaves could produce well and therefore their labor cost was high.”
“What happens if I expand the number of people admitted to college? Our study wants to understand whether with the expansion of tertiary education the cognitive ability of people admitted has declined and whether access opportunities have increased for people with a starting economic disadvantage.” Thus begins Andrea Ichino’s talk at the Egyptian Museum, after a brief introduction by Maria Laura Di Tommaso. The goal is to try to answer this question: does a massive university correspond to a worse university?
Tito Boeri introduces David Card, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2021, at the Auditorium of Collegio Carlo Alberto. Theme of the meeting the future of work: smartworking, impact of new technologies, wage changes and how much actual room there will be for equity and diversity within the market. David Card: “After the end of the Great Recession, salaries for those earning the most went down, while they went up for those earning the least, this is thanks to technology.” And then he adds, regarding smartworking, “Working from home allows for greater concentration and increased productivity: it has reached 100 percent remotely. Some services such as customer service have worked well remotely as well.”