strategic choice made a century ago and that has never been changed, whereby public resources were channelled more towards nursery and primary schools, less towards secondary schools and even less again for universities and postgraduate studies. this choice was made to solve the serious problem of mass illiteracy at that time in italy. 5 compared with the major european countries, italy ’ s primary schools still receive more public funding than those in france or spain, and are almost on a par with germany ’ s schools. yet italy slips back into last place for secondary schooling, just below spain, and is also in last place for university funding, well below spain. in any case, the amount of public money set aside overall for education in italy is lower than that in the other three countries, given similar, mainly public education systems. in other words, the commitment of italy ’ s public sector to education is not in proportion to modern - day needs, which combine a drive for scientific research, continuous innovation and cut - throat competition. such inadequacy is explained both by the amount of resources used and by how much money is spent on the different levels of education. yet the idea of greatly increasing the resources provided by the public finances or of redistributing them in favour of universities, see flisi, s., v. goglio, e. meroni, m. rodrigues, and e. vera - toscano, ‘ occupational mismatch in europe : understanding overeducation and overskilling for policy making ’, jrc science and policy reports, 89712, 2014. see colonna, f., ‘ chicken or the egg? human capital demand and supply ’, politica economica, 1, 97123, 2017. see giunta, a. and rossi, s., che cosa sa fare l ’ italia. la nostra economia dopo la grande crisi. laterza, bari, 2017 ;. and bertola, g., and sestito, p., ‘ a comparative perspective on italy ’ s human capital accumulation ’, banca d ’ italia, economic history working papers, 6, 2011. especially postgraduate courses, to forge tomorrow ’ s scientists and innovators, is unrealistic, politically speaking. however, it is not just a problem of how many resources we have ; the education provided also leaves a lot to be desired. the division of secondary schools into high schools and vocational schools

placement and initial purchase of bonds. they would be acting in their own interest by earning commission fees which have grown in the meantime19 and they would restore balance to a market that is currently dominated by foreign banks. conclusions to conclude, relaunching the economic development of our country after more than twenty years of stagnation or overly slow improvement is the absolute priority for italy. if our nation does not increase its wealth it will eventually decline, despite its talent and the capabilities recognized the world over. development must be harmonized and sustainable over time, but it is a sine qua non. we can only return to financial balance if there is greater development. nevertheless, relaunching development is not easy ; we need to make big changes to italy ’ s underlying character and to the political choices of our national community that are deeply rooted in the distant past. on this day, we are examining some of these central aspects : the education system, competitiveness, and the financial system. we must not tire of debating these themes, and we should not hold back or be afraid of expressing our ideas. if the ideas are right and convincing, action will follow. see albareto, g. and marinelli, g., ‘ italian banks and market - based corporate financing ’, banca d ’ italia, questioni di economia e finanza ( occasional papers ), 432, 2018. designed and printed by the printing and publishing division of the bank of italy