and 34 who have a university degree is still below the average for the main industrial countries, despite the significant increase in recent years following the university reform of 2002. the university drop - out rate is 60 per cent, nearly twice the average for the leading countries. the proportion of graduates who go on to earn a postgraduate qualification is very small, so that italy is fourth from the bottom in the ranking of oecd countries. the bulk of the recent increase in the number of graduates has consisted of students doing a shorter course. in the last two years matriculants have converged above all on law and the political and social sciences. more generally, by international standards the study courses of italian university students appear biased towards the humanities and social sciences and away from technical and scientific subjects. part of the difference is due to the fact that, in contrast with italy, shorter - course university degrees in other countries are mainly in technical subjects. but another part of the explanation is to be found in the high rents enjoyed by some professions, which distort families ’ choices, and in firms ’ insufficient demand for high technical and scientific qualifications. fewer public resources are allocated to higher education in italy than in many other advanced countries. this is the flip side of the larger volume of resources allocated to primary and secondary education. the basic political choice was to privilege early education to the detriment of investment in advanced knowledge. this is not a far - sighted choice in a world in which innovation is the key to growth. the public resources allocated to higher education in italy appear even smaller when compared with those made available to anglo - saxon university systems, despite their having a great many private institutions. the manner of intervening is different, however : in the united states, for example, it is mainly in the form of direct financing of deserving students and their families through scholarships and personal loans ; in italy, as in the rest of continental europe, the bulk of funds serve to finance the universities. 4. looking ahead by now nobody in italy should have any doubts about the urgent need to revive economic growth. the present lively cyclical upturn is certainly not sufficient to trigger a rapid solution to the structural defects of italy ’ s productive system. for the reasons that i have tried to set out here, education is one of the most important aspects of a reform strategy aimed at altering the context in which that system operates. in a modern economy the public sector organizes and regulates the market, produces public goods and corrects external

ewald nowotny : a changing role for central banks opening remarks by prof dr ewald nowotny, governor of the central bank of the republic of austria, at the 41st economics conference of the central bank of the republic of austria, vienna, 10 june 2013. * * * ladies and gentlemen, i would like to welcome all of you to the 41st economics conference of the oesterreichische nationalbank here in vienna. my warmest regards to state secretary of finance andreas schieder, and our keynote speakers, benoit coeure, member of the ecb executive board, and harold james, professor at princeton university. i am delighted and honored to welcome very prestigious speakers among us, who will enrich this conference with their insightful ideas and novel research. “ a changing role for central banks? ” is the question addressed at this year ’ s conference. during the 19th century central banks were very closely interlinked with national governments. only in the late 20th century did we observe a shift in emphasis toward the institutional autonomy of central banks. one can safely say that the status, reputation and self - image of central banks have considerably improved over the years. today, central banks alongside parliaments, governments and judiciary are among the pillars of modern democratic nations. at our conference we will discuss what kind of a pillar of the democratic system a central bank is or should be. in my short introduction, i want to emphasize two interconnected issues that are relevant to this discussion : 1 ) the role of a central bank in the general context of economic policy, and 2 ) the concept of central bank independence. in the period after the great depression of the 1930s and in the first decades after world war ii, the mandate of central banks usually reflected the traumatic experiences both of high inflation and mass unemployment. this is e. g. reflected in the broader mandate of the u. s. fed and also applied to the mandate of austria ’ s central bank before austria joined emu. in the period following the oil price shocks and up to the “ great recession ” – the economic crisis we have been experiencing for five years now – the role of central banks seemed to be clear cut : central banks should focus on price stability, should operate mainly with one instrument – the policy rate – and should be independent in their actions. this was also the leading perspective when laying the foundation of the european central bank – the maastricht treaty in 1992. it reflected a strong position of economic theories