A Stronger Manufacturing Industry For Growth and Economic Recovery

Abstract

The paper aims to highlight the crucial role played by the manufacturing industry in thegrowth of the developed countries. This assumption is based, first of all, on the theoreticalcontributions of Petrus Verdoorn and Nicholas Kaldor, that, in the '50s and '60s, have identifiedlinks connecting the economic development of a country to a strong manufacturing sector.For this reason the European Union intends to reverse the declining role of industry inEurope for the 21st century, from its current level of around 16 per cent of gdp to as much as20 per cent by 2020.This should be driven by substantial recovery in investment levels, an expansion of thetrade in goods in the Internal Market and a significant increase in the number of smes exportingto third countries. To reach this objective, the Commission has identified several actionlines, that could favor also the Italian industrial companies, which are heavily affected by thedramatic fall of the internal demand.