Invecchiamento della popolazione, immigrazione, crescita economica

Current and prospective population ageing is likely to reduce substantially Italy's participation rates and per capita income. Although large inflows of foreign labour are expected in the coming decades, they are unlikely to compensate for these negative effects. In this article it is argued that those some inflows might, however, help raising the labour market participation of women and that, in general, higher participation rates could be achieved by postponing the age of retirement. Most importantly, though, capital intensity and productivity levels need to be raised. To this end, a significant increase in the quality of human capital, of both native and foreign prospective labour market participants, seems to be of paramount importance and calls for substantial measures to raise and improve the educational levels attained in Italian schools and universities