The COVID-19 crisis has hit Italy severely: by mid-2020, GDP had returned to the level observed in 1993. This is the result not only of its sharp collapse in the first half of 2020, but also of its weak growth since the 1990s. Addressing the problems that have restrained the economy for 30 years...

This paper discusses some of the recent developments in growth theory, doing so from the perspective of a small open economy. After setting out a basic generic model, we show how it may yield two of the key models that have played a prominent role in the recent literature, the endogenous growth...