Merit according to Codogno and Galli
"Economic growth and meritocracy" by Lorenzo Codogno and Giampaolo Galli read by Tullio Fazzolari
As absurd as it may seem, in Italy whole days are spent uselessly discussing a male or female article. The same happened to the use of the word "merit" with an equally sterile controversy based on rhetoric or low-cost self-righteous egalitarianism. More than that politicians and opinion leaders do not seem able to say and it is then up to two important economists to explain what meritocracy really is and above all what are the damages that derive from not taking it into account.
Lorenzo Codogno and Giampaolo Galli with “Economic growth and meritocracy” (il Mulino, 338 pages, 34 euros) bring attention back to objective facts, avoiding the pamphlet tones used by politicians and mass media. The starting point is that for over twenty years now Italy has lost both crutches with which it previously supported its economy. Since the advent of the euro, it is no longer possible to regain competitiveness on international markets by devaluing the lira. Nor is it allowed to increase public debt without brakes to boost GDP. It is reasonable to expect that the celebrated Italic genius would find the solution to overcome the new difficulties. It didn't happen that way. Yet, as Codogno and Galli explain, there were and, after all, there are still valid resources to bet on. Which?
In summary, our trump card should be human capital by enhancing intelligence and creativity. But we did not go in this direction with the result that "Italy wastes its talents and does not grow".
"Economic growth and meritocracy" is not intended to be a pamphlet but, in fact, it is a precise indictment of the methods followed in the last two decades, mostly based on commonplaces. Among which the most wrong is that recognizing and rewarding merit is a sort of oppression of the weakest. And in this way it hides that true equality should be achieved first by giving everyone the same opportunities.
Codogno and Galli's analysis shows in detail why this does not happen. The school often gives a low level of education. Universities are chronically short of research funding. Public administration is largely run by lobbies who ignore merit in assigning roles and advancing careers. As for recruitment, we have not made much progress compared to two centuries ago because the old method of political recommendations has also survived the era of the second Republic unscathed.
Only a few manufacturing companies are saved from the disaster, aware that, to be competitive on the international market, they must focus on the best talents. But it is not enough for Italy to be a more efficient and growing country. Nor is it enough to tackle a distressing problem like the "brain drain" that we have been complaining about for fifty years without doing anything concrete to solve it. Neglecting merit, we have lost young scientists like Sergio Gaudio who then took the Nobel Prize by working in a US research team. But now we are also losing good doctors and good nurses who, not feeling considered, prefer the higher wages offered by other countries. Codogno and Galli are right: ignoring a bit of healthy meritocracy we were able to hurt ourselves.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/il-merito-secondo-codogno-e-galli/ on Sat, 05 Nov 2022 09:07:40 +0000.