Events
All the events in the programme can be watched live on the date and at the time (Italian local time) shown on the website www.festivaleconomia.it, with live Facebook videos also provided for in some cases. We also invite you to follow the Facebook page of the Festival of Economics, where the events to be broadcast live will be listed.
A simultaneous translation service is available for events accompanied by the 
symbol. At the Festival website they can be watched in the original language or with simultaneous translation.
All the recordings of the events will be available on the website from the day after the live broadcast.
introduced by Tito Boeri
How to deal with climate change when emissions originate mainly in rich countries and the costs of global warming are concentrated in poor countries? Should we change our habits? Should we consume less?
introduced by Tito Boeri
In a world in which internet troll farms attempt to influence foreign elections, can we afford to ignore the power of viral stories to affect economies? The stories people tell—about economic confidence or panic, housing booms, the American dream, or Bitcoin—are contagious, and affect economic outcomes. How can we begin to take these stories seriously?
introduced by Valentina Bosetti
Raising prices through a carbon tax, is a far more effective and efficient way to lower carbon emissions than direct government controls on the quantity of emissions through, say, regulatory limits on cars and power plants. Higher prices will encourage firms and consumers to find alternatives to carbon-based products as well as encourage new technologies that will make those substitutes competitive. Can the proceeds be used to compensate low income families hit particularly hard by the taxes?
introduced by Silvia Bencivelli
Technology sparked off development of the economy, leading to a combination of wellbeing, demographic growth and the impact on the environment. Will we be capable of using technology to make our future sustainable?
introduced by Alberto Nucciarelli
In order to encourage energy transition it is essential to associate a price with carbon emissions. How can this be done effectively? A comparison between the various experiments tried out in different countries.
introduced by Giuseppe Laterza
By looking at plants we can learn the art of coexistence: decentralised and cooperative organisation, with all living organisms finding a place, because each is aware of depending on the others.
organised by Fondazione Fondirigenti
coordinated by Eugenio Occorsio
speakers: Roberto Gabriele, Carlo Poledrini, Giuseppe Ricci
The concrete impact of managerial training on productivity and business growth. Management skills in the light of technological evolution and the new circular economy paradigm.
introduced by Luca Petermaier
The history of our country has been strongly affected by its specific environmental characteristics: from the way in which urban development has taken place and the development of industry at territorial level, to the construction of food production chains and overbuilding along the coast.
speakers: Innocenzo Cipolletta, Domenico Favuzzi, Elena Flor
introduced by Stefano Pogutz
coordinated by Massimo Gaggi
While sustainability represented a field in its own right for businesses until a few years ago, today environmental and social issues have become an integral part of the purpose and strategy of many companies, increasingly often central to the development of innovative and successful business models. Can the pandemic become an opportunity to facilitate the acceleration towards a more sustainable paradigm?
introduced by Mauro Caselli
One of the major obstacles to the implementation of policies for the reduction of polluting emissions is the fact that the taxes that should discourage the use of coal end up affecting mainly the weaker classes. What can be done to reconcile environmental objectives and the containment of inequalities?
organissed by EF Solare Italia
coordinated by Paola Pica
speakers: Diego Percopo, Valeria Termini, Edoardo Zanchini
In energy transition, photovoltaics is destined to see very rapid development in the near future: PV systems are modular, competitive, usable with different configurations, exploited through digitisation and storage systems, and can be developed in total harmony with the local area and the environment.
introduced by Edoardo Gaffeo
How much sacrifice should we undertake to face our responsibilities toward future generations? How should we price CO2 and other investment projects with very distant benefits? In this talk, I will explore these questions in the light of the recent economists’ debate on the value of time, i.e., about discounting.
Tito Boeri, Sergio Rizzo
organised by Feltrinelli
discussed with Tonia Mastrobuoni
introduced by Massimo Marinacci
Geophysicists examine and document the repercussions for the earth’s climate induced by alternative emission scenarios and model specifications. Using simplified approximations, they produce tractable characterizations of the associated uncertainty. Meanwhile, economists write simplified damage functions to assess uncertain feedbacks from climate change back to the economic opportunities for the macroeconomy. How can we assess both climate and emissions impacts, as well as uncertainty in the broadest sense, in social decision-making? Decision theory and tools from asset pricing are very valuable in answering such a question.
introduced by Massimo Gaggi
In the global conflict for energy, economic interests, even through violence, have often prevailed on political reason. What will happen in the near future when, presumably, the age of oil will end?
introduced by Tito Boeri
The “Alan Krueger lectures” suggest how to use empirical evidence to guide economic policy choices. The first lecture, given by Hilary Hoynes in 2019, was about how to use data to assess minimum income measures. The second will be about how to adopt machine learning techniques to assess education policy.
introduced by Eugenio Occorsio
What we know – and what economists can quantify – is bad enough and should have prompted much more ambitious climate policy a long time ago. What we don't know – the known unknowns and unknown unknowns – by and large point in one and only one direction: to more ambitious climate action still.
Robert Johnson, Michael Spence
organised by INET
introduced by Tito Boeri
The Covid pandemic has drastically affected how the world economy operates. How many of the changes might be permanent? Might innovations adopted out of necessity lead to major changes in how economies function in the future?
introduced by Marina Forti
Climate change has jeopardised the most important political concept of the modern era: the idea of freedom, central not only for contemporary politics, but also for the humanities, arts and literature.
introduced by Eleonora Broccardo
Climate change represents a significant source of systemic risk, with the potential to destabilise the normal operation of the markets, the financial sector and the real economy. The more we delay the transition to a sustainable economy, the greater the possible consequences will be.
introduced by Massimiliano Vatiero
There is broad scientific consensus that the global climate is changing, and that this is a result of human activities. There is also a rather broad political consensus, by now deeply rooted in our populations, that we need to intervene: we need to decrease our emissions of greenhouse gases. But how to induce our economies to curb emissions is much less clear. Economics offers tools to help the world in this respect: economists have systematic methods for comparing different policy paths, because - by design - our science is about understanding how economies respond to policy interventions. This lecture discusses what economists have contributed so far to fulfill this important task, along with some promising avenues for further research.
organised by LeasePlan Italia
coordinated by Luca Orlandi
Speakers: Innocenzo Cipolletta, Anna Scuttari, Alberto Viano
A meeting to analyse the development of electric cars in Italia and outline scenarios for the coming years, taking into account technological innovation, planning of infrastructures, accessibility for consumers and environmental protection.
speakers: Gianluca Manca, Nino Tronchetti Provera, Natalie Westerbarkey
introduced by Loriana Pelizzon
coordinated by Massimo Gaggi
How can finance contribute towards promoting a more sustainable economy? Do the ESG (environmental, social & governance) indicators for investment represent an effective alternative for directing the economy towards more sustainable activities? What role could be played by the European Commission’s “Action Plan on Sustainable Finance”, which aims to mobilise the world of finance to promote sustainable growth?
Laurence Boone, Salvatore Rossi
coordinated by Paola Pica
There is new awareness of environmental problems, but at the same time the need to recover the ground lost may induce governments to put environmental issues aside. A dialogue over the challenges facing environmental and economic policies in the years to come.
Vincenzo Amendola, Roberto Perotti
coordinated by Elisa Dossi
With the Recovery Fund, Brussels has made 209 billion euro available to the government to finance a recovery plan for Italy, partly in the form of non-repayable grants and partly as a loan. What is the most beneficial strategy for getting the country going again? What obstacles could prevent it from being fully effective? The Minister for European Affairs, Vincenzo Amendola, and the economist Roberto Perotti discuss the issues.
introduced by Paolo Micheletto
The bad news for 2019 is the U-turn by China, which after having been a leader in solar energy, has cut back heavily on its investment in renewable forms of energy. Faced with a slowdown in growth, Xi Jinping has not hesitated to resurrect “carbon capitalism”. The information is official, and terrifying.
organised by Einaudi
discussed with Linda Laura Sabbadini
coordinated by Tonia Mastrobuoni
introduced by Marco Motta
This talk explores the recent history of attacks on science, and proposes how we can restore public trust and use science to help us fight climate change, protect ourselves from pandemics, and other important things.
Paolo Guerrieri, Pier Carlo Padoan
Organised by Il Mulino
discussed with Vincenzo Amendola
coordinated by Tonia Mastrobuoni
The EconoMia competition rewards 20 high school students who offered the best written analysis of this year's themes. The winners will attend all events of the Festival, thus learning more about a major issue in contemporary economics.
Matteo Gaddi, Nadia Garbellini, Ryan Rafaty, Annamaria Simonazzi
organised by INET
introduced by Thomas Ferguson
coordinated by Eugenio Occorsio
The world automobile industry is in crisis. Not only are there too many producers, but deep changes in production methods associated with the shift to greener forms of transportation make many current industrial processes and forms of working obsolete. How the world and individual countries will cope with these changes is very much an open question and is the subject of this panel.
coordinated by Tonia Mastrobuoni
With the “European Green Deal” the European Commission has promoted an ambitious project, putting Europe at the cutting edge of environmental policy: the circular economy, energy transition, urban regeneration, sustainable tourism and agriculture etc. The Covid emergency has reinforced European solidarity, but the political, economic and cultural questions dividing EU countries remain: how can these be handled in the fairest and most effective way?
introduced by Simone Casalini
From Roman times to the Little Ice Age in the modern era, climate change has had more effect than might be believed, influencing migratory phenomena, the rise and fall of political systems, crises and the adaptation of social and economic systems.
introduced by Maria Luigia Segnana
Green Growth means sustainable development from the environmental point of view. While progress has been made, many would say that the outcome was not up to the expectations. Now, with the COVID-19 crisis, the green growth concept is again high on the agenda in the context of the recovery policies. What have we learned during the past decade? How can we use this knowledge in policy making? What else do we need to know?
organised by GEI – Gruppo Economisti di Impresa
coordinated by Massimo Deandreis
speakers: Gregorio de Felice, Andrea Goldstein, Alessandra Lanza
GEI analyses the relationship between sustainable development and business development strategies, providing scientific evidence to promote new industrial policy proposals that can combine environmental and economic sustainability.
speakers: Laura Cozzi, Michele Gamberini
introduced by Marzio Galeotti
coordinated by Massimo Gaggi
Will the new energy and communications technologies be capable of solving the dilemma of balancing protection of the environment and natural resources, economic growth and job creation? Are there good and less good technologies? What is the role of policy promoting research and technological innovation in progress towards a net zero emissions economy, increasingly well-connected and with new ways of organising employment?
introduced by Tonia Mastrobuoni
The first signs of a recovery, expected to be slow, are emerging in Italy, presumably moving towards a new normality. The structural problems of the economy will need to dealt with to support this recovery, with reforms designed to encourage innovation and the growth of human capital, along with a transition towards a more sustainable economy, not just in Italy, also with the contribution of the central banks.
introduced by Dino Pesole
The Kyoto Protocol, with the Carbon Market and its Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), became international law in 2005. This was revolutionary work and had it been fully adopted globally, the world’s climate would not be in the precarious position that we find it in today. What is required to transform industry, provide profits and create new jobs, all while solving catastrophic climate change?
introduced by Massimo Gaggi
Life expectancy in the United States has recently fallen for three years in a row—a reversal not seen since 1918 or in any other wealthy nation in modern times. In the past two decades, deaths of despair from suicide, drug overdose, and alcoholism have risen dramatically, and now claim hundreds of thousands of American lives each year—and they’re still rising. Why, for those who used to prosper in America, is capitalism no longer delivering anything?
introduced by Tito Boeri
Even before the arrival of COVID, American lives (and deaths) were dividing, with an educated elite doing well and the majority doing badly. Covid is increasing these pre-existing inequalities and creating new ones everywhere, especially so in in the US. The failure in the management of the pandemics is a byproduct not only of the lack of competence of the Trump administration, but also of the lack of a coherent national strategy in a federal system, where each local authority behaves autonomously causing inequalities and risks for citizens.