Pacchetti anti-crisi nei paesi dell'Unione Europea e caso italiano

The article discusses the role of fiscal policies acting on the supply side within the recent economic stimulus packages of the EU countries, detailed according to OECD methodology and data. The supply side feature is analyzed according to the goals of the “new European industrial policy”. Economic stimulus packages differ rather largely among countries in terms of size. Worthwhile features are: a) the supply side involvement often accounts for less than half of the whole package, the majority being focalized on the defence of income and purchasing power of the weaker population; b) a preference towards specific sectors occurs only for the automotive (of course in the car producing countries) and construction industries; c) a long term perspective (related to innovation, energy and environment) seems to be present only in few countries; d) concern about dangers from a new protectionism pushed by the State subsidies seems overstated. The Italian package is rather small: its size is justified by the high Italian debt/GDP ratio, but it cannot be explained according to perspectives on expected performance.