Restrictive regulation and a legal and institutional environment that is unfriendly to entrepreneurial activity hamper the transfer of resources towards the more efficient firms and sectors and the growth of productivity. The same elements also affect the Italian economy’s ability to attract investment from abroad, which is very poor compared with other economies, ultimately curbing the diffusion of innovative technologies and managerial practices.
For  BIS central bankers’ speeches  7  potential investors, both Italian and foreign, the lengthiness and complexity of administrative procedures pose the most significant obstacle. In many cases the benefits of reforms are inevitably deferred. This is true, for example, of interventions on the education and training system, a subject to which we have dedicated another chapter of the Report.