Innovation and education are shaped by, and in turn shape, the structure of the productive system, which is extremely fragmented in Italy. A single observation well summarises this problem.
According to the latest available data (for the year 2016), 25,000 medium-large firms (with more than 50 employees) produce almost half of the value added of the industrial and non-financial service sector, with almost 6 million employees; the other half is produced by 4.3 million small firms, with 6 million employees and 4.8 million self-employed workers.