Supporting regulatory reform.

Even prior to the recent financial turmoil, Italy was being left behind by economic growth in many other countries. Low productivity growth has a number of causes, some of which have their origin in poor or excessive regulation, public services and administration, and the legal system, which an ISAE report refers to as the "non-material" infrastructure. As the OECD Regulatory Reform Review of Italy to be published this year describes, progress has been made in improving regulation, although the results have yet to show themselves in productivity growth. Continued reforms are needed, and must be supported by a more efficient public administration and more purposeful use of Regulatory Impact Assessment and exercises such as the Spending Reviews by the Technical Committee on Public Finance, in parallel with efforts through the Taglia Legge and Taglia Oneri programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]