ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to test the efficiency of Italian investments in Research and development with respect to the introduction of new ways of employing human and capital resources. The analysis tries to quantify the correlation between the amount of financial resources devoted to inventive activity and the introduction rate of innovations into the production system. The chapter focuses on the productivity path of the sectors mainly supported by the government such as: Electrical-Electronics, Chemical-Pharmaceuticals, Mechanical and Transportation. It explores the governmental policy that plays a fundamental role both in terms of choice of eligible sectors and modality of the interventions. The comparison between government expenditure and technical progress growth rate provides a clear perception of the irregularity of the interventions both in time and magnitude. The programming activity of Public Administration has been responding to market requests, refining and improving its interventions from time to time.
