Preface

The major part of this outlook was written before or during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has spread all over the world, but has erupted with special virulence in Europe, although with different speed and strength. This dramatic event is producing an economic slump and a social crisis of dimensions not yet assessable but certainly unprecedented, at least for our century. It does not nullify nor decrease the importance of the topic which is the subject of this research. On the contrary, it emphasizes the role of public investment in shaping not only the economy, but also society as a whole. In the short and medium term, a strong boost to public investment will be needed to cope with one of the worst legacies of the pandemic, the widespread public debt increase, caused by public policies aimed to mitigate the economic and social consequences of the shutdown of almost all production activities. The huge increase in public debt and even more in the debt-to-GDP ratio can in fact be addressed, as Mario Draghi recalled at the beginning of the pandemic outbreak in Europe, only by public policies capable of supporting the growth of the denominator or to reduce its fall; public investment and effective incentives for private investment are notoriously the most effective tools of these policies.