Abstract

Since the beginning of the 1990s European countries have embarked on a policy of wide economic reforms to make economic institutions more "market friendly" on the assumption that the regulatory environment is a fundamental driver of growth. The first section of this paper provides a critical discussion of the meaning and the empirical relevance of this particular notion of economic reform and examines the reforms that have been implemented in Europe over the last 15-20 years. The second section of the paper considers the structural reforms that have been recently introduced in Italy and concludes that their effects on growth and employment are virtually nil in the short run and modest, at best, in the long run.