Italy

2012 Results



Aid

Aid quality is just as important as aid quantity, so the CDI measures gross aid as a share of GDP adjusted for various quality factors: it subtracts debt service, penalizes “tied” aid that makes recipients spend aid only on donor goods and services, rewards aid to poor but relatively well-governed recipients, and penalizes overloading poor governments with many small projects.


Italy’s aid performance

  • Score: 1.3
  • Rank: 22

Weaknesses

  • Low net aid volume as a share of the economy (0.14%; rank: 22)
  • Large share of tied or partially tied aid (45.2%; rank: 20)
  • Allows project proliferation; small average project size (rank: 19)
  • Small amount of private charitable giving attributable to tax policy (rank as a share of GDP: 17)

Trade

International trade has been a force for economic development for centuries. The CDI measures trade barriers in rich countries against exports from developing countries.


Italy’s trade performance

  • Score: 5.7
  • Rank: 9

Strengths

  • Low tariffs on textiles (6.4% of the value of imports; rank: 3)
  • Low tariffs on apparel (6.4% of the value of imports; rank: 3)
  • High level of manufactures imports from poorer countries (10.1% of GDP per capita; rank: 4)

Investment

Rich-country investment in poorer countries can transfer technologies, upgrade management and create jobs. The CDI includes a checklist of policies that support healthy investment in developing countries.


Italy’s investment performance

  • Score: 5.4
  • Rank: 10

Strengths

  • Political risk insurance agency provides wide coverage and screens potential projects for violations of human, labor and environmental rights
  • Employs tax treaties to prevent double taxation of corporate profits earned abroad
  • Particularly active in Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), including support for the Multi-Donor Trust Fund facility.

Weaknesses

  • Limited prosecution of home-country bribe payers

Migration

The movement of people from poor to rich countries provides unskilled immigrants with jobs, income and knowledge. This increases the flow of money sent home by migrants abroad and the transfer of skills when the migrants return home.


Italy’s migration performance

  • Score: 4.7
  • Rank: 15

Strengths

  • Large share of foreign students from developing countries (79.8%; rank: 7)
  • Large number of immigrants from developing countries entering Italy (rank by share of population: 7)

Weaknesses

  • Only a small increase during the 1990s in the number of unskilled immigrants living in Italy (rank by share of population: 18)
  • Bears small share of the burden of refugees during humanitarian crises (rank: 18)

Environment

Rich countries use a disproportionate amount of scarce resources, and poor countries are most vulnerable to global warming and ecological deterioration, so the CDI measures the impact of policies on the global climate, fisheries and biodiversity.


Italy’s environment performance

  • Score: 6.7
  • Rank: 14

Strengths

  • Low tropical timber imports ($7.15 per capita equivalent: rank: 4)
  • High compliance with mandatory reporting requirements under multilateral environmental agreements relating to biodiversity (rank: 6)

Weaknesses

  • Greenhouse gas emissions grew almost as fast as GDP over the last decade (average annual growth rate/GDP, –1.8%; rank: 21)
  • High fishing subsidies ($1.12 per person; Rank: 21)

Security

Since security is a prerequisite for development, the CDI rewards contributions to internationally sanctioned peacekeeping operations and forcible humanitarian interventions, rewards military protection of global sea lanes, and penalizes arms exports to poor and undemocratic governments.


Italy’s security performance

  • Score: 5.0
  • Rank: 14

Strengths

  • Some protection of sea lanes vital for international trade (rank: 13)

Weaknesses

  • High level of arms exports to poor and undemocratic governments (rank by share of GDP: 18)
  • Small financial and personnel contributions to UN peacekeeping operations over last decade (rank by share of GDP: 15)

Technology

Rich countries contribute to development through the creation and dissemination of new technologies. The CDI captures this by measuring government support for R&D and penalizing strong intellectual property rights regimes that limit the dissemination of new technologies to poor countries.


Italy’s technology performance

  • Score: 4.2
  • Rank: 22

Strengths

  • Small share of government R&D expenditure on defense (0.7%; rank: 11)

Weaknesses

  • Low overall government support for R&D (rank by share of GDP: 21)
  • Allows patents on plant and animal varieties
  • Offers patent-like proprietary rights to developers of data compilations, including those assembled from data in the public domain