In this paper we provide fresh evidence on TFP performance in the Italian economy since 1995, taking into account the changing composition of primary inputs across different capital goods and employment skills, as well as technical progress embodied in different vintages of the productive assets. We first estimate a technical depreciation rate by using individual data on Italian industrial firms. We then obtain an experimental measure of the capital stock adjusted for technical efficiency, by augmenting the standard depreciation rate by our own estimate of technical depreciation (about 5% per year). Once we introduce our measure of capital stock in a standard growth accounting exercise, we find a less dismal performance of the Italian TFP than usually estimated. Focusing on the years between 2007 and 2016, the upward correction in TFP amounts to around 1.5% points in the overall period for the total economy and to about 2.5% points when only considering manufacturing. These findings shed a somewhat more positive light on future TFP developments in Italy, even more so should the efficiency of installed capital resumes improving following the fall during the crisis of years 2008–2013 caused by the slump in investment spending. Higher capital formation would imply a faster replacement of old vintages with more technically advanced ones.

在本文中，我们考虑到不同资本产品和就业技能的主要投入构成的变化，以及生产资产不同年份所体现的技术进步，为自1995年以来意大利TFP在意大利经济中的绩效提供了新的证据。我们首先使用意大利工业公司的个人数据估算技术折旧率。然后，通过用我们自己的技术折旧估算值（每年约5％）增加标准折旧率，从而获得针对技术效率进行调整的资本存量的实验度量。一旦将我们的资本存量指标引入标准增长会计核算中，我们发现意大利全要素生产率的表现要比通常估计的要差。专注于2007年至2016年之间的年份，在整个经济总量中，全要素生产率的向上修正幅度约为1.5％，而仅考虑制造业时，其修正幅度约为2.5％。这些发现为意大利未来的全要素生产率的发展提供了更为积极的看法，在因投资支出下滑而导致的2008-2013年危机期间下降之后，应恢复资本安装效率的提高就更应如此。较高的资本形成将意味着用技术更先进的年份更快地替换旧年份。随着投资支出的下滑，2008-2013年危机期间的下降，装机资本的效率应恢复更多。较高的资本形成将意味着用技术更先进的年份更快地替换旧年份。随着投资支出的下滑，2008-2013年危机期间的下降，装机资本的效率应恢复更多。较高的资本形成将意味着用技术更先进的年份更快地替换旧年份。