What has happened in Italy since the 1960s?

We look at developments in the Italian economy since the 1960s, and we want in particular to understand why the very strong growth of the 1960s-1970s-1980s was replaced by weak or zero growth from the 1990s. We therefore look at: The supply side: productivity, investment, employment rate, demographics, cost competitiveness (and exchange rate) , tax burden; The demand side: fiscal policy, market shares, corporate profitability and investment, real wage, interest rate. We believe the main causes of the slowdown in Italian growth since the early and especially the late 1990s were two consequences of joining the euro: a sharp increase in the tax burden to reduce the fiscal deficit, and an end to the use of the exchange rate to improve competitiveness. The result has been a decline in profitability, competitiveness, investment and productivity and market shares .