What has prevented France from faring as badly as Italy?

France and Italy have a long list of shortcomings in common: Poor-quality education system, low labour force skills, low employment rate; High production costs, market share losses and deindustrialisation; Insufficient corporate modernisation; Inefficient government and a high tax burden, especially on companies. Yet Italy’s situation is far worse than that of France, given Italy’s complete lack of productivity gains and sluggish corporate investment. Why? We see two explanations: The vicious circle in Italy that begins with weak productivity: it results in low earnings , leading to weak investment and, in turn, weak productivity; The healthy state of France’s banks and the poor state of Italy’s banks, as a result of which French companies but not Italian companies have been able to borrow to sustain their investment.