Brain drain e agevolazioni alle imprese che investono in ricerca e sviluppo

Recently the italian press, popular newspaper as well as more academic articles, have reported the uneasiness of many Italian college graduated forced to work abroad because of the lack of job and research opportunities in the country. Some people claim that port of the responsibility of this situation lies with the lack of financial support and appropriate incentives to research. However, the situation of the Italian research sector, that still employs a very small fraction of Italian college graduate, is not the only factor pushing “Italian brains” to emigrate or to remain abroad after studying in foreign universities. In spite of widespread anecdotal evidence on the “brain drain” from Italy, a more precise statistical analysis is needed to quantify the phenomenon. Indeed, due to lack of complete information, the size of this “drain” and its trend in the recent years are unknown to us. To stop the “brain drain” have been introduced tax incentives to companies hiring researchers, PhDs and academics. This work examines the new tax credit for activities of research and development that was initially introduced by article 3 of the delegated legislation 23 December 2013, n. 145 but, as it is known, has never become effective, since the implementation decree has never been enacted. The new tax credit for research and development activities cannot but be positively evaluated by the enterprises; however, there are some critical aspects which need to be considered since they could result in an inefficient application of the benefit.