Francesco Grillo

Francesco Grillo
Born	1965 Italy
Occupation(s)	Economist, business leadership expert, consultant, academic
Years active	1995–present
Known for	Managing Director of Vision & Value; research on innovation paradox and technological obsolescence; contributions to economics and political economy
Notable work	Democracy and Growth in the Twenty-first Century; Lezioni Cinesi; Innovation, Democracy and Efficiency: Investigating the Innovation Challenge in the European Union’s Regional Development Strategies

Francesco Grillo is an Italian expert in economics and business leadership.

He holds the position of visiting fellow at the European University Institute located in Fiesole, serves as an affiliate professor at the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Pisa, and delivers lectures at the summer program of the University of International Business Economics in Beijing.

Grillo is the Managing Director of Vision & Value, a specialized strategy consultancy that supports prominent organizations such as the European Commission, the Italian Ministry of Economy, and various multinational corporations.

He leads the Vision Think Tank, which organizes two yearly conferences: one dedicated to Europe's future held in Siena, and another focused on global climate governance hosted in the Dolomites. His professional interests center on the transformative effects of the internet on industries and political institutions.

In addition, Grillo contributes columns to publications including Il Messaggero, Corriere della Sera, Linkiesta, and The Guardian. He regularly features in international outlets like The Economist and appears as a guest commentator on La7, SkyTG24, and RaiNews24.

Education and early career

Grillo earned his degree in economics from LUISS Guido Carli before obtaining an MBA at Boston University under a Fulbright scholarship. In 1995, he began his career at McKinsey & Company as an associate, where he applied corporate methodologies to assess public policy initiatives.

Subsequently, he established the consultancy firm Vision & Value along with the think tank Vision, both concentrating on analyzing how the internet influences businesses, urban environments, and governmental functions.

In 2012, he completed a PhD in Political Economy at the London School of Economics and Political Science, focusing on determinants of regional economic expansion. His doctoral research questions the common belief that increased R&D expenditure straightforwardly boosts GDP growth. Further academic work conducted at Oxford Internet Institute, St Antony's College, Oxford, and Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna has covered subjects ranging from pension systems to regional development policies.

Research

Grillo’s scholarly work investigates the “innovation paradox,” originally described by Robert Solow in 1987, which points to slowing GDP growth despite rapid information proliferation. He explains this phenomenon through what he terms “technological obsolescence” within liberal democracies. By drawing a historical analogy between the Internet and Gutenberg’s printing press, Grillo suggests both technologies disrupted established information control structures, causing shifts in power that contemporary Western democracies find challenging to manage amid digital-era societal transformations.

When contrasting Western nations with China, Grillo notes that China has demonstrated greater success in managing the technological revolution that began in the West. Meanwhile, Western countries have become increasingly cautious, resulting in a growing disparity in societal impacts. Echoing elements of Mariana Mazzucato’s Entrepreneurial State theory, Grillo emphasizes how digital advancements are reshaping state institutions. He advocates for policies enabling Western democracies to harness information technologies to improve governmental performance and responsiveness.

Published works

• Democracy and Growth in the Twenty-first Century, Springer Nature, London, 2019
• Lezioni Cinesi, Solferino Libri, Milan, 2019
• Innovation, Democracy and Efficiency: Investigating the Innovation Challenge in the European Union’s Regional Development Strategies, Palgrave, London, 2016
• Public Investments in R&D as an Instrument for Regional Economic Advancement (PhD dissertation), The London School of Economics and Political Science, 2011
• Advantages, Challenges, and Contradictions of Regional Innovation Policies, Local Economy, 2011, Vol. 26, pp. 544–561
• Grillo, F., & Nanetti, R. (2020). Innovation and democracy: The dual paradoxes, Area Development and Policy, 5(3), 233-255
• Grillo, F., & Nanetti, R. (2022). Adaptable Transnational Electoral Districts, European Liberal Forum, Policy Paper 11

Bibliography

• Abramovitz, M. (1986), Catching Up, Forging Ahead, and Falling Behind, The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, Vol. 46, No. 2, pp. 385–406
• Ahmad, N., Ribarsky, J., and Reinsdorf, M. (2017), Could Measurement Errors in the Digital Economy Account for the Post-Crisis GDP and Productivity Slowdown?, OECD Statistics Working Papers No. 09
• Eggertsson, G. B., Mehrotra, N. R., and Summers, L. H. (2016), Secular Stagnation in an Open Economy Context, American Economic Review, 106(5), pp. 503–507
• Gordon, R. J. (2016), The Rise and Decline of American Growth: The U.S. Standard of Living since the Civil War, Princeton University Press
• Landes D. S. (1969), The Unbound Prometheus: Technological Change and Industrial Development in Western Europe from 1750 to the Present, Cambridge University Press
• Mazzucato, M. (2013), The Entrepreneurial State: Challenging Public vs. Private Sector Myths, Anthem Press, London
• Solow, R. (2005), Reflections on Growth Theory, Handbook of Economic Growth, Elsevier
• Yong-Hwan N., and Kyeongwon Y. (2008), Internet, Inequality, and Growth, Journal of Policy Modeling, Vol. 30, Issue 6, pp. 1005–1016