Our country was among the first, after China, to be overwhelmed by the Covid-19 health crisis, that rapidly became an economic, production, and social crisis. The forced stoppage of activities during the spring of 2020, the macroeconomic shock, and the consequent collapse of our businesses' global market share, as well as the recourse to bank lending and tools to support labor costs, have had a deep impact on the Italian production system.

However, already in the last months of 2020, and even more so in the course of 2021, there were widespread signs of revival: most production sectors were recovering, and in some cases strong expansion was observed.

The articles that comprise this focus analyze the effects of the pandemic on the activity of Italian businesses, showing the difficulties faced by various segments of our production system, but also their great capacity for resistance and reaction.