1,731,143 research outputs found
The Dynamics of Export Specialisation in the Regions of the Italian Mezzogiorno: Persistence and Change
Full text linkIn the most recent years, the pattern of economic growth of the Italian Mezzogiorno has undergone a significant transformation. Up to the beginning of the 1990s, the whole area was by and large characterised by a single macroeconomic model of income and employment, whose dynamics were strongly based upon State intervention. By the early 1990s, the end of the special public support for the Mezzogiorno - as a consequence, to a large extent, of the completion of the Single European Market in 1992 - was only partially followed by appropriate legislative tools for the support of less favoured areas. Since then, the Italian southern regions as a whole have gone through a worsening of their economic fundamentals, particularly with regard to income growth and unemployment. At the same time, the differentials in the paths of socio-economic development within the southern area have been strengthening, confirming the existence of "many Mezzogiorni" previously noted by the specialised literature. Our current research line aims at providing the basis for devising a policy framework within which trying to identify new directions to untangle regional "vulnerability", with particular reference to the dramatic changes imposed by internationalisation and globalisation processes. The objective of the present paper is to investigate to what extent the evolution of export patterns and performance by Mezzogiorno province fits in the picture of intra-area growing differentiation. The combined significance of cumulativeness and gradual change in specialisation patterns is examined by testing the extent of continuity in the sectoral composition of trade specialisation profiles by province during the period 1985-2000. The export performance and the models of specialisation seem to bear out the view of "many Mezzogiorni" and show that peripheral regions and provinces have adopted rather distinct strategies to adjust to the rapidly increasing economic integration.income growth and unemployment, regional trade specialisation, Italy, export patterns
Italy at 150 : still a divided society - has the italian state given up on the Mezzogiorno?
No full textAs Italy celebrates 150 years of life as a unified State, it remains a divided country. Notwithstanding decades of explicit regional policies and the constitutional commitment that all Italian citizens have equal rights, access to essential services and minimum living standards irrespective of where they live, not just the North-South divide remains sizeable but its overcome may be challenged even further by recent political, institutional and economic developments. The present paper focuses on the most recent phase of Italian regional development policy - known as the nuova programmazione - and shows that a primary factor in determining the disappointing performance of Italian regional policy in this phase has been a lack of political commitment. It will also demonstrate that, beyond the rhetoric on the importance of the Mezzogiorno, in reality the goal of the development and catching up of this area is not a primary aim of the current Government’s agenda
Il mercato mobiliare e le banche nel mezzogiorno D'Italia
No full textLimportanza delle finanze nell'economia del Mezzogiorno DItali
Economic growth and internationalisation in the italian mezzogiorno: The emergence of "lights and shadows" in a european periphery
Full text linkIn the most recent years, the pattern of economic development of the Italian Mezzogiorno has given signs of a remarkable change in progress. Up to the beginning of the 1990s, the whole area was by and large characterised by a single macroeconomic model of income and employment, whose dynamics were strongly based upon State intervention. The end of the special public support for the Mezzogiorno in the early 1990s - as a consequence of the completion of the Single European Market in 1992 - was followed by a substantial lack of legislative tools for the support of less favoured areas. Since then, the Italian southern regions have gone through a worsening of their economic fundamentals, particularly with regard to income growth and unemployment. The main obstacles to economic convergence are well known and in the majority of cases they are rooted in the historical and socio-cultural background of southern Italy. Public inefficiency, lack of infrastructures, problems of public order, State-dependence, are all "classical diseases" of the southern regions as compared to the North and the Centre of the country. Moreover, all these factors couple with other specific aspects seriously curbing the economic performance of the area, among which: inadequate entrepreneurial culture, low technology potential and innovation propensity, scarce services to firms, weak attractiveness towards external resources (i.e., FDI), insufficient promotion of internationalisation processes, feeble linkages with global markets and networks. In the most recent years, however, manifest differentials in the economic development pattern have begun to rise also within the southern area, giving shape to what has been labeled "the emergence of more than one Mezzogiorno". On the other hand, the export performance of the South as a whole has shown striking signs of dynamism - although, even in this case, not at all uniformly spread across regions - triggering an intense debate on the necessity to implement a sound restructuring process of both manufacturing and service industries. By using a wide range of both economic and social indicators for the period 1985-1998 and adopting a high disaggregation of the Italian southern territory up to the level of province (NUTS3%29, this paper aims at showing that the economic geography of the Mezzogiorno is somehow more complicated than what used to be traditionally maintained, as strong economic and social differences exist also within the area. The statistical analysis, carried out by means of principal components and cluster analyses, intends also to provide some support to the fact that, in order to achieve faster growth and stronger convergence, two elements seem to be crucial: %0D 1) the development of local firms, particularly small and medium enterprises (SMEs); 2) the internationalisation of the overall southern economy through various modalities, to allow its participation in the European and global competitive bidding. Therefore, within the overall public strategy to support the internationalisation of the Italian national system, the need for specific tools and geographically-targeted policies may emerge as vital to avoid further marginalisation and increasing economic divergence of the South from both the rest of the country and the EU area.
The Italian Mezzogiorno: From a "National Matter" to an "European Opportunity"
Full text linkThe aim of the paper is to analyze the present economic conditions of Southern Italy, particularly regarding the actual competitiveness of this region and possible future developments. We will outline the various features of Southern Italy economy giving emphasis to those limiting its competitiveness and, subsequently, suggesting opportune ways to improve it. Besides an opportunity coming from the international economic scenario, Southern Italy also has a great chance for its development from its traditional sectors. Moreover, it has really important environmental and cultural capitals which, besides an important touristical attractive, represent a potential of competitiveness able to start up development processes. The geographical position of Southern Italy can also bring significant advantages: Mezzogiorno is right in the middle of the mediterranean area which is showing high development potentials and is itself a large potential market. Regarding the institutional and political context, the governmental capacity of local administrations has improved over the last years and they started to pay more attention to increasing and promoting territories’ resources. There has also been a major ability to face criminality and corruption and a new “social disapproval†towards illegal phenomena is growing. Among weaknesses the infrastructural endowment still seems to be inadequate. Transportation infrastructures present low integration between the different modalities with the consequence of difficult reachable market outflows. Logistic systems are still underdeveloped. Negative features are also present within the productive system. Traditional businesses with scarce innovation capacity are still too strong and generally the whole system is not improving network connections and scales economy. Then bureaucracy, even though much less than in the past, is an obstacle especially regarding the start-up of new firms. A big threat is represented by the growing competitiveness of developing countries in some traditional sectors of Mezzogiorno production. Final recommendations will result from the analysis of the actual and perspective economic situation compared with the main developments of global economy.
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