Behind the Italian Regional Divide: An Economic Fitness and Complexity Perspective

Angelica Sbardella, Andrea Zaccaria, Luciano Pietronero and Pasquale Scaramozzino

LEM Papers Series from Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy

Abstract: This paper applies the Economic Fitness and Complexity approach to analyse the underlying factors behind the wide and persistent economic disparities across the Italian regional units. Measures of regional fitness are obtained from their revealed comparative advantage and from their patent performance. Southern regions tend to be characterised by a lower level of complexity than the regions in the Centre-North of the country. We interpret these results as indicating a lower level of capability endowment in the South. The system-wide approach of the paper is able to identify some critical sectors which display a rich pattern of connections with other sectors and which could play a pivotal role to create additional capabilities and foster a more balanced regional development.

Keywords: Italian regional divide; Economic Fitness and Complexity; Productive and technological capabilities. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-09-22
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-geo, nep-hme and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2021/30

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