A multi-regional input-output model for Italy (Interventi, note e rassegne n. 22/03)

Two stylised facts have mainly characterized the italian economic growth: the dualism between the two main macro-regions of the country (North-Centre and South) and the different kind of industrial economic growth experienced across the North-Central regions. While the North-West1 part of the country, which led the italian take-off early in the last century, based its economic growth on the medium/large size enterprises; the North-Eastern and Central (NEC) regions (for the latter ones mainly Toscana and Marche) mostly grew during the 60s and 70s following the economic district model based on small size firms.
The main development of NEC was characterized by an endogenous propulsive push linked to peculiar socio-economic features, which also has been proved to be robust and self-reproducing with weak spreading effects on the South (only along the so called “via Adriatica”).
These different growth patterns imply a different set of structural parameters and so different responses to economic policies. By using a multi-regional I-O model would be possible to catch this differential behaviours. (…)