The industrial situation in Tuscany: a framework for interpretation

A recent document, the Manifesto for the Reindustrialisation of Tuscany (edited by M. Buti, S. Casini Benvenuti and A. Petretto, 2025), has had the merit of refocusing attention on a crucial issue: the alleged deindustrialisation affecting not only the country as a whole, but also our region. The aim of this paper is to take a stance within this debate, with a view to critically examining this thesis, clarifying its relationship with the issue of growth, and highlighting its policy implications.

The number of manufacturing firms has fallen in recent years, within a regional context which, taken as a whole, now has more firms than in 2012. It would, however, be misleading to interpret this figure as evidence of an inevitable decline in Tuscan industry. The decline in the manufacturing sector’s importance is, in fact, at least in part, a natural phenomenon common to advanced economies, and in the case of Tuscany it is predominantly relative rather than absolute: the value generated by the manufacturing sector has grown less than that produced by other sectors, but has not fallen in absolute terms. (…)

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