Francesco Timpano

The paper looks at regional economic structure and performance of Italian regions and reviews some recent contributions focussed on the Italian “Mezzogiorno” with a specific focus on the effect of the 2008 financial crisis and the recent Pandemics (Covid-19) crisis. A comparison between Italy and the rest of the EU indicates a structural difference between the underperforming Italian economy and the rest of the Union due to the specific structure of the Italian economy in terms of sector and firm size and the consequences on strategic and organizational issues of weak small businesses and inefficient medium and large enterprises...

The paper explores the heterogeneity behind the production of innovation at the regional level. We empirically estimate the innovation equation with EU regional data using either patents or innovative sales in the region as dependent variable. The empirical model accounts for external, spillover, effects and allows for parameter heterogeneity among pre-selected groups of regions...

Local policies are becoming more and more important in policy makers’ strategy because they handle specific needs of territories and guarantee a sustainable socio-economic development. With this awareness, the Faculty of Economics of the Università Cattolica of Piacenza has organized the «Cluster Policies and Local Development» seminar (held in Cremona on the 2nd-3rd July 2004). This volume contains revised versions of papers presented at the workshop. The aim is to contribute to the debate related to the role of cluster policies in supporting and enhancing local development. With this focus in mind researchers from all over Europe deal with hot topics such as cluster policies and the ‘inter-sectoral’ dimension of clusters, the relation between clusters and other economic and local networks, the role of cluster policies focused on the adoption of new technologies and concept of cluster-based technology policy. The book is divided into two parts: the first one collects the main research contributions (Cluster theory at work) and, for each one of them, the comments made by the discussants; the second part offers shorter contributions of speakers invited to present their ‘on-the field experiences’ (Cluster policies in practice: some Italian experiences). Overall, this volume might be considered a collection of theoretical and practical cases all related to clusters and cluster policies in more and less advanced and developed areas.

Il sostegno alle aziende che investono in ricerca è un elemento cruciale delle politiche industriali. Ma occorre riuscire a indirizzare i capitali verso progetti realmente innovativi, creando strumenti finanziari adeguati alle esigenze delle piccole e medie imprese.

Growth and development studies have been furthered considerably over the last years, on both theoretical and empirical grounds. Endogenous growth theories have emphasised the role of human and physical capital or R&D investment in determining the growth rate of the economy. Many studies have tried to test the reliability of the new growth theories and the convergence hypothesis between national or regional economies. In addition, globalisation has increased interest in such topics. Thus, nowadays most theories and policies are directed at investigating which factors may explain growth differentials and the competitiveness of national and regional economies. The Department of Economic and Social Sciences at the Catholic University in Piacenza has focused its research programmes on regional development and the related policy issues launching a Master Programme in Territorial Marketing (MUMAT) and organising, in July 2003, an international workshop (Local Development and Economic Policy) in order to debate the most relevant issues at international level. This book collects several studies regarding local development policies, and represents an important contribution to such a debate.