Explaining labour productivity differentials across Italian regions: the role of socio‐economic structure and factor endowments

Abstract

This article aims at explaining substantial and persistent regional labour productivity differentials in Italy. First, the role played by the diversity of local economic structures is quantitatively assessed. Within-industry productivity levels are then related to regional endowments of physical and human capital per worker and to total factor productivity. Subsequently, an empirical evaluation of the influence exercised by a selected set of explanatory factors on regional total factor productivity (TFP) levels is performed. In this context, spatial econometrics techniques are employed to obtain inferences that are robust to the presence of spatial autocorrelation in the data. Copyright (c) 2006 the author(s). Journal compilation (c) 2006 RSAI.

Total Factor Productivity, Intangible Assets and Spatial Dependence in the European Regions

“…The first column presents the base model, all the intangible assets exhibit positive and significant coefficients: 0.14 for social capital, 0.16 for human capital and 0.07 for technological capital, thus confirming the crucial role played by this kind of productive factors. For the case of Italy this was documented also by Marrocu and Paci (2008) and by Di Giacinto and Nuzzo (2006), evidence of the positive effects of human capital on Italian regional productivity can be found in Di Liberto et al (2008). In order to check for correct specification of the spatial pattern we calculate the IV-Moran test (Anselin and Kelejian, 1997), already mentioned in the previous section, which is specifically designed for the case of IV estimation.…”

Testing and Explaining Economic Resilience with an Application to Italian Regions

“…In principle, places endowed with public trust and cooperation may be less vulnerable to adverse events due to the positive consequences on the reduction of transaction costs, the accumulation of physical and human capital, and the improvement of government performance. Capello and Faggian (2005) have discussed the impact of relational capital -a multifaceted set of explicit and implicit cooperation, partnership and relationship -on the performance of Italian firms; Di Giacinto and Nuzzo (2006) have used several indicators of social capital for explaining the Italian North-South divide in terms of total factor productivity.…”

Regional economic divide and the role of technological spillovers in Italy. Evidence from microdata

“…Another strand of literature focuses on the explanations for the regional divide. On this, we in brief reveal that many scholars argue and agree that the economic disparities between South and North of Italy depend on the sizeable differences in such factors as the efficiency of regional social institutions, the level and quality of infrastructure, the agglomeration economies and the working of financial markets (Banca d'Italia 2009;Di Giacinto and Nuzzo 2006;Atzeni and Carboni 2006;Evangelista et al, 2002). Nevertheless, while it has been argued that Italy is far from the technological frontier, little attention has been paid, to the best of our knowledge, to the understanding of the role exerted by R&D activities at regional level in Italy.…”