Gianpiero Torrisi

Regional resilience in Italy: a very long-run analysis

Cellini R. and Torrisi G. Regional resilience in Italy: a very long-run analysis, Regional Studies. Resilience is a concept referring to the manner in which systems react to, and recover from, shocks. According to several recent analyses ‘resilience’ can explain different regional economic performances. However, this study indicates that this explanation is quite unconvincing when applied to the Italian regions in the very long run (1890–2009). Only few shocks emerge to have specific impact effects differing across regions, while the recovery experience is ever spatially homogeneous. Hence, it is difficult to discern genuine differences in regional resilience. This evidence can be interpreted as a reason why the regional differences in Italy are huge and persistent.

In search of the ‘economic dividend’ of devolution: spatial disparities, spatial economic policy, and decentralisation in the UK

After a decade of devolution and amid uncertainties about its effects, it is timely to assess and reflect upon the evidence and enduring meaning of any ‘economic dividend’ of devolution in the UK. Taking an institutionalist and quantitative approach, we seek to discern the nature and extent of any economic dividend through a conceptual and empirical analysis of the relationships between spatial disparities, spatial economic policy, and decentralisation. Situating the UK experience within its evolving historical context, we find: (i) a varied and uneven nature of the relationships between regional disparities, spatial economic policy, and decentralisation that change direction during specific time periods; (ii) the role of national economic growth is pivotal in explaining spatial disparities and the nature and extent of their relationship with the particular forms of spatial economic policy and decentralisation deployed; and, (iii) there is limited evidence that any economic dividend of devolution has emerged, but this remains difficult to discern because its likely effects are overridden by the role of national economic growth in decisively shaping the pattern of spatial disparities and in determining the scope and effects of spatial economic policy and decentralisation.

Income inequality, decentralisation and regional development in Western Europe

This paper deals with the relationship between decentralisation, regional economic development, and income inequality within regions. Using multiplicative interaction models and regionally aggregated microeconomic data for more than 100 000 individuals in the European Union (EU), it addresses two main questions. First, whether fiscal and political decentralisation in Western Europe has an effect on within-regional interpersonal inequality. Second, whether this potential relationship is mediated by the level of economic development of the region. The results of the analysis show that greater fiscal decentralisation is associated with lower interpersonal income inequality, but, as regional income rises, further decentralisation is connected to a lower decrease in inequality. This finding is robust to the measurement and definition of income inequality, as well as to the weighting of the spatial units by their population size.

The regional public spending for tourism in Italy: an empirical analysis

The authors analyse the effects of public spending on tourism in the regions of Italy by adopting a cross-sectional regression analysis approach. The evaluation is made possible by the availability of a database under the project entitled ‘Conti Pubblici Territoriali’ (‘Regional Public Accounts’) of the Ministero dello sviluppo economico (Ministry of Economic Development), wherein the spending of all public institutions is aggregated for each region and classified according to different criteria, including the sectoral criterion. Furthermore, the effects of public spending on tourism on the tourism attractiveness of various regions are also investigated. Generally, the effectiveness of public spending appears to be deficient.

(Re-)exploring the link between decentralization and regional disparities in Italy

Previous research has suggested that after 1996 devolution caused a reduction in regional disparities in Italy. However the analysis presented here suggests that the decline in regional disparities in Italy between 1996 and 2006 was driven by population dynamics and, to some extent, by the loss of competitiveness and consequent poor relative performance of northern regions. We conclude that links between devolution and the reduction of spatial disparities is unproven and its benefits are temporally and geographically uneven.

Regional resilience in Italy: do employment and income tell the same story?: Contemporary Theories and Perspectives on Economic Development

The concept of resilience has attracted increasing interest in regional economics. In the flourishing literature, however, results are far from being conclusive, even when referring to the same case study. Undoubtedly, this mixed evidence potentially stems also from different operationalization of the multifaceted resilience concept; the main difference being between studies using GDP series and those measuring regional economic performance in terms of fluctuations in employment levels. The different choices and the subsequent results, far from being interpreted as lack of robustness, are research specific; nevertheless, it is important to address what kind of relationship – if any – exists between the two measures. To this end, we analyse and compare the results concerning the regional resilience in Italy, over the last 40 years, focussing on the differences deriving from the choice between the two aforementioned measures. Our analysis reveals that the information contained in the different series, rather than being alternative and overlapping, is complementary.