Industrial Districts and Socio-economic Well-Being: An Investigation on the Italian Provinces Disparities

This paper examines the territorial disparities between Italian provinces through an alternative measure (well-being composite index) as opposed to traditional ones (value added), in order to assess the possible industrial district (ID) effect on growth performance. The analysis shows that the ID effect is absent when considering (per capita) value added growth, which confirms recent empirical evidence, while it is significant when considering well-being. Furthermore, "highly ID provinces" show a relatively better performance in terms of population growth rates, which, combined with their better socio-economic conditions, sheds new light on the explanation of the persistence of Italian disparities and gives interesting insights for the design of sounder local policy measures.