Il made in Italy come immaginario collettivo. Un modello degli investimenti in stereotipi

Made in Italy as a collective belief. A model of investment in stereotypes - This article interprets the phenomenon of the made in Italy as a collective belief. First, a conceptual framework is proposed for analysing the formation and evolution of collective beliefs, by characterizing precisely the way individuals are expected to behave in this respect. Then, we argue that different paths may end up provoking the emergence of a collective belief, and maintain that the made in Italy can be thought of as the case of a collective belief about the inventive and creative Italian way of producing a specific set of goods. Afterwards, we point to the investment in public rituals as the way to actively foster this collective belief, and then interpret such process as an economic problem of providing a public good. We highlight the main collective action implications of such analysis, by showing individuals? behaviour in different settings. The analysis is focused on those characteristics that make the made in Italy a special public good, such as joint private benefits, asymmetries between agents, and accession costs. Finally, policy implications are explored, in terms of redistribution and proactive subsidization. Keywords: collective beliefs, competitiveness, impure public goods JEL classification: D21, H41, R38