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Can Local Policies Reduce the Gap between ‘Centers’ and ‘Inner Areas’? The Case of Italian Municipalities’ Expenditure

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  • Luca Romagnoli

    (Department of Economics, University of Molise, Via Francesco De Sanctis, 1, 86100 Campobasso CB, Italy)

  • Luigi Mastronardi

    (Department of Economics, University of Molise, Via Francesco De Sanctis, 1, 86100 Campobasso CB, Italy)

Abstract

This study analyzes the links between Italian inner area municipalities’ expenditure and per capita incomes, considered as a proxy of well-being. Inner areas are territorial contexts characterized by a significant distance from the centers, the main supply poles of essential services. Following a top-down approach, the paper at first demonstrates the existence of a global convergence process in per capita incomes, with a faster rate of convergence in inner areas with respect to centers; then, attention is focused on local administrations’ policies and their impact on incomes in Italian inner areas. The paper gives a twofold contribution to the debate about the implementation of territorial cohesion policies: (a) on one side, public expenditure data are considered for the first time in an econometric model regarding Italian inner areas; (b) on the other side, the reference territorial subdivision is the lowest possible, giving the opportunity to investigate the changes in well-being at the finest scale.

Suggested Citation

  • Luca Romagnoli & Luigi Mastronardi, 2020. "Can Local Policies Reduce the Gap between ‘Centers’ and ‘Inner Areas’? The Case of Italian Municipalities’ Expenditure," Economies, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-13, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jecomi:v:8:y:2020:i:2:p:33-:d:347825
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    Cited by:

    1. Monturano, Gianluca & Resce, Giuliano & Ventura, Marco, 2022. "Place-Based Policies and the location of economic activity: evidence from the Italian Strategy for Inner areas," Economics & Statistics Discussion Papers esdp22087, University of Molise, Department of Economics.
    2. Luca Romagnoli & Paola Di Renzo & Luigi Mastronardi, 2022. "Modelling Income Drivers in Peripheral Municipalities: The Case of Italian Inner Areas," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-16, November.

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