L'economia del Mezzogiorno. Nuova politica regionale, crisi globale e federalismo fiscale

It is widely recognized that regional policies implemented in Southern Italy in the last 15 years have had poor effects in terms of Gdp, employment and firms' performance. This chapter seeks to put forth possible explanations of this unfortunate outcome and to predict the likely impact of the current global crisis and the impending fiscal federalism reform on Mezzogiorno economy. The relative failure of place-based ®Negotiated planning¯ policies is mainly ascribed to i) lack of capabilities in local administrations, ii) excessive bureaucratisation and incentive to rent seeking behaviours and iii) scant accountability and responsibility, and consequent risks of collusion. The chance that fiscal federalism may help to develop greater incentives to efficient public spending is disputed, while the effects of the global crisis are argued to be bound to strike Mezzogiorno regions even more than the rest of Italy.