Local economic resilience in Italy

This chapter analyses the resilience of local labour markets in Italy by providing evidence on the resistance and the recoverability of the Italian provinces over the years 2004–2015. The relationships between economic resilience and local development are studied to understand the competitiveness and growth patterns of particular areas in an evolutionary perspective. Three main results derive from the empirical analysis. Local economic resilience presents place-specific patterns, with the provinces located in the Centre-North of the country registering higher resilience than those located in the South. The Great Recession contributed to amplifying differences in local resilience, particularly with respect to female occupations. The quality of local institutions plays a relevant role for explaining the asymmetric distribution of resilience on a territorial level. The summary of the findings and policy implications are conclusively discussed.