La convergenza dei livelli di capitale umano tra le province italiane dal 1971 al 2001

In the period from 1971 to 2001 the number of university graduates in Italy grew rapidly. Based on the data from Censuses, our analysis aims at analyzing whether this growth was evenly distributed among provinces. This is a relevant issue in a country where local economies appear to be heavily differentiated. The results obtained through both descriptive analyses and econometric estimates point out a convergence of provinces for what concerns the share of adult population holding a university degree: the relative growth of that share was higher where its level was lower at the start of the period. Moreover, the growth was higher in the provinces less populated. We find also that the traditional dualism between the North and the South is not helpful to represent the heterogeneity in the endowment of the local economies with human capital.