Il comportamento demografico e socio-economico nelle regioni italiane:divari e convergenze

While frequently discussed with reference to the evolution of percapitanet income, the convergence process is poorly used analyzingdemographic and social phenomena. Aim of this paper is toapply a convergence analysis among the Italian regions with reference to demographic and socioeconomic series. Female and male life expectancy at birth observed from 1974 to 2008, the Total Fertility Rate (1952-2008), the percentage of employees with a permanent contract for both sex observed in the 1993-2010 period are examined in our research. Following a large employed methodology developed by Barro and Sala-i-Martin two classical convergence parameters are estimated: the σ-convergence, that is the variance of the log of each parameter, and the β-convergence, that is the speed of the convergence process. Each phenomenon shows absolute β-convergence and σ-convergence in each period observed, with some significant exception due to specific factors. In the 35 years of life expectancy at birth the analysis shows a greater male speed of convergence with comparison to the female; also the σ-convergence appears for both sexes, in a less systematic way in the case of female evolution. Italian regions converge also by analyzing the total fertility rate trend. The β-convergence (that ranges between 0.2 and 1 per cent) is however less intensive and the σ-convergence appears sometime to exhibit a fuzzy pattern. The percentage of dependent workers with a permanent contract for both sexes shows β-and σ-convergence in 1993-2010 years. The speed of β-convergence is onaverage around 4 per cent, higher for women than for men. A diffusion of the occupational instability with regards to dependent job emerges in all the regions, jointly with the traditional and persistent diversity between the Centre-North and the Southern area of the country.