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

Luca Romagnoli and Luigi Mastronardi
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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

Economies, 2020, vol. 8, issue 2, 1-13

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.

Keywords: local public expenditures; per capita incomes; Italian inner areas; spatial error model; panel regression model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E F I J O Q (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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