The performance of Italian Industrial districts in and out of the 2008–2012 crisis

Valter Giacinto (), Andrea Sechi () and Alessandro Tosoni ()
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Valter Giacinto: Filiale di L’Aquila, Banca d’Italia
Andrea Sechi: Banca d’Italia
Alessandro Tosoni: Filiale di L’Aquila, Banca d’Italia

Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, 2023, vol. 50, issue 4, No 5, 815-848

Abstract: Abstract By exploiting firm level balance sheet data from the Cerved database and employment data from the INPS database, we provide a detailed description of the productivity performance of Italian industrial districts firms over the 2003–2017 period. The main structural features of industrial districts are first compared with those of the other types of local labour market areas. The performance of district firms is subsequently analyzed both overall and separately for the firms belonging to the core district industry and the remaining companies. We find evidence of a positive and sizeable district productivity premium, increasing over the period of analysis. However, in order to consolidate their performance, industrial districts had to undergo significant structural changes. Medium-sized and large firms have grown in importance. At the same time, structural adaptation involved the acquisition of a more significant role by firms not operating in the main district industry.

Keywords: Industrial districts; Agglomeration economies; Structural adaptation; Human capital (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L25 L60 R11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1007/s40812-023-00272-2

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