The geography of COVID-19 and the structure of local economies: the case of Italy

Andrea Ascani, Alessandra Faggian and Sandro Montresor ()

No 2020-01, Discussion Paper series in Regional Science & Economic Geography from Gran Sasso Science Institute, Social Sciences

Abstract: The aim of this article is to analyse the sub-national spread of COVID-19 in Italy using an economic geography perspective. The striking spatial unevenness of COVID-19 suggests that the infection hits economic core locations harder, and this raises questions about whether, and how, the sub-national geography of the disease is connected to the local economic base. We provide preliminary evidence consistent with the possibility that the local specialisation in geographically concentrated economic activities acts as a vehicle of disease transmission, thus generating a core-periphery pattern in the spatiality of COVID-19, which might follow the lines of the local economic landscape and the tradability of its outputs.

Keywords: COVID-19; local economic structure; geographical concentration; tradability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: R10 R11 R12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 39 pages
Date: 2020-04, Revised 2020-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo, nep-ore and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (26)

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Related works:
Journal Article: The geography of COVID‐19 and the structure of local economies: The case of Italy (2021)
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