Analisi della crescita economica regionale e convergenza: un nuovo approccio teorico ed evidenza sull’Italia

This paper proposes a new method to measure and analyse the typology of regional economic growth and convergence The model was originally developed by biologists in their study of morphological change of organisms. The paper investigates Italian regions using data of Gross Domestic Product per capita for the period 1980-2003. The results show the disequilibrating characteristic of the economic growth within the space. In particular the inner dynamics of convergence property are formed by three patterns, which show economic growth of system, development and developing system. The model facilitates the identification of regional economic performance, and provides relevant information to policy-makers, who must define best-policy practices to increase the wealth of regions and nation.