Economic Growth or Civil Development? Alternative Ways for Southern Italy

For over 60 years conspicuous sums of money have been diverted to southern Italian regions. Nonetheless the positive effect of the so called extraordinary intervention has been limited. The south continues to be characterized by stagnant economies with high unemployment rates and rather low levels of income. Associated therewith are high rates of organized crime, poor public services and many social problems that make life difficult in the Mezzogiorno of Italy. So why did more than 60 years of special policies not lead to the desired outcome? This book is about analysing the economic situation of the Mezzogiorno of Italy on the basis of a comparative descriptive approach, which is later on extended to a sectoral analysis of the southern economy based on an input-output model elaborated by IRPET. This allows for analysis of exogenous growth options (trade) as well as endogenous ones. Special attention is furthermore drawn to the the logistics, that appears to offer significant potential for an economic revival of the southern regions. The characteristic of this book is that it focuses not only on economic issues, but proceeds to check for a link between the economic situation and social issues. Policies have so far been directed mainly to the economic environment. Recent literature has however increasingly focused on social matters that impede higher rates of economic growth. Not only human capital or crime matter, but especially political and institutional characteristics, that can be considered simple mirrors for the grade of civil development of the southern societies. Bureaucracy and the legal system figure amongst the principal culprits for the problematic situation of the Mezzogiorno. In the end civil issues can be considered at least as important for economic prosperity in southern Italy as strictly economic factors