In recent decades Italy has seen large-scale inflows of immigrants from the less developed countries, including China. The paper focuses on Chinese immigrants in Italy’s fashion districts. Starting from the industrial district literature, and in particular the specific features of the district...

In this paper the "exit, voice and loyalty" approach by Albert O. Hirschman is applied to the case of the rise and evolution of the Prato industrial district, from post-war days until now. This is done, not so much to gain a better understanding of the specific events in Prato, but rather to...

In this paper, the Hirschmanian exit--voice approach is applied to the development of industrial districts. The analysis of the post-World War II evolution of the Prato district helps to make explicit how the industrial district competitive advantage can be reproduced over time during periods of...

We examine the uneven employment changes in the Italian local labour systems (LLSs) in the 1990s. Using the 1991 and 2001 economic census data, we intend to compare the performance of different types of LLS, and particularly those of the industrial districts (IDs) and the large enterprise...

It is often believed that industrial districts result from an entirely spontaneous process of economic development. On the basis of in-depth study of several Italian industrial districts, in this paper it is argued that the competitiveness and the dynamism of industrial districts' firms are...

Industrial districts and clusters of small- and medium-sized enterprises specializing in manufacture are an important feature of the Italian economy (Becattini, G. & Coltorti, F. (2006) Areas of large enterprise and industrial districts in the development of post-war Italy. A preliminary survey,...

In this comprehensive original reference work, the editors have brought together an unrivalled group of distinguished scholars and practitioners to comment on the historical and contemporary role of industrial districts (IDs).

An essential feature of the 'industrial district' is trust among individuals and firms within it. This paper focuses mainly on trust based on investments in building up a good reputation that is a 'personal capital' that can even substitute for collateral in obtaining credit. Informal credit,...

On the basis of economic and population census data and of foreign trade statistics, in this paper we analyse the changes that occurred in the 1990s in the different local production systems that make up the mosaic of the Italian economy. The results of the study show that personal and household...