The endemic weakness of the Sicilian productive system is to a great extent due to its fragmentation in very small enterprises, technologically frail with a low propension to cooperate, and no prospect of achieving significant economies of scale and high production levels. Further aggravation...

Accessing new markets generally depends on the ability of firms to be competitive in those markets. Therefore, low scale production - and the correlated narrowness of markets - often depends on the inability of firms to leave a protected area. In fact, leaving a protected area requires competing...