Regional Resilience in Italy: A Very Long-Run Analysis

Abstract

Cellini R. and Torrisi G. Regional resilience in Italy: a very long-run analysis, Regional Studies. Resilience is a concept referring to the manner in which systems react to, and recover from, shocks. According to several recent analyses ‘resilience’ can explain different regional economic performances. However, this study indicates that this explanation is quite unconvincing when applied to the Italian regions in the very long run (1890–2009). Only few shocks emerge to have specific impact effects differing across regions, while the recovery experience is ever spatially homogeneous. Hence, it is difficult to discern genuine differences in regional resilience. This evidence can be interpreted as a reason why the regional differences in Italy are huge and persistent.