Measuring the effects of the 2008-09 financial crisis on the competitiveness of italian provinces

In an era of globalization, as countries and cities compete with each other to attract investments, talents and skills, the issue of territorial competitiveness has attracted the attention of urban planners and decision makers. At the same time, a new urban paradigm, that of the smart city, has come to the forefront of the global interest, wishing to promote a different approach in urban studies. In a previous work, presented at the INPUT International Conference, we investigated the relationship between smartness and competitiveness, identifying common characteristics and differences; instead, in this paper, we have taken the aforementioned analysis a step further using a multivariate statistical method to develop a synthetic Index to measure the success of a territorial system and build a ranking. Furthermore, given that the financial crisis started in 2008-09 has negatively affected a great variety of territories in industrialized Western countries, we have investigated how the recession has affected Italian provinces, which can be considered amongst those most hit in Europe and which are still suffering for it. Initial results of the analysis show that Italian territories have responded differently to the strong financial breakdown: the economic and social systems of a large number of provinces have experienced a worsening of their attractiveness, some have been able to endure the consequences of the crisis preserving their positions, while others have reacted succeeding in improving their condition with respect to the others. Mapping these findings, the North-South divide emerges significantly: Northern territories
have suffered a more considerable decline than Southern
ones. This result depends mainly on the different socio-economic structures of the Italian provinces: a great number of North provinces, where most of the small and medium firms are concentrated, experienced the strongest effects due to the dramatic event started in 2008-09, while the Southern part of the country, with a weak productive system supported in large part by public investments, has endured better. These different responses to the crisis depend on the strengths and weaknesses of territories and provide useful information for decision makers in order to develop specific strategies and actions that different territories can implement to improve their own success.