Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Roberta Capello Title: Thirty Years of Regional Science in Italy: An Introduction Abstract: Classification-JEL: Keywords: Note: Pages:5-8 Volume: 8 Year: 2009 Issue:3 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=37568&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:scresc:v:html10.3280/SCRE2009-003001 Number: 1 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Antonio G. Calafati Title: Macro-Regions, Local Systems and Cities: Conceptualisation of Territory in Italy since 1950 Abstract: Macro-Regions, Local Systems and Cities: Conceptualisation of Territory in Italy since 1950 - (Paper first received, April 2009; in final form, July 2009) How to conceptualise the territory has been a controversial issue in Italy both because of the variety of the scientific research programmes seeking to explain territorial performances and because of the extent to which the territorial organisation of the economic process has changed in the past five decades. The paper primarily discusses how the Italian territory has been conceptualised since the 1950s, relating changing conceptualisations, on the one hand, to theoretical shifts and, on the other, to the need to capture the rapidly and profoundly changing territorial organisation of the Italian economy. The paper also argues that the introduction and use of the concept of ?local system? have raised two fundamental scientific questions which have still to be properly addressed - and are now prominent on the research agenda.

Keywords: territory, cities, local development, regional disparities, Italy

JEL Classification: R11, O18 Classification-JEL: Keywords: Note: Pages:11-34 Volume: 8 Year: 2009 Issue:3 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=37569&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:scresc:v:html10.3280/SCRE2009-003002 Number: 2 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Gioacchino Garofoli Title: Regional and Local Development Abstract: Regional and Local Development - (Paper first received, April 2009; in final form, July 2009) The paper deals with the changing features of regional development in the last decades and the changing research approach to them, seeking to identify the contributions of Italian scholars to the international debate. The ?regional development divide? of the 1970s induced Italian scholars to shift to analysis of new models of productive organisation underlying the active role of the territory in the development process. A crucial role was played by the model of industrial districts, which stressed that development can be achieved on the basis of SMEs and on specific local resources. The paper also deals with the ?local productive systems? determined by a close interaction between economy, society and territory which produces external economies and collective efficiency. The paper concludes by drawing some policy lessons for backward regions.

Keywords: local system, industrial district, endogenous development, external economies

JEL Classification: O18, O20, O30, R12, R58 Classification-JEL: Keywords: Note: Pages:35-58 Volume: 8 Year: 2009 Issue:3 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=37570&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:scresc:v:html10.3280/SCRE2009-003003 Number: 3 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Roberta Capello Title: Macroeconomic Regional Growth Models: Theoretical, Methodological and Empirical Contributions Abstract: Macroeconomic Regional Growth Models: Theoretical, Methodological and Empirical Contributions - (Paper first received, February 2009; in final form, June 2009) Macroeconomic regional growth models have experienced many advances have been achieved for what concerns both the theoretical and the methodological approaches, the former moving from constant to increasing returns models, the latter from a-spatial to spatial techniques. Many italian original contributions can be found in the vast literature in this field, which witness the active role played by italian scholars and by regional scientists, in particular. Original contributions in Italy cover both theoretical issues, like the definition of regional competitiveness, or advances in the new economic geography, as well as methodological issues. This wide spectrum of italian original contributions also covers empirical analyses with innovative statistical methods. The paper ends in a prospective way, by highlighting future research directions that should be followed by italian scholars.

Keywords: macroeconomic regional growth models, theories and methodologies

JEL Classification: R10, R11, R15 Classification-JEL: Keywords: Note: Pages:59-78 Volume: 8 Year: 2009 Issue:3 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=37571&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:scresc:v:html10.3280/SCRE2009-003004 Number: 4 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Enrico Ciciotti Title: Innovation, Technological Diffusion and Regional Development Abstract: Innovation, Technological Diffusion and Regional Development - (Paper first received, March 2009; in final form, June 2009) The paper reviews the contributions made by Italian regionalists to the debate on the role of knowledge, technical change, and innovation in regional development in the last thirty years. The results show that Italian scholars have given seminal contributions from the theoretical point of view, as well as providing strong empirical evidence in support of their theses. Many topics have been analysed and successfully developed by Italian regionalists (among others, functional deficit, innovative milieux, collective learning, and territorial competition). However, their most original contribution has been to draw a clear-cut distinction between space and territory, with material factors, more than physical proximity alone, playing a significant role in innovation at regional level.

Keywords: knowledge, innovation and territorial development

JEL Classification: R10, R11 Classification-JEL: Keywords: Note: Pages:81-99 Volume: 8 Year: 2009 Issue:3 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=37572&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:scresc:v:html10.3280/SCRE2009-003005 Number: 5 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Riccardo Cappellin Title: Knowledge Economy and Service Activities Abstract: Knowledge Economy and Service Activities - (Paper first received, May 2009; in final form, July 2009)This paper identifies some paths in the evolution of the international and mainly European literature on service activities, and it seeks to relate them to the emerging interest in the cognitive dimension of innovation processes. In particular, it indicates the contributions of Italian researchers who have actively participated in this international debate and in some cases anticipated new perspectives which have then been adopted by other researchers. A characteristic of these contributions is the link between the analysis of services sectors and the spatial characteristics of Italy, such as the diffusion of industrial districts made up of SME specialized in medium technology sectors and the evolution of the Italian urban system consisting of numerous small and medium-sized cities.

Keywords: services, KIBS, innovation, knowledge economy, urbanization economies

JEL Classification: R3, L8, O3 Classification-JEL: Keywords: Note: Pages:101-124 Volume: 8 Year: 2009 Issue:3 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=37573&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:scresc:v:html10.3280/SCRE2009-003006 Number: 6 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Roberto Camagni Title: Agglomeration, Hierarchy, Urban Rent and the City Abstract: Agglomeration, Hierarchy, Urban Rent and the City - (Paper first received, July 2009; in final form, September 2009) The paper fucuses on Italian contributions in the field of urban economics, mainly from a theoretical and empirical point of view. The Italian tradition is characterized by a constant conceptualization effort of the city as a socio-economic archetype, an original historical organizational model of labor, activities and society; the approach generally merges mainstream, mainly neoclassical, tools with more heterodox, evolutionary but also classical economic concepts. In more specific fields, relevant advances were achieved in the theorization, measurement and simulation of optimal city size; in the interpretation of the urban crisis ? la Baumol, considering inter-sectoral but also inter-regional exchange relationships; in the analysis of urban forms and their impact on sustainability and social welfare; in dynamic modelling of the urban hierarchy and the theorization of city-networks, based on the advantages of synergy and division of labour; on a proper understanding of territorial competitiveness and the nature of urban land rent.

Keywords: urban economics, competitiveness, urban land rent, agglomeration

JEL Classification: R12, R14, R15 Classification-JEL: Keywords: Note: Pages:127-150 Volume: 8 Year: 2009 Issue:3 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=37574&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:scresc:v:html10.3280/SCRE2009-003007 Number: 7 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Lidia Diappi Title: Models in Understanding and Planning the City Abstract: Models in Understanding and Planning the City - (Paper first received, April 2009; in final form, July 2009) Abstract The aim of this paper is to present a both chronological and conceptual overview of thirty years of Italian research in the branch of urban modelling within the international context. It frames the Italian contributions within international modelling developments, showing the close interrelations which have been established throughout the period considered. During this brief but creative period we have witnessed substantial shifts in approaches: from a macro perspective to a micro-scale description of urban phenomena; from a static to a dynamic setting; from the role of operational tools in evaluating urban policies to theoretical investigation of urban complexity. The paper is organized around six families of models, which are characterized either by the theories underpinning them or by the formalism used.

Keywords: models, system theory, complexity

JEL Classification codes: C53, C63, O21 Classification-JEL: Keywords: Note: Pages:151-170 Volume: 8 Year: 2009 Issue:3 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=37575&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:scresc:v:html10.3280/SCRE2009-003008 Number: 8 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Aurelio Bruzzo Title: Regional Economic Planning Abstract: Regional Economic Planning - (Paper first received, March 2009; in final form, September 2009) Abstract The paper covers the scientific debate among Italian regionalists since the mid-1970s on Regional Economic Planning, understood as socio-economic planning carried out by regional administrations and expressed in the drafting of regional development programmes. The somewhat critical survey locates contributions by Italian scholars within a broader debate simultaneously ongoing at international level, the purpose being to advance the discipline both theoretically-methodologically and in its concrete implementation. The conclusion reached is that Italian regionalists have made a major contribution to the international scientific debate especially when they have induced (at high government level and in a decidedly wider territorial context) a limited number of regions to adopt the strategic planning model hitherto applied to urban and metropolitan areas in both Italy and abroad.

Keywords: planning policy and models; regional socio-economic development policy

JEL Classification: O21; R58 Classification-JEL: Keywords: Note: Pages:171-198 Volume: 8 Year: 2009 Issue:3 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=37576&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:scresc:v:html10.3280/SCRE2009-003009 Number: 9