Since 2007 Italian economy has suffered an important recessive turbulence. In an economic system characterized by small and medium enterprises, national data could not reveal the actual structural changes intensity in terms of productive sectors or local situations. Marche’s economy, characterized by a high business density, is actually a microcosm in which structural changes of the manufacturing sector can be properly studied. We chose to analyse the information of a closed sample of enterprises observed from 1994 to 2010. Research reveals some stylized facts: the medium enterprises concentration process, the high export propensity, an increasing capitalization. Furthermore, we noted a reduction in operating efficiency, a high short-term debt and the resistance to the dimensional expansion. Classificazione JEL:
Keywords: Manufacturing sector, medium enterprises, economic development, multivariate statistical models, cluster analysis.
Jel Code: L600, O140, C310, C380