ECONOMIC POLICIES FOR LOCAL DEVELOPMENT

Economic Policies for Local Development have been designed in order to promote convergence among regions and territories that belong to a national economy, and also to wider context like the European Union. The variety of concrete situations, the absence of a unique trajectory to refer to and the diversity of social and economic factors which are to be concerned in any specific territory, make Economic Policies for Local Development a quite complex task. The teaching offers to the student an interpretation of the experiences implemented after 1990, a taxonomy of the guidelines elicited by the EU in the 2021-27 perspective and the theoretical paradigms provided by economists during time.

At the end of the teaching students will be able to:
- outline the contour and structural characteristics of a local system (scope of specific local development actions)
- assess the role and perspective of the different pertinent social agents engaged in local development actions
- participate to local development “projects” (aiming to become beneficiaries of public funding and embedding feasibility conditions)
- concur to design (dynamic) assessment systems of single projects and the policy as a whole

Organization Theory and (basic elements of) Economic History
Basic knowledge of Descriptive Statistics

Introduction to Economic Development Theories (Product Cycle, Patterns and Divides, Competitive Advantage)
The End of the Nation State and the rise of Regional Economies. Recent perspectives of European Union’s Regional Policies
Applied experiences and local development policies in Italy. The case of the Energy and Environment Technology District in Trentino. The case of the Leather District in Veneto. A comparison among Italian and other regions of the world, with case studies and a methodological follow-up.
Practical exercises about case studies selected by the student.

Porter M., (1990), The Competitive Advantange of Nations, The Free Press
Crouch C., Le Galès P., Trigilia C., Voelzkow H., (2001), Local Production Systems in Europe. Rise or Demise?, Oxford University Press
Gurisatti P., (2009) A tool kit for a successful “facilitation process” (constituent process of a new “cluster”) and/or for the start-up of a self-sustainable technical “service provider” (Document prepared for JTI, as a provisional draft of a more comprehensive tool box, to be developed thanks to the interaction with Jamaican facilitators and JTI experts)
Other documents and papers provide by the teacher

The final test will be a written text. The first part will concern theories and the content of the suggested papers and books (2-3 open questions. The second part should present the relevant results of a practical case study (arranged by the student - in 4-5 pages at least).
In order to prepare the final test direct attendance is highly recommended. Otherwise the student should present a personal work plan in advance

Lessons will start from practical cases, in order to allow a common sharing of experiences and key concepts among all the participants (dictionary of economic local development). As a consequence, the core of the teaching will be focused on theories and methods/operational tools. During the final phase of the course students will be invited sketch a real policy in a case study of personal interest (this part will be integrated to the final test).

Italian

written

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Cities, infrastructure and social capital" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development