The Fourth Italy: a contemporary account of the Italian economic geography
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Abstract We update Bagnasco’s work on the Third Italy and its interpretative model of Italy’s economic geography adding a Fourth Italy to the existing taxonomy of productive systems. This new conceptual model frames the emergence of Italian Entrepreneurial Ecosystems (EEs) of start-ups in several cities. We describe their characteristics, localization, and institutional patterns. The Fourth Italy and its cognitive capitalist production highlights some situated agglomeration externalities. Current policies supporting EEs have often exacerbated existing patterns of uneven development, following a logic of economic convergence. We call for place-sensitive policy at the meso-level, to enhance the regenerative power of EEs and the development of the Fourth Italy.
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Acknowledgements: This article has been long in the pipelines, it is the result of years of work that began during Stefania Fiorentino’s doctoral studies supervised by Nicholas Phelps. She would like to thank Studio Progetti Finanziari SPF srl and the Confederazione Nazionale dell’Artigianato e della Piccola e Media Impresa (CNA) of Rome (in particular the then President Erino Colombi), for jointly sponsoring and supporting her PhD. Dr Fiorentino would also like to thank the various anonymous referees, the editors, as well as Ron Martin, Patrick Le Galès and Thies Lindenthal; all offered valuable comments to different versions of this manuscript allowing it to improve and assume its current version. Conflict of interest statement. None declared.
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1468-2710
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