The Industrial Pattern of Italian Regions: A Disaggregated Sectoral Analysis Based on Input–Output Tables

Abstract

Italy joined the so-called ‘Industry 4.0’ European framework in 2016, which designed and approved a national plan to regulate this key issue for regional development. To better support such a framework, the present study attempts to quantify the contribution of the Italian regions to the output formation process. More specifically, a multi-sectoral Input–Output (IO) model that supports national policies was proposed to cumulatively consider 29 industries that partition the Italian economy into representative branches at the level of administrative regions. Elementary input data were derived from the inter-sectoral table of the economy released by the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT). The economic outcomes of the Italian regions were estimated using a non-survey procedure, based on Flegg Location Quotients, to determine the upstream and downstream positions of each industry at country and regional levels. Indices grounded on the Hypothetical Extraction Method (HEM) further delineated the role each industry plays in the regional economy. The empirical findings of this study demonstrate how non-survey IO regionalization and the resulting industry-based indices provide appropriate knowledge for regional development policies.