The Vulnerability of Sub-National Areas to Economic and Financial Shocks: The Case of Italy

Abstract

The growing literature that deals with the territorial vulnerability devotes modest attention to sub-national areas. This study examine the Italian Provinces on the basis of the Fabbri Vulnerability Index, developed by the Political Laboratory of the Fabbri Foundation, a method for the hierarchization of socio-economic vulnerability of a set of territories. The results show that it is no longer valid the socio-economic subdivision of Italy in North, Centre and South, since the territorial vulnerability highlighted by the FVI is patchily distributed. Since the vulnerability of the entire country is reduced if the most vulnerable areas approach to the less vulnerable ones, it is no more sufficient the simply reduction of the gap between North and South of the country. They serve more complex measures locally. The analysis of national and international countermeasures to the current crisis demonstrates their harmfulness to the level of vulnerability, and their lack of influence on the reduction of its geographical dispersion.

Keywords: vulnerability, fabbri vulnerability index, resilience, hierarchy

JEL Classification: O18, O55, R58