Il ruolo delle città nello sviluppo economico italiano ed europeo di Enrico Ciciotti

The Role of Cities in the context of Italian and European Economic Development

ABSTRACT

It is somewhat paradoxical that, in the current phase of deep crisis in the advanced industrial countries we only focus on the nature of macroeconomic policies (moreover, markedly neoliberal) and does not take into account that cities represent the place of maximum concentration of the population, consumers, human capital, knowledge, culture, infrastructure, (both tangible and intangible) and production capacity, with all the problems and opportunities that flow from it. Starting from this basic assumption, the paper first analyses macro and micro economic features of economic and territorial development to highlight the inadequacy of macro economic policies and competitiveness policies implemented by the EU. In the second place, the relationship between city and economic development is taken into account as it has developed in Italy and Europe, with reference both to the evolution of the different urban
structures, and to the possible future scenarios (# 2).  These reflections allow to face the third point of the work: which of the different city models is useful to ensure growth and development in the advanced industrial countries, given the failure of macro policies implemented at national and European levels. In sequence are highlighted: the role of supply and the internal market; the importance of investment and innovation (models of triple and quadruple helix); the reasons for concentrating investment on the territory and in particular in the cities (the city as object and subject of public policies) (# 3). The last paragraph, finally focuses on the features, limitations and opportunities of the new current urban and regional policies and the governance of research risks, providing some tips to operationalize the theoretical framework of quadruple helix according to a regional/national development model centered on cities as engines of growth (# 4).

ENRICO CICIOTTI Professore Ordinario fuori ruolo di Politica Economica. È stato Preside della Facoltà di Economia dell’Università Cattolica di Piacenza e Direttore del DISES Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e201201 Sociali della stessa Università. È inoltre stato Presidente dell’AISRe (Associazione Italiana di Scienze Regionali) e Direttore di «Scienze Regionali– Italian Journal of Regional Science

enrico.ciciotti@unicatt.it