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 a 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 embedded in any specific territory, make Economic Policies for Local Development a quite complex task. The teaching offers the student an interpretation of the experiences implemented after the Second World War (in different countries), a taxonomy of the guidelines elicited by international organizations like OECD, EU, World Bank 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” (subject to public funding and embedding minimal 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 of National Development, Competitive Advantage)
The End of the Nation State and the Rise of Regional Economies. Recent perspectives of the European Union’s Regional Policies
Applied experiences and local development policies in Italy. The case of the Energy and Environment Technology District in Trento. The case of the Leather District in Veneto. A comparison among Italian and other regions’ of the world case studies and 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 provided by the teacher

The final test will be written (first part about theories and second part about practical case studies)
In order to prepare the final test, direct attendance is highly recommended. Otherwise the student should present a personal work plan to the teacher (in advance)

Lessons will start from practical case studies, in order to allow a common sharing of experiences and key concepts, involving 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. At the end students will be invited to implement, what they have learned during the teaching, into a real case study of his/her personal interest (this part is complementary 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