{"id":10236,"date":"2026-06-15T22:19:52","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T20:19:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.regionaleconomy.eu\/rivista\/?p=10236"},"modified":"2026-10-02T09:25:28","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T07:25:28","slug":"the-long-run-dynamics-of-calabrias-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.regionaleconomy.eu\/rivista\/re\/the-long-run-dynamics-of-calabrias-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"The Long-Run Dynamics of Calabria\u2019s Economy. Persistent Divergence and Structural Constraints"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a class=\"btn btn-danger\" href=\"https:\/\/www.regionaleconomy.eu\/RePEc\/pdf\/10Q1\/2-16.pdf\" rel=\"noopener\">\ud83d\udcc4 PDF<\/a> <a class=\"btn btn-success\" href=\"https:\/\/ideas.repec.org\/a\/atk\/issues\/q1202610204.html\">\ud83d\udcca REPEC<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">This paper documents the long-run dynamics of Calabria\u2019s economy over the last three decades and benchmarks them against Italy, the Mezzogiorno, and the Centre-North. Using a set of core macroeconomic indicators, the work provides a unified interpretation of their joint evolution over time. The evidence points to persistent structural divergence. Calabria combines demographic contraction, persistently low labour market participation, weak value-added growth, and productivity dynamics that often reflect employment contraction rather than sustained output expansion. The analysis shows that some commonly used indicators of economic performance require careful interpretation: reductions in unemployment and moderate increases in labour productivity may partly reflect contraction processes &#8211; such as declining labour input and withdrawal from the labour market, rather than genuine improvements in economic capacity. As a result, the region\u2019s relative economic position deteriorates over time, particularly when measured by GDP per capita relative to the Centre-North. Taken together, these patterns suggest that demographic decline, fragile labour mobilisation, and limited productive expansion interact cumulatively, reinforcing a long-run trajectory of economic divergence.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Keywords<\/strong>: regional divergence; labour market; productivity; demographic decline; Calabria; Italy.<br \/>\n<strong>JEL codes<\/strong>: R11, J21, J64, O47<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\ud83d\udcc4 PDF \ud83d\udcca REPEC This paper documents the long-run dynamics of Calabria\u2019s economy over the last three decades and benchmarks them against Italy, the Mezzogiorno, and the Centre-North. Using a set of core macroeconomic indicators, the work provides a unified interpretation of their joint evolution over time. The evidence points to persistent structural divergence. Calabria [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":117,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,760],"tags":[],"coauthors":[467],"class_list":["post-10236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-re","category-volume-10-q1-2026"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Long-Run Dynamics of Calabria\u2019s Economy. 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He has been visiting researcher at the University of Essex, the University of Reading, Copenaghen Business School, FAO, EU Commission (DG Development), University of Siirt, University of London and at the Universit\u00e9 Paris Nanterre. In August 2015, Prof. Aiello launched OpenCalabria.com, a website focusing on the Italian regional divide. He is Editor in Chief of Regional Economy, the online journal managed by OpenCalabria. Currently, much of his research focuses on the innovation-productivity nexus and on efficiency analysis. He has published widely in many Italian journals and in several leading international journals. Prof. Aiello is also author of about 180 short papers to disseminate economic knowledge to a more general audience rather than only to specialists. He has been scientific coordinator (or member) of research programs funded by EU Commission, Italian Ministry of Research and by Regione Calabria. 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