The North and South Divide: A Drag on the Italian Economy

Abstract

Over the last three decades, Italy's GDP growth has seen generally seen stagnation. In the European Union, Italy's economic development rate is among the poorer levels and is internationally recognized as a country not suitable for investment. This has directly led to a decline in Italy's international voice. When it comes to the causes of Italy's economic development stagnation, the North-South gap within Italy is one of the important reasons, which is manifested in the excessive difference between the GDP per capita of the South and the North within Italy. For a long time, the north and the south of Italy have developed differently, including the different distribution of economic pillars (this paper focuses on agriculture, industry, and tourism), the different employment patterns of workers, and the different motivations of people to engage in economic development. These differences have led to an extreme imbalance in the economic development of the north and south of Italy, especially in the south, where the level of development is lower than that of the north. Such an imbalance in economic development is undoubtedly detrimental to the overall economic development of Italy. The comparison with Germany and Spain leads to the conclusion that Italy needs to reduce the gap between the North and South of the country by improving the quality of workers, introducing advanced technologies and regulating the employment system of immigrants.