Territorial determinants and NUTS 3 regional performance: A spatial analysis for Italy across the crisis.

This paper analyses the differential impact of several territorial determinants of the economic performance of Italian provinces (NUTS 3 level). as measured by per capita GDP, export and employment growth from 1999 to 2014. It covers both the pre‐crisis and the crisis period and stresses the role of geographical proximity in shaping local performance over a wide set of explanatory variables. In order to do so, we employ, firstly, a spatial Durbin model which enables us to discriminate between direct and indirect effects and to highlight the possible contagion or crowding‐out spatial effects for each territorial dimension affecting growth. Then, we extend the analysis by allowing for the possibility of two regimes (pre‐crisis and post‐crisis). The performance of the provinces before and during the crisis relates to specific territorial components and geographic proximity appears to influence differently the results and their interpretation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]