Description
Book SynopsisFrom Industrial Districts to Local Development introduces a set of papers representing the main contribution of the 'Florence school' to the recent literature on industrial districts. The authors illustrate that the revitalisation of the concept of industrial districts, returning to Alfred Marshall's nineteenth-century writings, is rooted in an unconventional interpretation of the economic development of Tuscany after the Second World War.
Models of industrial organisation and empirical investigation of industrial tendencies are featured, and Alfred Marshall's concepts of the advantages of the geographical agglomeration of specialised small firms in industrial districts are reintroduced. The authors extend the analysis of purely economic effects of agglomeration, including social, cultural and institutional foundations of local development, and current case studies are presented.
This book will appeal to scholars, lecturers and researchers focusing on industrial economics, development economics and economic geography. Its references to Italian political experiences will also be of interest to policymakers in both developed and developing countries.
Table of ContentsContents: Foreword by Werner Sengenberger Introduction: An Itinerary Part I: The Development of Tuscany: Industrial Districts 1. Industrial Districts in the Development of Tuscany 2. The ‘Tuscan Model’ and Recent Trends 3. The Past in the Present: Prato’s People Part II: Inside the District: Clues for Theoreticians 4. The Governance of Transactions in the Industrial District: The ‘Commodity Market’ 5. The Incentives to Decentralised Creativity in Local Systems of Small Firms 6. Trust, Interlinking Transactions and Credit in the Industrial District 7. On Entrepreneurship, Region and the Constitution of Scale and Scope Economies Part III: Towards Local Development 8. Local Development in the Experience of Italian Industrial Districts 9. Local Governance and Industrial Districts’ Competitive Advantage 10. The Multiple Paths of Local Development 11. Towards a Geographical Redefinition of the Form of the State Index
