What's Wrong With Mezzogiorno?

The book addresses the topic of the Italian and Spanish peripheral areas trying to shed light on the causes of their missed development. The study supports the hypothesis of a connection between emigration from peripheral areas, the scarce diffusion of social capital and low institutional performances. The empirical analysis is conducted through the application of modern quantitative techniques as the hierarchical linear model and the multivariate hierarchical linear model. The book demonstrates that a factor that the literature on social capital scarcely considered, that is the migratory movements, has an important role in the differentials of economic and institutional performances between center and periphery in Italy and Spain.