Regional Competitiveness: Towards a Concept of Territorial Capital

Abstract

As shown in the previous chapter, we may argue that, in the long term, theoretical supply-oriented approaches have outperformed strictly demand-oriented ones, of a Keynesian nature, in the interpretation of regional development processes. In fact, on the one hand, regional internal demand is not relevant, even in the short run, to drive regional growth, given the huge interregional integration and ever-increasing international division of labour. On the other hand, national demand growth is certainly more relevant to internal regional performances, but it is so on a ‘on-average’ basis: single regions may outperform (or under-perform) the national average at the expense (in favour of) other regions,2 either because of a more appropriate (poorer) sectoral mix or because of a favourable (unfavourable) competitive differential.