Abstract

Classical research on returns to education has systematically shown that individuals with more schooling are more likely to have higher earnings, prestige, social status, etc. Few studies focused on the role of spatial arrangements and geographical inequalities in this debate, despite most developed societies experience growing territorial disparities. In this respect, Italy has been experiencing large disparities between ‘central’ and ‘marginal’ areas, which go beyond the classic rural/urban and North/South cleavages. This work aims at studying if and how returns to education differ between ‘central’ and ‘marginal’ areas in Italy. Analyses based on the Italian Labour Force Survey (2009-2020) show that tertiary educated living in Northern provinces earn much more than those living in provinces located in the South or in the Islands. Moreover, the higher the marginality of a province (i.e., the larger the proportion of population of a province living in ‘marginal’ municipalities), the lower the returns to tertiary education. However, large part of this association is explained by the North-South divide. Therefore, the cleavage between marginal and central areas is crucial and cumulates with the North-South one. The penalization of tertiary educated living in marginal areas occurs only in an already disadvantaged context (South), whereas more advantaged contexts (North) are likely to have characteristics that compensate for the penalization given by the geographical marginality.