Abstract

Mezzogiorno in the economic literature is the international benchmark to indicate a geographical area within an industrialised country 1) that does not experience a GDP growth rate consistent with the national value 2) whose economy relies on transfers. Making a logical leap it was concluded that Southern Italy has been diverting resources away the Centre-North. An empirical analysis on per capita GDP growth rates shows that from the years after the second world war and until 2007, the South has provided its contribution to the welfare growth of the rest of the country. However, the same proposition cannot be stated reversing the causality.