The Cultural and Creative Economy in Italy: Spatial Patterns in Peripheral Areas

This paper analyses the structure of the Italian cultural and creative economy with a focus on peripheral areas. We highlight the patterns of specialization and spatial dependency through employment and firms’ data. We build up a novel and never used dataset by collecting data at the most disaggregated territorial unit (NUTS 4) producing a harmonized taxonomy of cultural and creative industries at four-digit level. Our multi-step analysis highlights specific geographical patterns showing a clear spatial organization in the inner areas. Results could be beneficial for evidence-based policy setting within the under-investigated issue of culture-led development and the creative economy in peripheral areas.