Mines and quarries production: A driver analysis of withdrawals in Italy

The growing demand for non-energy mineral resources has determined relevant withdrawals as well as import-export flows. This paper aims to disentangle the drivers of raw non-energy mineral resources extraction in Italy. Using a new dataset of raw resources extracted from mines and quarries in the 21 Italian regions (19 regions and 2 autonomous provinces of Trento and Bolzano) for the period 2013–2016, our empirical analysis confirms the relevance of mining and quarrying producer price index as well as the manufacturing and construction sectors as main drivers. In line with the Hotelling (1931)'s theory, a positive relationship between m&q mineral resources extraction intensity and m&q producer price index is also estimated.