Territorial Gap and Territorial Distribution of Public Investments in Italy

The problem of regional imbalances is a central issue in the cohesion policy debate in Europe. This paper verifies whether the territorial dynamics of in-vestment (and especially of public investment) in Italy has satisfied the principle of territorial rebalancing between the Central-Northern areas and the “Mezzogiorno” regions. The empirical evidence produced by the analy-sis of the flows of capital expenditure of investments, using the data of the territorial public accounts system, shows that the territorial gaps in recent years have widened, penalizing the regions of the South. It is necessary to think of a differential dynamic in the overall territorial flows of invest-ments in order to favor the processes of territorial development in these re-gions which are most struggling to take off.