Resilience, resistance and recoverability, regional economic structure and human capital in Italy. Are they related?

The 2007 economic shock has affected Italian regions strongly, nevertheless with remarkable differences among them. The aim of the paper is not to analyses the economic impact of the crisis on regions but to investigate the determinant of regional resilience using a holistic approach and by exploring regional specialization, economic structure and human capital. Our results suggest that, the Italian regional de-specialization process it is not a consequence of the 2007 shock. Moreover, there is not a relationship between resilience and regional specialization. Nevertheless, the economic structure, especially the regional effects influence regional resistance and recoverability. Finally, human capital can contribute to increase regional resilience.