Because Italy is more than a geographic expression..

Alessi S.P.A. US

Friday, March 13, 2015

Racing Cars And The Italian Economy

Here are some excerpts from a paper titled The Italian Sports Car Cluster (Harvard):

"...Another interesting phenomenon in Italy’s business environment is the prevalence of small-
medium enterprises (SMEs), particularly in manufacturing. Two-thirds of Italian manufacturing workers are in firms with fewer than 100 employees, versus 37% in the U.S. and 31% in Germany. Italy has more SMEs than any other country in Europe—more than 50% more than Germany, the next largest. The Economist argues that a globalize world puts a premium on size, so that Italy’s SME legacy will be forced to change...."

"...Northern Italy is among the richest regions in all of Europe, when measured by disposable income..."
 
"...Exports of goods, including automotive, are sent mostly to Europe (72%).

Italy’s natural resources exports account only for 0.5% of its
GDP and 2.4% of exports.

Italy has the most industrially-diversified exports in the ICCP sample, measured by the
lowest percentage of exports concentrated in the Top 50 Industries (42%).

Italy has significant strength at the cluster level in world markets (Tab
le 1): Seven Italian clusters are among the top 3 in the world, and 15 are in the top 5 (from
a sample of 42 clusters), giving Italy a 17% and 36% share. Similar strength exists with sub-clusters

Italy is among the richest countries in the world, with development indicators comparable to its
European peers and the OECD average.

How does Italy achieve such high levels of income with a relatively poor business environment?
-worsening business environment
-north dragging down by south
-clusters not affected by government policies
..."

"...Modena, Italy, the home of the Italian sports car cluster, is known as the "international capital of sports cars." It is the birthplace of Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati and De Tomaso. The first
three of these (De Tomaso no longer manufactures cars) comprise the core of the cluster we will
be analyzing. All three companies have their headquarters within a 15-km radius of one another. This small geographic area produces a surprisingly large portion—nearly a third, overall—of the high end sports car units sold worldwide every year..."


"...As we can see from Exhibit 13, given Italy’s level of GDP per capita, it has an extremely high penetration of cars per thousand.
 

In fact, Italy has the second highest absolute car penetration behind Luxembourg."

*Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta (1964) image from Bold Ride.

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