Geographical indications as an untapped opportunity for inner areas. An analysis of geographical indications from Southern Italy

Remote areas have been progressively obtained greater attention within rural development policies. Actually, a tool to foster the economic development of remote areas is valorising those high-quality agri-food products that are characterised by unique features through the use of Geographical Indications. In particular, socioeconomic characteristics and weaknesses might limit GI implementation, especially in remote areas. This work addresses this topic, by considering as a case study Southern Italian regions and their remote areas, as defined by the 2014 Italian National Strategy for Inner Areas. The work considers data on GIs at municipality (i.e., LAU2) level, adopting an empirical strategy based on the hurdle model for count data. Results suggest that geography plays a key role: actually, municipalities in the inner areas show a lower number of GIs compared to non-inner municipalities. Moreover, also social capital seems to play a role, stressing its importance when dealing with the registration of a new GI.