The effect of globalisation on industrial districts in Italy: evidence from the footwear sector

2000 and 2001 only allows qualitative comparisons.⁵ The data for 2001 confirm that
Italian footwear clusters are following diverse delocalisation strategies, although some
changes are occuring. Among the selected Italian footwear districts, the following
trends emerge (Table 1):

Table 1 OPT flows by selected Italian footwear districts (2001, 2nd qr)

Legenda M: Imports; X: Exports; NX: Net Exports; i: intermediate goods; f: finished goods.

Source: elaborated on OPT data from ANCI (2003)

• In Puglia, Barletta and Lecce delocalised intermediate segments of production much
more than the other districts. Moreover, they are strong net importer of parts, in
contrast with all the other districts. Barletta ranked first by outsourcing of
intermediate processing in 2001 (more than 2,300 thousand kilos of parts required),
but the unit value of imported items by Barletta is the lowest in our sample (6.64
€/kg), which suggests that this district has been following a strategy of massive
delocalisation of low quality intermediate goods. Accordingly, net exports of parts
are negative, which confirms that intermediate segments of production are being
displaced from domestic to foreign producers. On the contrary, outsourcing of
finished goods is much lower with respect to the other districts considered. Barletta
has started delocalising final processing only since 2001, although the volume of
finished goods required are still modest (less than 25 thousand pairs). Lecce ranked

⁵ In 1996-2000 OPT in intermediate goods was measured as the number of pairs of uppers required by
domestic firms from abroad, whereas the new data include trade flows (imports and exports) of parts
(both in kgs and in total value). There has been no change in the measurement of OPT in final goods: the
unit of measurement is always the number of pairs of shoes required from foreign subcontractors.
Moreover, the new data also provide information on the total value of finished goods required from
abroad. Finally, all the new data also provide information on OPT flows in both directions (imports and
exports), whereas the old data only included imports. This allows for much more detailed analysis on the
pattern of delocalisation, as we will suggest in the following of this section.

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