Attrattività e competitività dei territori italiani - La metodologia di misura

Territorial attractiveness, both productive and residential, is hereby dealt with as a latent multidimensional variable. Being unobservable, it cannot consequently be directly measured. Its multidimensional feature implies that every aspect or pillar constituting it (institutions; infrastructures; health; basic education; higher education; labour market efficiency; market size; technological readiness; business sophistication; innovation) is, in its turn, unobservable and not traceable since it is an aggregation of elementary variables itself, which are on the contrary observable and measurable. In order to lessen the multidimensionality and condensate the latent phenomenon of attractiveness in only one number, Principal Components Analysis has been applied. However, this synthesis does not hinder analysis, i.e. the possibility to go backward up to the basic indicators, with the aim of fathoming the positioning of each territorial unit, region or province, compared to the national average.