Intermediate institutions and local development : The Parmigiano Reggiano case

Abstract

Intermediate institutions play an important role in solving market failures both in territorially limited and broad markets. This statement can be easily applied in an area like the province of Parma, where some of the most famous Italian typical agri-food products are produced by companies whose competitiveness is strongly dependent upon the intermediate institutions' ability to put collective goods of a material - such as service structures, road systems, physical markets, etc. - or immaterial technical training, behavioural rules, etc. - nature at the provincial economic network's disposal. The work is subdivided into two parts. The first one is of technical nature and will analyse how the market, meant as a structure of social relationships, with special attention to the agri-food market and to its specific features, works. Amongst these features, the phenomenon of information asymmetry and the role undertaken by institutional interventions to solve it will be taken into consideration. The second part of the work will analyse the Parmigiano-Reggiano case and the interdependence between it and the territory where it is produced, with special attention to the integration existing both within production supply chains (the role of Consortia and co-operative organisations is very important) and within other intermediate institutions. The case under examination and, more in general, the degree of efficiency achieved by the province of Parma, defined as an "agri-food district", through the integration with intermediate institutions, will therefore enable us to confirm what has already been theoretically defined.

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