Abstract

The introduction of the Citizenship Income (RdC) has represented a crucial step in the reform process of the Italian welfare state. However, the implementation of this scheme is highly debated. In particular, a crucial issue concerns the North-South gap in the incidence of RdC beneficiaries. According to the literature, such gap is embedded within territorial socio-economic inequalities existing at the subnational level. By adopting the concept of «local welfare system» as a starting point, this article analyzes how local factors shape the incidence of RdC beneficiaries at the municipal level in four Northern Italian regions: Piedmont, Lombardy, Veneto, and Emilia-Romagna. The association between the incidence of RdC beneficiaries and a series of socio-demographic, socio-economic, political-institutional factors has been assessed with a multiple linear regression analysis, and the empirical results compared with the literature. Regression models confirm the explanatory relevance of several socio- economic and socio-demographic factors, but also identify specific peculiarities in the way in which such factors are related to the incidence of RdC beneficiaries at the municipal level in the four regions considered. These peculiarities might be interpreted by considering the distinctive features of «local welfare systems», and their relations with dynamics of territorial vulnerability in the regional contexts analyzed