A Study of Land Capital and Local Development Dynamics Within Rural Contexts

The thesis investigates the role of land capital in shaping rural local development dynamics. While land occupied a prominent place in classical economic thought, its role in contemporary economic analysis has received far more limited attention, particularly within local development studies, where it remains weakly conceptualized and underexplored. Yet, both theoretical insights and empirical evidence—also at the macroeconomic level—point to its potential to influence key socio-economic and institutional place-based dimensions of local development, thereby shaping local development trajectories. In response to this gap, the thesis first clarifies the contemporary meaning of land within the current economic debate. Building on theoretical and empirical contributions, it articulates the concept of land capital, which extends the classical notion of land as a natural agent endowed with original and inherent characteristics, by incorporating more permanent forms of capital embodied in lasting improvements and investments. This establishes the theoretical foundations for analysing how land, in its contemporary form as land capital, shapes local development dynamics, with a specific focus on rural contexts (Introduction, Chapter 1). To address this, the thesis combines a theoretical and an empirical approach. The first part develops a comprehensive conceptual framework linking the diverse dimensions of land capital to key elements of place-based development. In particular, Chapter 2 establishes the role of land capital and its main components as drivers of rural local development, while Chapter 3 examines how its dimensions interact with different local development models, shaping diverse rural development pathways. The second part grounds selected theoretical relationships in empirical evidence. Chapter 4 evaluates the local effects of specific policy initiatives targeting land-use practices, while Chapter 5 shifts the focus to the structural conditions under which such policies operate, analyzing how landownership structures shape patterns of participation across land-use-related policy measures. Overall, the thesis integrates conceptual and empirical insights to provide a more structured understanding of the role of land capital in shaping rural local development dynamics—an aspect still largely overlooked, yet with significant implications for territorial development trajectories.