Steel industry in Italy: which trade-off?

The steel industry is one of the most strategic economic sectors in any country and it is crucial in Italy's economy. However, it is among the most polluting industries, posing serious risks to workers and residents near industrial plants. The paper aims to contribute to providing evidence on which to base more informed and conscious policy choices and private decisions to balance economic growth with environmental sustainability and public health connected to the steel industry, comparing economic, environmental, and health indicators for Italian provinces, depending on the presence of significant iron and steel activities. Using official data from the Italian Institute of Statistics, we investigate economic benefits, environmental impacts, and health risks associated with the presence of steel plants in territories where they operate. The Wilcoxon (Mann-Whitney) method, a non-parametric test based on rank order, is used. Our results suggest that while the immediate economic impact is evident, the environmental and health outcomes – found in the data but not statistically significant - may be directly correlated only in the longer term, or other factors might be influencing these results. Therefore, policy decisions should anticipate and incorporate the future effects of current actions using increasingly refined and contextualised analytical tools.