The increasing number of young people who do not study and do not work has become a relevant and timely socioeconomic issue. The role of the economic family background and the social context mitigate the risk of being not in education, employment or training (NEET). However, other factors such as evident regional disparities, suggest the need to investigate alternative remedies, in particular for the Italian context. Among these, we focus on cultural capital (CC) as a driver to discourage school dropout and a stimulus for pro-active behaviours in work participation. We test the role of CC (proxied by the accumulation of cultural experiences) on the rate of NEETs population in Centre-North and South Italy. We apply a panel vector autoregression (PVAR) approach to 2001–2018 regional NUTS2 data. Our findings highlight the positive effect of CC on NEET, and the impact is higher for southern regions. This result might represent a key of convergence between the two Italian geographical areas and pave the way for ad hoc policy measures to reduce the risk of becoming NEET.

越来越多的不读书，不工作的年轻人已经成为一个相关的，及时的社会经济问题。经济家庭背景和社会背景的作用减轻了不在教育，就业或培训（NEET）中的风险。但是，其他因素，例如明显的地区差异，也表明需要研究其他补救办法，特别是针对意大利的情况。其中，我们将重点放在文化资本（CC）上，以鼓励他们辍学，并鼓励他们积极参与工作。我们测试了CC（通过文化经验的积累）对意大利中北部和南部NEETs人口比率的影响。我们对2001-2018年区域NUTS2数据应用面板向量自回归（PVAR）方法。我们的发现强调了CC对NEET的积极作用，而对南部地区的影响更大。这一结果可能代表了两个意大利地理区域融合的关键，并为采取特殊的政策措施降低了成为NEET的风险铺平了道路。