1,721,071 research outputs found
Social capital and well-being in the Italian provinces
No full textRecent years witnessed a growing interest in the concept of well-being and quality of life, as alternative to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The determinants of well-being, especially at the regional and provincial levels, is understudied in a macro perspective, as opposed to a micro perspective (individuals, survey data) that has been the dominant approach until recently. In this paper, we estimate an empirical model for the Italian NUTS-3 provinces to evaluate the role of social capital on well-being by using aggregated (provincial) data. Our findings suggest that social capital, social security programs, income, and grant-making activities by Bank Foundations, even though not uniformly distributed across Italy, positively affect well-being, thus contributing to explain the persistent dualism that characterizes the Italian economy
Income distribution dynamics among Italian provinces. The role of Bank Foundations
No full textThis paper investigates the convergence process and the distribution dynamics of income among Italian NUTS-3 provinces between 2003 and 2011. Findings show the existence of multiple steady-state equilibria which is consistent with the well-documented persistence in income disparities among Italian provinces. The role of grant-making activities by Bank Foundations is assessed on a conditioning scheme. Results suggest that Bank Foundations can affect the shape of the distribution of income and, in the long run, reduce polarization with a tendency for income to collapse towards a unimodal distribution
A Well-Being Indicator for the Italian Provinces
No full textIn recent years, a significant number of papers has been published providing alternative measures of progress and well-being to Gross Domestic Product. Most of these papers differs in terms of their theoretical approach as well as their purpose and statistical methodology used to define what well-being is and how to measure it. In this paper, we construct a well-being indicator for the Italian provinces that shows a high degree of heterogeneity not only between the Northern and Southern Italian provinces, but also among adjacent provinces
Assetti proprietari e vincoli finanziari all’investimento: un’analisi sui dati di bilancio delle imprese manifatturiere italiane
No full textLabour flexibility, internal migration and productivity in Italian regions
No full textThis paper provides an empirical analysis of the Italian total factor productivity (TFP) growth for the 1995-2012 period that takes into account the factors explaining cross-regional differences in productivity growth. We focus on the changes in the quality of labor caused by the increasing use of temporary workers and on the migration flows of human-capital, which almost unidirectionally moved from the Southern to the Northern-Centre regions. Empirical results provide evidence of a non-linearity (U-shaped) in the relationship between the use of temporary workers and TFP growth, which suggests that TFP growth in some Southern regions benefited from the increase in the share of temporary workers after the early 2000s, while regions in the Centre-North regions experienced an opposite effect, with the share of temporary workers being negatively related to TFP growth. Results also show that migration flows of qualified human capital had a positive impact on TFP growth in the regions of destinations, while the number of emigrants have a positive effect on the TFP growth in the regions of origin
Bank foundations, social capital and the growth of Italian provinces
No full textThe funding role of bank foundations in the Italian economy, especially to the non-profit sector, significantly increased over the last 25 years. This paper constructs a novel measure of social capital at the provincial level that explicitly takes into account the bank foundations’ sectors of intervention (such as education, public health, and art and culture), together with other traditional aspects of social capital, and then tests the impact of bank foundations on the economic growth of Italian provinces. The findings suggest that the contribution of bank foundations to social capital positively affects the economic growth of provinces
The role of universities in the location of innovative start-ups
No full textStart-ups increasingly find the prospect of university–industry collaborations to be a powerful driver of innovation and entrepreneurship activity. Moreover, at the geographical level, they are attracted by teaching and research institutions, either public or private. This paper focuses on the role played by universities. Our hypothesis is that geographical proximity favors the transfer of knowledge and technology from universities to industries and, consequently, represents a positive factor for regional economic development. Results show that university spillovers are positively correlated with the creation of innovative start-ups. Furthermore, the presence of human capital (graduates) exerts a significant influence on the location decisions of start-ups, being a source for competitiveness for firms close to universities. Research quality, especially in the social sciences area, attracts innovative start-ups, while third-mission activities have a weak impact on locational choice
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