1,721,120 research outputs found
Industrial policies and institutional framework for the structural change
No full textThis article argues that a fundamental reform of the current institutional framework is needed to address the economic consequences of the pandemic and to successfully reverse the decline of the Italian economy. By focusing on still uncertain financial resources and where to invest them, the policy debate has hitherto neglected that the current institutional framework has been built in the last forty years to withdraw public intervention in the economy. The ability of the State to intervene in the functioning of a liberal society based on private initiative by developing industrial value chain and controlling innovation processes and technological trajectories must thus be reconstructed
Blended finance for the water sector: Some international experiences
No full textThis article analyzes several case studies concerning the management of drinking water and wastewater services in four countries: Portugal, Germany, France, and the Netherlands. The aim is to examine the role played by certain financial and nonfinancial intermediaries as catalysts of blended finance, for managing funding within the water sector of each country considered in the analysis. The idea is to provide examples of alternative financial management in contexts where water resource management is precarious
A Network Analysis of the Intersectoral Linkages Between Manufacturing and Other Industries in China and Italy
No full textIn recent years, the structural changes in global manufacturing and the economic crisis have sparked renewed interest in the role of manufacturing sector in driving economic development. Based on data from the World Input–Output Database (WIOD), this article uses network analysis (NA) to describe and compare inter-sectoral linkages between manufacturing and other sectors in two national economies, Italy and China, characterized by different stages of industrialization. The main metrics of the networks identified (at both node and network level) are discussed from an economic perspective. Besides confirming that manufacturing still has a fundamental role as the main source of demand for other economic activities in both countries, results highlight some fundamental differences in the structural characteristics of inter-sectoral linkages between China and Italy. Our exploratory analysis provides policymakers a complementary framework to illustrate backward and forward linkage effects, as well as potential knowledge and technology flows between industries
A three-step procedure to investigate the convergence of electricity and natural gas prices in the European Union
No full textThe paper introduces an innovative three-step approach to simultaneously investigate the price dispersion in retail electricity and natural gas markets for both domestic and industrial consumers over time and across EU countries. In the first step, a multilateral Country-Product-Dummy price index is applied to estimate the purchasing power parity (PPP) of the EU energy market. In the second step, the PPP values are then used to cluster the EU countries by means of a hierarchical cluster analysis based on the Ward method. Finally, in the third step, the Hodrick-Prescott filter is employed to estimate the PPP trends and to investigate different notions of convergence, within and between the identified clusters. We show that different EU countries can be classified into four clusters which are characterized by CPD indexes and PPPs below, slightly below, slightly above and above the average CPD/PPP series, respectively. Taken together, the results from our analysis indicate that the electricity and natural gas prices across the EU-28 member states have not converged, despite significant efforts in market integration and regulatory harmonization. The evidence of a slow beta-convergence is not associated with sigma- and club convergence both at intra- and inter-cluster level. Among country-specific factors, the results suggest that the adoption of national energy and climate policies could have played a major role in explaining the difficulties of the convergence process at a retail price level
The EU automotive industry and the electric vehicle revolution: impacts on the value chain and industrial policy options
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Is the answer blowin' in the wind (auctions)? An assessment of Italian auction procedures to promote onshore wind energy
No full textAn assessment of the role of cultural capital on sustainable mobility behaviours: Conceptual framework and empirical evidence
No full textSeveral policies have been implemented by governments to reduce the use of cars in favour of other more sustainable transport modes, but empirical studies have provided extensive evidence that measures simply based on driving restrictions or monetary incentives hardly have long-term effects on individual behaviours. We extend conceptual and empirical literature on the determinants of individuals’ mobility behaviour by investigating the possible role of the participation in cultural activities. Consistently with the conceptual framework presented, we find suggestive evidence that the participation to cultural activities is associated to a higher probability of relying on modes of transport alternative to cars, as it acts on individuals’ behavioural and cognitive patterns, breaking the existing idiosyncrasies and lock-ins. In other words, cultural policies are an effective option to reduce the so-called “value-action” gap
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