1,720,962 research outputs found
Learning from the past: a machine-learning approach for predicting the resilience of locked-in regions after a natural shock
No full textItaly has been affected by many different shocks in recent years, from the Great Recession to many natural hazards. While many studies have analysed the effects of natural and socio-economic shocks on urbanized and developed areas, very few have focused on locked-in and less developed regions. In this study we focus on the pernicious effects of three earthquakes that have affected the labour markets of rural and inner municipalities of Central Italy during the last 20 years. We adopt a machine-learning technique that allows us to provide a scenario five to seven years after the earthquake for 133 municipalities affected by the Central Italy earthquake in 2016
Firm Competitiveness, Specialisation, and Employment Growth: Territorial Level Relationships
Full text linkThe concept of competitiveness is today a central element for regional
development, European cohesion policies and smart specialisation strategies. Despite
being born for firm-level analyses, competitiveness is indeed commonly used at
the territorial level, mainly at the regional or urban scale, normally measured with
different composite structural indicators. However, since territorial competitive-
ness is unevenly distributed in space, territorial units smaller than a full NUTS-2
region might be differently competitive and hence suited to implement differenti-
ated cohesion policies and smart specialisation strategies. To test the hypothesis that
these firm-level indicators can characterize the intraregional differences in aggregate
performance, the paper sets up a meta-analysis framework between these indicators
and structural indicators (employment growth and specialisation index) measured at
the NUTS-3 level. For the meta-analysis at this novel intraregional level, the paper
exploits the Lombardy region as a case study. Lombardy is well suited for the aims of
this paper, being a large and competitive European region, whose territory—as well
as its labor market—is highly differentiated, from peripheral and mountainous areas
to many medium and small cities, second-tier large cities and a large metropolitan
area—the city of Milan. All these territories are characterized by different economic
and social vocations, but all share the same regional administration. The results of
the meta-analysis show that firm-level indicators correlate with the aggregate perfor-
mance of regions and that the structural measures selected can characterize different
territories in different conditions. Hence, the competitiveness of firms seems to trans-
late into aggregate territorial performance at small spatial scales. This implies that
territorial specificities are also relevant inside regions and should be considered in
designing regional policy interventions, such as those of the Smart Specialisation
Strategy (S3)
Spatial patterns of territorial competitiveness: The role of peripherality, urbanization and physical geography
Full text linkCompetitiveness is a key feature of today’s EU regional policies
oriented to reduce the disparities between its territories. Despite being
initially conceived as firm-related, since the 1990s the concept has
frequently been applied to territorial units.
In the contemporary European policy framework, the concept of
territorial or regional competitiveness is a central element for both the
allocation and design of policies, with the double intent of nurturing and
supporting those regions that are best competing in the international
market and drive the least competitive ones towards more productive
and competitive paths. This is especially relevant when looking at
regional economic development and industrial policies, such as those
included in the smart specialization strategy. Indeed, these are designed
to foster “the national or regional innovation strategies which set priorities in
order to build competitive advantage by developing and matching research
and innovation own strengths to business needs in order to address emerging
opportunities and market developments in a coherent manner, while avoiding
duplication and fragmentation of efforts” (Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013
of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013,
article 2
Earthquake strikes twice: electoral (dis)advantage in municipalities without economic recovery aid
No full textIs there electoral punishment for local politicians considered by their citizens to have performed poorly during emergencies? This is studied in the Italian case, where a law officially listing earthquake-affected municipalities also de-facto prevents those left-out from receiving major aid. Electoral results after the four major earthquakes affecting the country over the past three decades are analysed through a difference-in-differences approach. Results indicate that mayors of municipalities severely affected by earthquakes and not getting financial support are electorally punished in the next election. The mechanisms are investigated alongside the influence of the local context
Can extreme events be an opportunity? Depopulation and resilience of rural communities in Central Italy after the 1997 earthquake
No full textSocio-Natural Disasters are a global issue that need context-specific solutions. Similar hazards could indeed result in different (or no) disasters depending on the territorial peculiarities of the area they affect. Italy is an interesting case in this respect due to its physical geography. Three out of the four major seismic events of the last decades hit the rural areas of the country, in particular Central Apennines – territories that have been suffering from decades-old processes of ageing and depopulation. Within the conceptual framework of Community Resilience, our paper performs a time-sensitive quantitative analysis designed to observe resilience dynamics along different degrees of rurality in the area hit by the 1997 earthquake in Central Italy. In details, we adopt a quasi-experimental strategy, using population variation as a proxy for community resilience. We find that the disaster had a stabilizing effect on the affected communities, which have depopulated at a slower pace than the control group after the event
"Driving"Policy Impact: The Multiplier Effect of Proximity to Transport Infrastructure
No full textThe paper addresses a topical policy question, if we should invest directly in the competitiveness of firms, or in developing territorial assets, focusing on transport infrastructure. To reply to the question, the mediating effects of transport infrastructure endowment on the impacts of policy support to firms are investigated with a novel methodology in which both firm location and infrastructure are geo-coded. In this way, the paper’s methodology integrates hints from three strands of literature which were hitherto separate, those on the conditioning factors of regional policy, on the firm-level impact of policies and on the localization and micro-based measures of localization. The results, coming from estimations on an original Italian database, support that, in general, both policy interventions are helpful, with different strength depending on the territory. The analysis shows in fact that the presence of transport infrastructure positively affects the impact of policies of assistance to firms. These results, however, are territory-specific, being the presence of additional transport infrastructure more relevant in the less developed and less endowed territories, due to decreasing returns
FDI Inflows and Economic Growth: A Novel Application of Dose-Response Functions
No full textIn this work we estimate different dose-response functions linking FDI inflows received by
developing countries with their economic growth. Although the impact of FDI on the economic
growth of host countries has been widely investigated in literature, findings have been
ambiguous. Our study proposes a novel ‘dose-response’ approach which allows the response
of recipients to different amounts of treatment in terms of FDI inflow to be observed. Our
findings show that the estimated dose-response functions are statistically significant for
treatment values greater than 20%, after the treatment has been rescaled to a percentage
measure of the maximum dose observed, and increasing at a decreasing rate, therefore
suggesting three relevant results: a) a country receiving a greater amount of FDI inflows will
present a higher economic growth; b) there might be a minimum amount of FDI inflows
required to reach some policy effectiveness; c) the initial amounts of FDI inflow are more
effective than the subsequent ones. Results will help policymakers to better isolate the effect
of FDI on economic growth and conduct informed FDI cost-benefit analysis
Border Effects on firm's productivity: The role of peripherality and territorial capital
Full text linkBorder effects have long been studied and are a central element of EU regional policies. While most literature takes a macroeconomic approach, this paper adopts a microeconomic one, studying the impact on firm productivity in border areas. The empirical analysis, on Italian land borders, employs a novel two-phases double-matching design, which considers firm-level characteristics as well as the territorial capital of municipalities where they locate. Results suggest that border effects are not limited to territories close to the border but affect larger areas. Furthermore, they are significant and negative in urban areas, while they are insignificant in peripheral areas which are characterized by low accessibility and territorial capital endowment
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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