1,720,977 research outputs found
The innovative impact of public research institutes: evidence from Italy
Full text linkThis paper empirically analyzes whether a prominent place-based innovation
policy, the institution of the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), has affected the
treated region innovative capacity. By relying on the Synthetic Control Method
(SCM) approach and Italian NUTS-3 regional panel data, the innovative development
of the latter, proxied by (per-capita) fractional count of patents, is compared
with a set of Italian NUTS-3 control ones. Results suggest that the establishment
of IIT has impacted on the regional innovative output, on average, by
about 22.5 more patents for million inhabitants per year in the post-intervention
period. The paper also provides evidence of knowledge spillovers from IIT in
the hosting region. In addition, positive effects on the regional endowment of
high-skilled human capital as well as regional growth are also documented. Finally,
these results are robust to a variety of placebo permutation tests as well as
several sensitivity checks, or when considering a Difference-in-Differences (DiD)
approach. Finally, the paper may provide useful insights to inform policy makers
about the marginal benefits of additional research funding by highlighting the
stream of private and social returns, against which the opportunity cost of the
intervention must be compared
Essays in Applied Economics
No full textUnderlying this doctoral thesis is the growing importance of the study of the relationship between cause and effect. This relationship can relate to policies, events,
actions and processes. The analysis of causal relationships has developed over many years and still remains a central issue today. Indeed, in economics, the measurement
of a particular causal effect is often one of the objectives of empirical analyses.
When researchers are unable to conduct a randomized controlled experiment, they must necessarily rely on the observation of non-experimental data, i.e. data from the
real world, as is the case with sample surveys for example. A major problem in the use of this data arises from the fact that they are not derived from an experiment
specifically designed for the purpose. Therefore, there may be variable factors whose effects are difficult to separate from the specific treatment effect.
The group of statistical techniques which have been developed for the assessment of causal effects from non-experimental data is therefore a very important field of
applied econometrics.
In this dissertation, I will face the the relationship between cause and effect and several impact evaluation methods, presenting a collection of three applications of
these techniques, adapted from three different works:
“Price Matching and Platform Pricing”, presented at the First NetCIEx Workshop (EU Joint Research Centre - Ispra);
“Roads to Innovation: Evidence from Italy”, presented at the First NetCIEx Workshop (EU Joint Research Centre - Ispra);
“Public Funded R&D as a Device for Local Innovation? Evidence from Italian I.I.T. Foundation”.
In the first paper, the effects of Price Matching Guarantees (a PMG refers to the price strategy where different retailers commit themselves to match any lower price
offered by competitors on the same item or product category) on U.S. online consumer electronics prices are empirically investigated, by means of a unique dataset developed
through sophisticated and computerized scraping procedures. In such paper, joint use of daily price data, product characteristics derived from
User Generated Contents (UGC) and the construction of a control group with a novel approach allow to implement a Difference-in-Difference analysis, aimed to assert the
existence of a causal effect of PMG on prices.
The paper finds evidence in favor of price reductions occurring after the PMG policy is repealed. The analysis further investigates if such effect is heterogeneous according
to products characteristics, by exploiting UGC (products popularity and quality) and online search visibility measures (Google Search Rank). Estimates suggest that for
high quality (visibility) products PMG policies harms competition by keeping prices high, while for low quality (visibility) products, prices decrease during the policy
validity period.
The second article deals on the literature on the economic impact of transport infrastructure, and in particular on the role that road infrastructure can have on
innovative regional capacity.
The seminal contribution by Agrawal et al. (2017) is followed to estimate a model of "roads and innovation" where the innovative activity in 1988 is linked to the length of
motorways system in 1983, in order to investigate the impact of motorways endowment
on the innovative capacity in each Italian NUTS-3 region. The main challenging issue
about the estimation of the model arises from the possible endogeneity of highways
stock. To deal with this problem, the "historical instrumental variable" approach is
followed, by using the length of the ancient Roman roads system dating back to 117
AD as an instrument for the length of current motorways.
Overall, the Instrumental Variable estimates indicates that 1983 highways network
has a positive and significant impact on 1988 innovative capacity. Moreover, the
analysis find a declining role for highways over time. Furthermore, results suggest a
spatial reorganization of economic activity rather than a pure net economic effect.
The third paper concludes this dissertation. In such final analysis, the effects
on the regional economy of a prominent Italian place-based policy, the institution
of Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, IIT, is a scientific
research centre established in 2003 that conduct scientific research in the public
interest), are investigated by means of a novel identification strategy, the Synthetic
Control Method (SCM).
Such identification approach, unlike other counterfactual impact evaluation techniques,
is based on the creation of an artificial control unit that not only follows the
same pre-treatment trend as the treated unit, but even overlaps the same one. In
particular, through the SCM approach, the innovative and economic development
(measured by patents per capita, number of local inventors and per capita GDP) of
the treated region, namely Genoa, is compared with a set of Italian NUTS-3 control
regions with the aim to estimate the causal effect of the location of IIT in 2006.
Estimates show significant effects of IIT presence on local patent activity, highly
specialised human capital endowment in research and GDP per capita, suggesting
the existence of local spillovers from public research
Presence of migrants and voting behavior in Europe: an overview of the empirical literature
No full textIn this study, we conduct a survey of the empirical literature that has investigated the relationship between the presence of migrants and voting behavior. Our focus is primarily on European countries, although we also present analyses related to some countries on the outskirts of Europe. The papers are grouped by individual country or group of countries, and predominantly employ counterfactual impact evaluation methods, which allow for the study of causal evidence rather than mere correlations. While the majority of the contributions are written by economists, there are also contributions from social psychologists and political scientists, providing an as comprehensive as possible view on the topic. The findings of this literature reveal a heterogeneous and intricate relationship, influenced by several factors such as economic conditions, cultural dynamics, and social aspects. While numerous studies demonstrate the existence of certain patterns, one prominent example being the nexus between immigrant presence and political backlash, the complexity and variation across different countries underscore the multifaceted nature of this phenomenon
Price Matching in Online Retail
Full text linkWe analyze a sample of consumer-electronics products sold by the US NewEgg online-retailer to study the impact of Price Matching Guarantees (PMGs) policies on prices. By applying a Difference-in-Differences approach, we find that prices of the policy-adopting retailer increase by 4.7% during the policy validity period and up to five days after the
treatment, while those of the major non-adopting competitor are not affected. Results are mainly driven by highly-
rated, visible and expensive products, while the policy does not affect low-rated, less visible and cheaper ones. Overall
findings are consistent with the hypothesis that PMGs act as price discrimination tools
The Innovation Dividend of High Speed Rail: Evidence from Italy
No full textIn this work we analyze the impact of high-speed rail (HSR) connection on regional innovation performance in Italy. Using a balanced panel of 89 NUTS-3 regions observed over the period 1980–2019, we measure innovation with forward citation–weighted patent fractional counts from the EPO PATSTAT database. We conduct a causal analysis that exploits the staggered opening of HSR stations in a extended two-way fixed effects (ETWFE) difference-in-differences (DiD) design. We find that HSR access increases regional innovation by economically large and statistically significant amounts (overall ATT on the order of 0.24–0.33 log points), with dynamics that remain positive several years after openings. A more detailed analysis finds gains along both quality (citations) and extensive margins (patent share and inventors). Moreover, estimates of a dyadic gravity model show that HSR boosts inter-regional inventor collaboration by about 30%, suggesting reduced effective distance as a key mechanism for improved innovative performance, while a social network analysis (SNA) reveals an increase in the degree of centrality in the regional innovation network associated to better HSR access. Sectoral results point to especially strong responses in chemistry, electrical and mechanical engineering
High-Speed Railways and Firms Total Factor Productivity: Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment
No full textDoes the Opening of a High-Speed-Rail Station Impact House Prices? Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment: Reggio Emilia Mediopadana
No full textThis paper investigates the impact of the Reggio Emilia Mediopadana High-Speed Rail (HSR) station on local property prices, utilising a Difference-in-Differences (DiD) research design. The study leverages the quasi-random location of the station, situated between Bologna and Milan, to assess its effects on property markets. Using data from the Italian “Housing Market Observatory” (OMI) provided by the Italian Revenue Agency, we analysed property price trends across various geodetic distances and travel time zones, focusing on the differential impact on civil and commercial properties. Our results indicate a significant positive effect on civil (residential) properties, particularly in areas located 20–30 kms or 15–30 min from the station, with price increases ranging between 2 and 6%. These findings highlight the benefits of improved connectivity for suburban residential markets, where the demand for housing is driven by commuting convenience and affordability. In contrast, commercial properties saw minimal or no price increases, suggesting that businesses are less sensitive to the improved transport links provided by the HSR station due to potential negative externalities like noise and congestion. The study offers key policy insights, recommending that urban planning strategies align with transport infrastructure investments to enhance residential property markets. Additionally, complementary investments in local infrastructure may be necessary to boost the attractiveness of commercial properties. This paper contributes to the literature by offering robust empirical evidence of the heterogeneous effects of HSR on property markets, emphasising the differentiated impact on residential versus commercial property
Urban NO2-pollution and health outcomes: Evidence from a natural experiment in Italy on the simulated benefits of the EU zero-emission-vehicles resolution
No full textBackground: The EU “Fit-For-55′′ resolution provisions the banning of fossil-fuel-vehicle sales beyond 2035, sparking a heated debate due to its uncertain effectiveness in reducing CO2 emissions globally. Nevertheless, the EU shift towards zero-emission vehicles has the potential to decrease urban nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution that is closely linked to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and to increased mortality.
Objective: This paper aims to simulate the impact that the EU zero-emission-mobility policy is expected to have, post-transitional period, on urban NO2 and health outcomes.
Methods: The analysis exploits some unique features of Northern-Italy air-pollution data and the Italian Covid-19 lockdown that is leveraged as a natural experiment to mimic the fossil-fuel traffic abatement expected by the policy. Our estimates are obtained by developing a novel intertemporal-statistical-matching approach specifically suited for quasi-experimental evaluations in the context of air-pollution multivariate time series.
Results: We find that the lockdown led to a mean NO2 reduction of 13.62 μg/m3 (53 % from a baseline of 25.8 μg/m3), translating into a simulated reduction in the relative risk of total, cardiovascular, and respiratory mortality by 8.3, 7.5 and 3.8 percentage points, respectively. We also estimate impact heterogeneity, with log-linearly larger reductions in NO2 and mortality risk at higher baseline-pollution levels.
Conclusions: These results imply that the EU zero-emission mobility policy is expected to improve air-quality and public health in urban areas with high traffic density, though benefits may vary across regions due to differences in meteorological conditions and urban/orographic characteristics, supporting a spatially differentiated policy implementation
Roads to innovation: Evidence from Italy
No full textIn this study, we leverage on the ancient Roman roads network as a source of exogenous variation to identify the causal effect of the modern highways network on innovative performance of Italian NUTS‐3 regions. Empirical findings suggest that a 10% increase in the highways stock in a region generates an increase in the number of patents of about 3%–4%, over a 5‐year period. Further analysis suggests that our findings can in part be explained by a reduction in travel costs that fosters collaborations among inventors living in different regions and by an increase in the degree of centrality in the regional innovation network associated to denser highways networks. Finally, we find that the innovation‐enhancing effect of highways declines over time, possibly because of the introduction of information and communication technology, or the increasing congestion on the Italian network
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