Product Market Integration and Union Collusion

This paper investigates the effects of product market integration on the incentives and scope for union collusion across borders. In the absence of binding agreements, the impact of this process on the unions’ willingness to collude depends both on the degree of product market integration and on the degree of substitutability among traded goods. Where trade barriers across countries are relatively low, implicit cross‐border collusion among unions is more difficult the more integrated are product markets and the less substitutable are traded goods.     

Foreign ownership,firm performance,and the geography of civic capital

It is well established in the literature that foreign affiliates are subject to a series of governance and assimilation costs that may deteriorate their performance. This is particularly relevant for firms which have been recently acquired by foreign investors. We employ the variation in civic capital across Italian provinces as an exogenous determinant of these governance costs. We claim that the effect of foreign ownership on productivity is less favorable in areas where civic capital is low. As the level of local civic capital increases, the scope for opportunistic behavior is reduced, which makes the governance of foreign affiliates easier and improves their performance. We take this prediction to the data and find confirmation of our conceptual framework. Our analysis uncovers the importance of the geographic heterogeneity of informal norms and institutions in analyzing the nexus between foreign ownership and performance.     

Roles of actors in combining resources into complex solutions

Combining resources to develop complex solutions (e.g., products or services) involves a varied set of business actors. Research tends to assume that actors are more or less autonomous in combining the resources they use. Presenting findings from a study of the construction of the first two pre-discharge homes for patients with cognitive and motor disabilities, we show that the autonomy of the single actor in combining resources is limited and that resource combinations are collectively enacted. Consequently, the features of the emergent resource combinations depend on the set of actors involved. We also argue that each actor takes part in resource combination both as provider and as user of resources; the two roles imply different perspectives that lead to different focal points which, in turn, impact how resources interface. The two roles orient the conduct of parties and, as confronted in business relationships, they shape the development of business relationships and resource combinations.     

Structural differences across macroregions: an empirical investigation

Using a macro–micro econometric framework that allows studying the labour market dynamics, this paper offers an in-depth investigation of the structures of both national and macro regional labour markets in Italy. The simulation results reveal structural differences between regions in the short as well as the long run. Regional gaps represent one of the main components of the natural unemployment rate in Italy. The results may help regional and national policy makers in the European Union to formulate strategies tailored to the specific needs of regional labour markets.     

Evaluation of the Reggio approach to early education

We evaluate the Reggio Approach using non-experimental data on individuals from the cities of Reggio Emilia, Parma and Padova belonging to one of five age cohorts: ages 50, 40, 30, 18, and 6 as of 2012. The treated were exposed to municipally offered infant-toddler (ages 0–3) and preschool (ages 3–6) programs in Reggio Emilia. The control group either did not receive formal childcare or were exposed to programs offered by municipal systems (outside of Reggio Emilia), or by state or religious systems (in all three cities). We exploit the city-cohort structure of the data to estimate treatment effects using three strategies: difference-in-differences, matching, and matched-difference-in-differences. Most positive and significant effects are generated from comparisons of the treated with individuals who did not receive formal childcare. Relative to not receiving formal care, the Reggio Approach significantly boosts outcomes related to employment, socio-emotional skills, high school graduation, participation in elections, and obesity. Comparisons with individuals exposed to alternative forms of childcare do not yield strong patterns of positive and significant effects. This suggests that differences between the Reggio Approach and other alternatives are not sufficiently large to result in significant differences in outcomes. This interpretation is supported by a survey we conduct, which documents increasing similarities in the administrative and pedagogical practices of childcare systems in the three cities over time.     

Re-Imagining the Border: Border Art as a Space of Critical Imagination and Creative Resistance

Contemporary world is increasingly marked by borders, fences and walls, which run through the spaces we live in. Borders are the result of a composite articulation of material aspects, concerning their external realisation, and structures of imagination, symbolic constructs and conceptual formations that involve the border and make it meaningful. In this dynamic and mutable field, artistic practices and interventions can interrupt and alterate the logic of the border, opening up a space of resistance and critical imagination, where the transparent, immutable and essentialist representation of the border is constantly challenged. Works of artists such as Bajevic, Hatoum, Salcedo, Rosver and Meredith-Vula will be analysed. They are used to transforming this separation, which they have usually lived personally, in symbolic landscape like interior landscapes. Working on imagination and creating alternative spaces, artists are able to challenge dominant representations and hegemonic discourses, making the border an active site of resistance and struggle.     

Regional Differentiation and Farm Exit: A Hierarchical Model for Tuscany

We analyse the exit behaviour of Tuscan farms during the period 2000–2007 both at the farm and the territorial level. The study combines data from the 2000 National Census of Agriculture and three waves of the ‘Farm Structure Surveys’. The exit probability of the resulting sample, composed of 3,187 farms, is estimated through a Bayesian hierarchical probit model. Our results show that exits reflect the size and type of holdings. Likelihood of exit is higher in areas of higher population density that are not classified as ‘urban’ areas.     

How does consumption change upon retirement?

In this paper, we investigate the way consumption changes around retirement in Italy. Using micro data covering the 1985–1996 period, we document the existence of a one-off drop in consumption at retirement of the household head, as in the UK and the US, but (at 5.44%) smaller in size, and show that consumption of work-related goods falls around retirement and home production of food and other goods increases.     

Exploring the role of spatial relationships to transform knowledge in a business idea — Beyond a geographic proximity

The “space” dimension has characterized the aggregation of firms, ranging from industrial districts to clusters. Within a local system, as emphasized by the Triple Helix model (Etzkowitz & Leydesdorff, 2000), universities, firms, and public institutions generate synergies by producing and exploiting technological knowledge. From this perspective, local relationships become synonymous with spatial relationships characterized by geographic proximity. However, is it possible to find different dimensions of proximity influencing spatial relationships in order to support innovation? This paper demonstrates that different proximity dimensions influence firms' boundaries and the development of spatial relationships through which actors interact to develop resource combinations identified in innovation. After a review of the these topics, the paper provides findings related to the spatial relationships developed by Petroceramics as a hosted spin-off of the Italian Technological Pole (POINT) as well as its subsequent relocation to the Kilometro Rosso Science Park. As such, this paper deals with how technological knowledge is transformed into a business idea through spatial relationships based on different dimensions of proximity.