Assessing the determinants of fast growth in Italy

Few firms grow in a rapid way, but their contribution to employment growth is often impressive. The main purpose of this paper is to analyze both external and internal factors which can affect the probability of being a high-growth firm (HGF) in Italy. We found that HGFs are on average young firms and are present in different sectors, but the role of demand is important to understand their performance at sectoral level. Moreover, our findings show that financial constraints and profitability are not associated with the probability of being a fast-growing firm. HGFs, on average, are characterised by high productivity, but only when growth is measured in terms of sales. The most original results of this study concerns endogenous determinants of fast growth, which have not so far been adequately examined in the literature. First, we found that the concentration of ownership is important for HGFs that grow in sales. Second, the quality of human capital is a strong point for firms experiencing rapid employment growth.: high-growth firms, firm growth, human capital, rapid firm growth

Locational determinants of the ICT sector across Italy

Is the rapid growth of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) activities shaping new local specialization and industrial concentration? Does the analysis of local economic conditions help to explain the formation of “places” specialized in ICT? We use 2001 Census data by Local Labour Systems (LLS) to investigate the characteristics of ICT specialization in Italy. Our investigation is based on a cross-sectional regression model using data for 686 LLS in which the dependent variable is an index of ICT local employment concentration. The measure of concentration we adopted is the location quotient (LQ) index. The LLS specialized in ICT activities in Italy account for 7.3% of total LLS. They are distributed all over the country, although those with highest LQ values are mainly in North-west and Central-south Italy. Our regression analysis provides the following results. The general econometric specification, i.e. that applied to all LLS, supports a positive and significant relationship between LLS specialized in some manufacturing industries (machinery, equipment and instruments; petrochemicals, rubber and plastic products; transport equipment; and paper, publishing and printing) or business services and relatively high localization of ICT employment. Besides, the model indicates that for LLS characterized by manufacturing SMEs there is a low probability of attaining a greater-than-the-national-average ICT employment specialization. These econometric results are in line with the general opinion that product specialization of Italian industries (the so-called “Made in Italy”) and SMEs are less likely to be involved in ICT diffusion to business. Nevertheless, this pattern of results does not justify the interpretation that the industrial districts (where SMEs employment has the largest share) are at the origin of inadequate ICT diffusion to business in Italy. In fact, when the analysis is focused on industrial districts the results are slightly different. In particular, the variable SMEs does not produce a significant coefficient, while textile and clothing industries show a positive association with ICT, even though significant only at 10% level. What is the main policy implication of these empirical findings? National government’s policy makers should become aware that industrial districts are an appropriate instrument to promote the development of the ICT sector, although so far they have been neglected. "Information and Communication Technologies, Local Labour Systems, geographical concentration, local specialization

Le differenze nel livello di sviluppo fra i paesi: accumulazione di fattori o TFP?

Il divario nel livello di sviluppo economico fra i paesi del mondo (tradizionalmente misurato dal livello del prodotto reale per addetto) e' aumentato in modo significativo a partire dagli anni '70. Questo lavoro, attraverso un esercizio di development accounting, metodologia ispirata al tradizionale approccio di contabilità della crescita, analizza l'importanza relativa dell'accumulazione di fattori produttivi e della componente 'residuale' (valutata come proxy dell’efficienza o Total Factor Productivity) per l'interpretazione di tale divario. In media, utilizzando i dati ufficiali disponibili per misurare l'accumulazione di capitale fisico e capitale umano per ciascun paese, non si arriva a 'spiegare' piu' del 40% del livello di sviluppo economico. Inoltre, come viene sottolineato dalla maggior parte degli studi recenti, la quota della variabilita' cross country del prodotto per addetto che puo' essere attribuita alla TFP risulta essere elevata e crescente. Una dettagliata analisi di sensitivita' sembra confermare la sostanziale solidita' di questi risultati rispetto ai potenziali problemi legati alla scelta delle fonti statistiche, alla misurazione dei fenomeni in oggetto e alla specificazione delle variabili.factor accumulation, neoclassical model, total factor productivity

Capitale sociale, contesto istituzionale e performance innovativa delle imprese

Questo lavoro intende verificare se la presenza di fattori socio-istituzionali (capitale sociale, l’attivismo istituzionale e l’accumulazione di esperienze di azione collettiva fra imprese) in un territorio, valorizzando il ruolo delle esternalità “da conoscenza”, possa favorire la performance innovativa della singola impresa. Si utilizzano i dati dell’Indagine Capitalia sulle imprese manifatturiere italiane e la banca dati ISL dell’Università di Parma per elaborare un modello econometrico in cui il processo innovativo è condizionato da fattori interni ed esterni all'impresa. I risultati suggeriscono che la capacità innovativa delle imprese è favorita dalla presenza di capitale sociale (inteso come senso civico e come interazione sociale) e dall’attivismo delle istituzioni intermedie.Social Capital, Intermediate Institutions, Collective Action, Product and Process innovation, Technological Spillovers, Knowledge Spillovers

Determinanti della domanda di laureati nell'industria manifatturiera italiana

Tertiary education attainment of italian labour force, particularly in the manufacturing industry, shows empirically a large gap with respect to the other OECD countries, although human capital growth has been increasingly addressed as one of the main channel towards productivity, competitive success and firm size growth. The paper analyses empirically four different explicative hypotheses, each with its own set of proxies: firm size, sectoral differences in human capital intensity, education supply of the labour force, and firm-specific demand issues. Estimates show that while structural explanations based on firm size and sectoral differences play a key causal role in determining the observed low level of human capital, supply conditions seem to have a lower esplicative power, both directly through local supply of educated workers and indirectly through their weight on the labour cost. Firm-specific demand variables, particularly those proxying for the complexity and richness of organizational structure and management, show instead the highest explicative power. More particularly, family-managed firms seem to perform a sort of "subjective resistance" to a more intensive employment of highly educated labour force.Human capital, Educational attainment, Labour demand, Labour supply, Graduate employment , Staff ratio, White Collars, Manufacturing industries, Firm size, Italy

Capitale sociale, associazionismo economico e istituzioni: indicatori statistici di sintesi

In current debate, economic development is connected with relative social capital endowment, the diffusion of co-operative practices between firms and the role and efficiency of institutions. In this paper a factor analysis approach is used to provide synthetic indicators of these variables for Italian provinces. These indicators could be included in the set of analytical tools for the study of the relationship between economic development, public goods supply and collective action.social capital, economic institutions, firms co-operation, factor analysis

Effects of the target on the performance of an ultra-low power eddy current displacement sensor for industrial applications

The demand for smart, low-power, and low-cost sensors is rapidly increasing with the proliferation of industry automation. In this context, an Ultra-Low Power Eddy Current Displacement Sensor (ULP-ECDS) targeting common industrial applications and designed to be embedded in wireless Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) devices is presented. A complete characterization of the realized ULP-ECDS operating with different metallic targets was carried out. The choice of the considered targets in terms of material and thickness was inspired by typical industrial scenarios. The experimental results show that the realized prototype works properly with extremely low supply voltages, allowing for obtaining an ultra-low power consumption, significantly lower than other state-of-the-art solutions. In particular, the proposed sensor reached the best resolution of 2 \ub5m in case of a carbon steel target when operated with a supply voltage of 200 mV and with a power consumption of 150 \ub5W. By accepting a resolution of 12 \ub5m, it is possible to further reduce the power consumption of the sensor to less than 10 \ub5W. The obtained results also demonstrate how the performances of the sensor are strongly dependent on both the target and the demodulation technique used to extract the displacement information. This allowed for defining some practical guidelines that can help the design of effective solutions considering application-specific constraints

Aspect ratio of nano/microstructures determines Staphylococcus aureus adhesion on PET and titanium surfaces

Aims: Joint infections cause premature implant failure. The avoidance of bacterial colonization of implant materials by modification of the material surface is therefore the focus of current research. In this in vitro study the complex interaction of periodic structures on PET and titanium surfaces on the adhesion of Staphylococcus aureus is analysed. Methods and Results: Using direct laser interference patterning as well as roll-to-roll hot embossing methods, structured periodic textures of different spatial distance were produced on surfaces and S. aureus were cultured for 24 h on these. The amount of adhering bacteria was quantified using fluorescence microscopy and the local adhesion behaviour was investigated using scanning electron microscopy. For PET structures, minimal bacterial adhesion was identified for an aspect ratio of about 0·02. On titanium structures, S. aureus adhesion was significantly decreased for profile heights of < 200 nm. Our results show a significantly decreased bacterial adhesion for structures with an aspect ratio range of 0·02 to 0·05. Conclusions: We show that structuring on surfaces can decrease the amount of S. aureus on titanium and PET as common implant materials. Significance and Impact of the Study: The study highlights the immense potential of applying specific structures to implant materials to prevent implant colonization with pathogen bacteria.Fil: Meinshausen, A. K.. Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg; AlemaniaFil: Herbster, M.. Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg; AlemaniaFil: Zwahr, C.. Technische Universität Dresden; AlemaniaFil: Soldera, Marcos Maximiliano. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte. Instituto de Investigación y Desarrollo en Ingeniería de Procesos, Biotecnología y Energías Alternativas. Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Instituto de Investigación y Desarrollo en Ingeniería de Procesos, Biotecnología y Energías Alternativas; ArgentinaFil: Müller, A.. Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg; AlemaniaFil: Halle, T.. Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg; AlemaniaFil: Lasagni, A. F.. Technische Universität Dresden; AlemaniaFil: Bertrand, J.. Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg; Alemani

Performance Characterization of ESA's Tropospheric Delay Calibration System for Advanced Radio Science Experiments

Media propagation noises are amongst the main error sources of radiometric observables for deep space missions, with fluctuations of the tropospheric excess path length representing a relevant contributor to the Doppler noise budget. Microwave radiometers currently represent the most accurate instruments for the estimation of the tropospheric delay and delay rate along a slant direction. A prototype of a tropospheric delay calibration system (TDCS), using a 14 channel Ka/V band microwave radiometer, has been developed under a European Space Agency contract and installed at the deep space ground station in Malargüe, Argentina, in February 2019. After its commissioning, the TDCS has been involved in an extensive testbed campaign by recording a total of 44 tracking passes of the Gaia spacecraft, which were used to perform an orbit determination analysis. This work presents the first statistical characterization of the end-to-end performance of the TDCS prototype in an operational scenario. The results show that using TDCS-based calibrations instead of the standard GNSS-based calibrations leads to a significant reduction of the residual Doppler noise and instability