Gambling as a Restraint to the Italian Economy

The Italian economy is undergoing a period of economic recession, which is expressed in a contraction in domestic demand and a reduction in investment. Notwithstanding a decrease in the per-capita spending on durable and non-durable goods, for some years, there has been an increase in spending on gambling. The market for legal gambling is a large, broad market, strongly influenced by changes in consumer preferences and by technological innovation. This market, in continuous evolution, does not seem to be affected by the crisis, because the possibility of an easy income exerts a significant attraction. The aim of this work is to demonstrate that gambling does not contribute to economic growth in spite of the increase of the gambling spendin

Energy Saving in Transition Economies: Environmental Activities in Manufacturing Firms

This study seeks to explore the relationship between active environmental activities and energy saving in firms operating in a set of Transition countries. For this purpose, we exploit the enterprise survey data collected by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the World Bank Group (WBG). Employing a probit regression model, the main finding shows a positive relation between environmental practices and energy saving, controlling several firms’ characteristics such as size, affiliation, credit line, ownership status and age. The results are also confirmed when we perform the robustness check. Interestingly, medium and small firms appear to save more energy than large ones

The Network Building Capacity of Tourist Districts: An Application to the Apulian Case

The research reported in this study sought to determine whether successful tourist destinations can build a «network» on the basis of their attractiveness. To this end, we conducted a social network analysis with municipalities as network nodes and edges representing the natural, economic, social, and public institutional dimensions, reduced to a composite attractiveness indicator (CAI). Although easily replicable in other contexts, our methodology was tested on two Apulian areas in Southern Italy, Gargano and Salento, which are legally designated as tourist districts. The analysis emphasizes that these districts are still unable to construct a system despite strong potential in terms of attractiveness

Environmental innovation in European transition countries

The aim of this paper is to highlight the determinants of environmental innovation of manufacturing firms in European Transition countries. Following an established literature, the analysis relies upon data drawn from the Community Innovation Survey - CIS14 . The data are cross-section covering the period between 2012 and 2014. We employ a multivariate probit model to observe the effect of several drivers on eco-innovation, captured by: (i) eco-product; (ii) eco-process; (iii) eco-organization. Findings highlight that regulation influences all measures of eco-innovation. The results are confirmed also when we perform alternative estimations. It is worth noting that – after interacting expected regulation and turnover – expected regulation has an impact on the current decision on eco-innovation if and only if the firms have a large turnover. Another interaction term between turnover and tax rates is positively associated with eco-innovation, so suggesting that when tax rate appears to be too high, firms prefer to invest in environmental innovation rather than being taxed

Decomposition of Poverty Change: A Case Study

This paper investigates the impact of change in total population in decomposition of poverty change in Albania providing empirical illustrations with data from a country still in economic and social transition, even if in recent years has registered a high growth of GDP rate. To quantify the impact of change in total population, we use the methodology developed by Mishra (2015). In previous literature decomposing poverty change into growth and inequality effects, the impact of change in total population concealed by the hypothesis that the growth effect can be quantified by observing at the growth rate of mean income. The Mishra’s method considers the population growth as an independent within-group effect that results different respect to the inequality and growth effect respectively. Furthermore, this method integrates that to Son (2003) so that variation in population shares across groups represents the between-group effect. Thus, we will have three effects: growth on account of total income, inequality, and change in total population. These effects can be calculated in multiple possibilities depending on the sequence that each is computed and the base year

Knowledge and Social Capabilities in the Garment Sector: A case Study

This work evaluates how the innovation induces changes in the competitive dynamics of the garment sector and how social capabilities and knowledge, considered residual variables in the cognitive approach, combine to bring about the structural changes of an industrial cluster. The relationship between knowledge and innovation is discussed in the theoretical part of the paper, as well as the social capabilities definition and characteristics. In the empirical part, we measure social capabilities, we describe their diffusion in a baby clothing cluster and we estime an innovation equation. Key words: Knowledge; Social capabilities; Innovation; Baby clothing cluste

Kindergarten Proximity and the Housing Market Price in Italy

This paper investigates the impact of kindergarten proximity on housing market prices in the eleven major Italian Municipalities over the period 2004–2017. For this purpose, we employ a hedonic property price model. We also differentiate the impact of kindergarten proximity on houses’ market price between state and non-state premises. The findings highlight that (i) the level of housing price depends on kindergarten proximity; (ii) some quality school characteristics played a crucial role and (iii) the distinction between public and non-state kindergartens shows that the vicinity of the latter generates a more significant capitalization effect. Finally, the empirical evidence could be useful to several actors involved in urban planning when developing plans for the construction of new kindergartens in order to create a more homogeneous city

Telomerase expression in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients

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Clinical features and outcomes of elderly hospitalised patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart failure or both

Background and objective: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and heart failure (HF) mutually increase the risk of being present in the same patient, especially if older. Whether or not this coexistence may be associated with a worse prognosis is debated. Therefore, employing data derived from the REPOSI register, we evaluated the clinical features and outcomes in a population of elderly patients admitted to internal medicine wards and having COPD, HF or COPD + HF. Methods: We measured socio-demographic and anthropometric characteristics, severity and prevalence of comorbidities, clinical and laboratory features during hospitalization, mood disorders, functional independence, drug prescriptions and discharge destination. The primary study outcome was the risk of death. Results: We considered 2,343 elderly hospitalized patients (median age 81 years), of whom 1,154 (49%) had COPD, 813 (35%) HF, and 376 (16%) COPD + HF. Patients with COPD + HF had different characteristics than those with COPD or HF, such as a higher prevalence of previous hospitalizations, comorbidities (especially chronic kidney disease), higher respiratory rate at admission and number of prescribed drugs. Patients with COPD + HF (hazard ratio HR 1.74, 95% confidence intervals CI 1.16-2.61) and patients with dementia (HR 1.75, 95% CI 1.06-2.90) had a higher risk of death at one year. The Kaplan-Meier curves showed a higher mortality risk in the group of patients with COPD + HF for all causes (p = 0.010), respiratory causes (p = 0.006), cardiovascular causes (p = 0.046) and respiratory plus cardiovascular causes (p = 0.009). Conclusion: In this real-life cohort of hospitalized elderly patients, the coexistence of COPD and HF significantly worsened prognosis at one year. This finding may help to better define the care needs of this population

Knowledge, Social Capabilities and Innovation in the Modern Industrial District

The aim of this research is to analyze the key role that knowledge, Social Capabilities and innovations play in the transfer and diffusion of tacit knowledge in an industrial district and how this creates new knowledge and innovation. The study is also focused on a measure of Social Capabilities within a district using a composite indicator and we investigate the effective role of these inputs in stimulating innovative activity in an industrial district performance. The analysis, measuring Social Capabilities, requires data collection using a questionnaire designed to obtain information which permit the development of qualitative and quantitative indicators. In contrast with the neoclassical production function, where economic growth depends only on traditional resources such as capital, labour and technology, which is an exogenous datum, in the cognitive approach we must consider the residual variables of Social Capabilities and knowledge. These, in fact, represent the key variables to understand the recent structural changes and competitiveness of an industrial district. In this work, the peculiarity of knowledge rests on Social Capabilities or social abilities to increase the process of the accumulation of knowledge and of the network broadening