Local administration funding and regional disparities in Italy before WW1

Numerous studies have been made of regional differences in income and level of development in Italy, and these studies basically differ in the responses they give to the question of whether the said differences were already of a substantial nature prior to Unification, or whether in fact they have widened since then. The present essay is going to examine this problem by focusing on the local administrative system adopted after Italian Unification, in order to ascertain the existence of a different approach to public intervention at the local level, and thus to the existence of disparities in local public spending. The paper offers an analysis of the actual working of the post-Unification administrative system in Italy, in terms both of the powers attributed to Italy’s municipalities and provinces, and of the degree of autonomy they had in deciding on funding methods. This analysis aims to ascertain whether the chosen strategy could have been maintained in a state characterised by strong regional differences, and to establish the kind of impact such a strategy had on the regional differences themselves. The main conclusion is that in absence of any sort of automatic transfer from the more industrialized regions to the poor ones, the adoption of a decentralized tax system for the financing of local public expenditure contributed to the deepening of regional divide. As a consequence at the beginning of the 19th century the central government started to subsidize the poorest regions and little by little move towards a more centralized fiscal system.

The creation of new entities: stakeholders and shareholders in 19th century Italian co-operatives

The numerous studies made of the persistence of the co-operative movement during the course of the 20th century, have often distinguished between economic efficiency and the ethical values (or ideologies) in questioni, as if the two were separate phenomena moving in parallel directions. However, over the past fifteen years at least two approaches have led to an interweaving of the cultural aspects of co-operation with the question of economic efficiency: the Putnam’s concept of social capital and the property rights model based on the work of Henry Hansmann. In associating myself with an approach, where efficiency is linked with “culture”, I wish to examine the cultural components of the Italian co-operative movement which emerged from three different socio-cultural traditions: liberalism, catholicism and socialism. Despite their differences, all three seem to share what we refer to here as the “ideal of community happiness”, that is the ideal of a collaboration among citizens for the improvement of the standard of living of the whole community. In this paper we will measure the popularity of this culture in the various Italian regions by per capita welfare expenditure in 1880 and 1900. At that time everything spent for helping people in need was given by friendly societies, catholic charities and local councils and nothing came from the central state. Therefore only the spreading of non-profit societies and a proactive attitude by local councils could generate high per capita welfare expenditure. Indeed, such indicator would seem to be closely linked to co-operative expansion during the second half of the 19th century, and would thus appear to provide an explanation for the non-homogeneous geographical distribution of Italian co-operatives. The main conclusion of this essay is that in the early stages the link with the political and cultural movements was crucial not only for the emergence but above all for the viability of cooperative enterprises by reducing the costs associated with collective decision making.

The Managerial Transformation of Italian Co-operative Enterprises 1946-2010

The Italian co-operative enterprises have prospered in the last thirty years in various sectors. In this essay we analyze the role played by managerilization in allowing Italian co-ops to compete nationally and internationally with capitalist enterprises. On the basis of a substantial set of company histories and managers interviews, we have built a three generations model of co-ops managers, which shows the changes that have allowed co-ops to become fully equipped with managerial skills. The strong leadership of umbrella organizations, the inner careers of most managers and legislation have been instrumental in avoiding demutualization, the killer of co-ops in many other countries.

Demutualization and its Problems

Over the last three decades cooperatives experienced acceleration of institutional innovation with the introduction of many variations to the reference model. It is certainly not surprising that coops changed their organizational structure over time to face the challenges of world. In the United States and in Canada they are commonly referred to as New generation cooperatives, in Italy and Spain as cooperative groups or network of cooperatives. One of the main feature of these new organizational structures is their attempt to take some advantages of the investor oriented firms (above all in capital raising activities) while retaining the mutual/cooperative status. Many of these changes have been undertaken to facilitate the growth of the enterprises both in domestic market and abroad. Due to the wideness of the phenomenon we could name the last three decades the age of hybridization. However in some cases the search for new structures went further and assumed the aspect of conversion of mutuals into stock firms. Our paper will deal with this latter part of the story, focusing on cooperatives that preferred conversion or demutualization to hybridization. The paper describes the chronology and the geography of demutualization and analyses the forces that drove it over the last decades. The main conclusion is that demutualization provided solutions for real problems, as hybridization did, however the choice between these two options seems to have been more a matter of ideology than of efficiency.

Detection and discrimination between ochratoxin producer and non-producer strains of Penicillium nordicum on a ham-based medium using an electronic nose

The aim of this work was to evaluate the potential use of qualitative volatile patterns produced by Penicillium nordicum to discriminate between ochratoxin A (OTA) producers and non-producer strains on a ham-based medium. Experiments were carried out on a 3% ham medium at two water activities (aw ; 0.995, 0.95) inoculated with P. nordicum spores and incubated at 25°C for up to 14days. Growing colonies were sampled after 1, 2, 3, 7 and 14days, placed in 30-ml vials, sealed and the head space analysed using a hybrid sensor electronic nose device. The effect of environmental conditions on growth and OTA production was evaluated based on the qualitative response. However, after 7days, it was possible to discriminate between strains grown at 0.995 aw, and after 14days, the OTA producer and non-producer strain and the controls could be discriminated at both aw levels. This study suggests that volatile patterns produced by P. nordicum strains may differ and be used to predict the presence of toxigenic contaminants in ham. This approach could be utilised in ham production as part of a quality assurance system for preventing OTA contaminatio

Survey of Penicillia associated with Italian grana cheese

The present work aimed to contribute information on the mycobiota associated with ripening grana cheese, with focus on the genus Penicillium as potential mycotoxin producers. Eighteen wheels of grana cheese, aged in different storehouses situated in Northern Italy, were sampled to isolate associated fungi. Penicillium spp. were commonly dominant; morphological observation and gene sequencing were applied to identify Penicillium at species level. P. crustosum and P. solitum were the dominant species. Citrinin and ochratoxin A mycotoxins were analysed and the latter was found in all grana cheese samples. These results confirmed that a polyphasic approach is mandatory for Penicillium identification at species level.The present work was supported by the following institutions: Consorzio del Formaggio Parmigiano Reggiano, Consorzio per la tutela del Formaggio Grana Padano, Fondazione Romeo ed Enrica Invernizzi. The authors thank Prof. Terenzio Bertuzzi (Food Science and Nutrition Institute, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Piacenza, Italy) for mycotoxins analysis and Dr. Célia Soares (Centre of Biological Engineering, Universidade do Minho, Braga, Portugal) for preservation and depositing working at MUM

Multiple Year Influences of the Aflatoxin Biocontrol Product AF-X1 on the A. flavus Communities Associated with Maize Production in Italy

AF-X1 is a commercial aflatoxin biocontrol product containing the non-aflatoxigenic (AF-) strain of Aspergillus flavus MUCL54911 (VCG IT006), endemic to Italy, as an active ingredient. The present study aimed to evaluate the long-term persistence of VCG IT006 in the treated fields, and the multi-year influence of the biocontrol application on the A. flavus population. Soil samples were collected in 2020 and 2021 from 28 fields located in four provinces in north Italy. A vegetative compatibility analysis was conducted to monitor the occurrence of VCG IT006 on the total of the 399 isolates of A. flavus that were collected. IT006 was present in all the fields, mainly in the fields treated for 1 yr or 2 consecutive yrs (58% and 63%, respectively). The densities of the toxigenic isolates, detected using the aflR gene, were 45% vs. 22% in the untreated and treated fields, respectively. After displacement via the AF- deployment, a variability from 7% to 32% was noticed in the toxigenic isolates. The current findings support the long-term durability of the biocontrol application benefits without deleterious effects on each fungal population. Nevertheless, based on the current results, as well as on previous studies, the yearly applications of AF-X1 to Italian commercial maize fields should continue

IoT for Monitoring Fungal Growth and Ochratoxin A Development in Grapes Solar Drying in Tunnel and in Open Air

Optimisation of solar drying to reduce fungal growth and Ochratoxin A (OTA) contamination is a crucial concern in raisin and currant production. Stochastic and deterministic analysis has been utilized to investigate environmental indicators and drying characteristics. The analysis was performed using two seedless grape varieties (Crimson—red and Thompson—white) that were artificially inoculated with Aspergillus carbonarius during open-air and tunnel drying. Air temperature (T) and relative humidity (RH) were measured and analysed during the drying experiment, along with grape surface temperature (Ts), and water activity (aw). The grape moisture content, fungal colonization, and OTA contamination were estimated, along with the water diffusivity (Deff) and peel resistance (rpeel) to water transfer. Monitoring the surface temperature of grapes is essential in the early detection of fungal growth and OTA contamination. As surface temperature should be carried out continuously, remote sensing protocols, such as infrared sensors, provide the most efficient means to achieve this. Furthermore, data collection and analysis could be conducted through the Internet of Things (IoT), thereby enabling effortless accessibility. The average Ts of the grapes was 6.5% higher in the tunnel than in the open-air drying. The difference between the RH of air and that in the plastic crates was 16.26–17.22%. In terms of CFU/mL, comparison between white and red grapes in the 2020 and 2021 experiments showed that the red grapes exhibited significantly higher values than the white grapes. Specifically, the values for red grapes were 4.3 in 2021 to 3.4 times in 2020 higher compared to the white grapes. On the basis of the conducted analysis, it was concluded that tunnel drying provided some advantages over open-air drying, provided that hygienic and managerial requirements are met