How Pandemic Shock Affects Claim for Minimum Income Measures

Social transfers, and minimum income schemes in particular, are key tools to support people’s income and protect their living standards, especially in times of crisis. This paper aims to understand how the claiming of social benefits changed in response to the biggest crisis of recent years, i.e. the pandemic shock. In particular, we test whether the pandemic has reduced the transaction costs associated with claiming social transfers, increasing their spread across the population even controlling for recent recessive trends. We focus on Italy as an interesting case study, because it was the first Western country to be strongly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and the latest EU country introducing a national minimum income scheme (the Reddito di Cittadinanza or RDC). Based on a rich dataset of statistics at NUTS-3 regional level, results show a significant and positive correlation between the spread of RDC recipients and the one of Covid-19 contagions, especially during the first stage of pandemic. This evidence confirms that lockdown measures strongly affected the economic wellbeing of households and, in turn, transaction costs associated with the RDC claim. Main results hold when relevant demographic and socioeconomic variables directly influencing the RDC claim are considered

Surnames in local newspapers and social mobility

This paper exploits an innovative data source, the surnames contained in local newspapers during almost a century in the Italian Province of Modena (NUTS-3 level), to study the phenomenon of social mobility over time. Based on the hypothesis that the surnames that appear in the newspapers have a particular social relevance, the study of changes in the frequency distribution of the set of surnames over time allows to identify periods of greater or lower social mobility. The results show that the periods of greatest change have been the years of transition between democracy and the fascist regime and vice versa, and the 1980s. A strong regression towards the mean in the relative importance of surnames is also observed

Il Reddito di Cittadinanza nei comuni della Città metropolitana di Bologna

Negli ultimi quindici anni l’incidenza della povertà assoluta è decisamente cresciuta in Italia. La principale misura introdotta per mitigarne gli effetti consiste nel Reddito di Cittadinanza, erogato a partire da aprile 2019. Questo lavoro è dedicato ad una descrizione dei dati sul numero delle famiglie beneficiarie del Reddito di Cittadinanza nei comuni e nei distretti della Città Metropolitana di Bologna. La quota dei beneficiari per comune viene messa in correlazione con variabili demografiche ed economiche per le quali disponiamo di indicatori a livello comunale. L’obiettivo è individuare quali sono le caratteristiche demografiche ed economiche della popolazione più frequentemente associate ad una maggiore diffusione del Reddito di Cittadinanza. I risultati evidenziano che il Rdc è più diffuso nelle zone montane e periferiche, mentre è stato meno in grado di raggiungere i territori caratterizzati da una popolazione più giovane e con famiglie numerose

Il valore delle comunità residenziali per minori in Emilia-Romagna. Riflessioni sulla definizione di una retta standard a partire da una indagine partecipata

Il presente Working Paper raccoglie gli esiti del percorso di ricerca «Il valore delle comunità residenziali per minori in Emilia-Romagna. Riflessioni sulla definizione di una retta standard a partire da una indagine partecipata» che ha preso avvio nel gennaio del 2020 e si è concluso il 20 settembre 2023, con un evento pubblico realizzato presso la Fondazione Marco Biagi. Il percorso di ricerca partecipata ha visto la collaborazione tra il CAPP – Centro di analisi delle Politiche Pubbliche del Dipartimento di Economia «Marco Biagi» e i Coordinamenti regionali dei soggetti gestori delle comunità educative per minori, delle comunità integrate, delle comunità mamma e bambino, delle comunità familiari e case famiglia. Il percorso di ricerca ha visto il confronto costante con i referenti della Regione Emilia-Romagna. L’attività di ricerca sul campo è stata realizzata da Andrea Barigazzi ed Eleonora Costantini che ne ha curato anche il coordinamento operativo. La supervisione scientifica è stata del Prof. Massimo Baldini. Il Working Paper si compone dei quattro report prodotti nel corso delle attività: - Riflessioni sulla definizione di una retta standard a partire da una indagine partecipata, Luglio 2020 - Un’indagine partecipata sulle comunità integrate socio-sanitarie, Agosto 2021 - Un’indagine conoscitiva sulle comunità per genitori con figli, Maggio 2022 - Comunità familiari e Case famiglia multiutenza: dare valore a ciò che non ha prezzo, Novembre 202

Neuropsychological and behavioral disorders as presentation symptoms in two brothers with early-infantile niemann-pick type C

Background: Niemann-Pick disease type C (NPC) is a lysosomal storage disease caused by mutations in NPC1 or NPC2 genes. Case presentation: We present two brothers with the same compound heterozygous variants in exon 13 of the NPC1 gene (18q11.2), the first one (c.1955C> G, p. Ser652Trp), inherited from the mother, the second (c.2107T>A p.Phe703Ile) inherited from the father, associated to the classical biochemical phenotype of NPC. The two brothers presented unspecific neurologic symptoms with difference in age of onset: one presented and previously described dyspraxia and motor clumsiness at age 7 years, the other showed a systemic presentation with hepatosplenomegaly noted at the age of two months and neurological symptoms onset at age 4 with speech disturbance. Clinical evolution and neuroimaging data led to the final diagnosis. Systemic signs did not correlate with the onset of neurological symptoms. Miglustat therapy was started in both patients. Conclusions: We highlight the extreme phenotypic heterogeneity of NP-C in the presence of the same genetic variant and the unspecificity of neurologic signs at onset as previously reported. We report some positive effects of miglustat on disease progression assessed also with neuropsychological follow-up, with an age-dependent response

Immunohistochemical detection of aetiological agents of proliferative and necrotizing pneumonia in Italian pigs

Proliferative and necrotizing pneumonia (PNP) is a form of interstitial pneumonia that occurs in weaning and post-weaning pigs. PNP is characterized by hypertrophy and hyperplasia of type II pneumocytes and coagulative necrosis and granular debris within alveolar spaces. Canadian and European studies suggest that the porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) and porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) are the main causes of the disease, but Aujezsky's disease virus (ADV) and swine influenza virus (SIV) have also been considered as potential aetiological agents. An immunohistochemical study was carried out on the lungs of 28 Italian pigs with PNP in order to evaluate the role of PRRSV, PCV2 and ADV in PNP lesions. PRRSV infection was identified in the lungs of 11 pigs, PCV2 in the lungs of four pigs and coinfection with both viruses in the lungs of eight pigs. Neither virus was detected in the lungs of the remaining five pigs. ADV antigen was not detected in any sample. The principle aetiological agent of PNP in Italy therefore appears to be PRRSV. Coinfection with PRRSV and PCV2 is characterized by more severe microscopical changes in affected lungs