What determines productivity level in the long run? Evidence from Italians regions

In this paper we estimate the long-run relationship between total factor productivity, R&D capital stock and human capital in the Italian regions between 1980 and 2001. We exploit recent developments of panel cointegration techniques to estimate the cointegration relationship, allowing for endogeneity and heterogeneity of regional cointegration vectors. The evidence shows that there exists a long-run equilibrium among the variables and that human capital elasticity is larger than R&D elasticity. Conditioned on the long-run equilibrium, we set out an Error Correction Model of TFP growth. In this framework, we test for exogeneity of TFP determinants, by carrying out Granger-causality tests. Our findings show that human capital is exogenously generated out of the model, while TFP and R&D are simultaneously determined.

Foreign Direct Investment and Agglomeration: Evidence from Italy

A number of empirical works analyzed the effect of agglomeration on multinational investment verifying whether agglomerated areas attract foreign direct investment. Despite the large amount of studies, there has been no systematic attempts to disentangle whether FDI are drawn by the concentration of firms within the same sector (specialization) or within different sectors (diversity). Furthermore, the question whether firms’ size of the host area influences multinational investment is still unanswered. This paper provides an empirical evidence on the role of agglomeration economies in attracting foreign direct investments within Italian regions and provinces, distinguishing between specialization and diversity externalities, and on the role of firms’ size in affecting foreign investors’ choices. We employ a new territorial data set on foreign direct investment collected by the Italian Foreign Exchange Office for industrial and service sectors. We find a strong evidence that specialized geographic areas attract FDI, whereas diversified areas draw FDI only for industrial sectors; finally there is little evidence that firm size has an impact on FDI, if anything, only big firms in Southern regions would seem to affect positively foreign investor decisions.

The effect of investment tax credit: Evidence from an atypical programme in Italy

This paper examines how business investment responds to investment tax credit, as enacted by ItalyÂ’s Law 388/2000. To assess whether the programme made investments possible that otherwise would not have been made, it exploits some features of the tax credit scheme, such as the fact that some Italian regions are not deemed eligible or that the amount of the bonus differs across eligible regions. Although the programme was fiscally unsustainable, and was therefore downsized well ahead of the expiry date, our findings suggest that it has been effective in stimulating investment.investment incentives, state aid

Does investing abroad reduce domestic activity? Evidence from Italian manufacturing firms

The aim of this paper is to evaluate whether domestic and foreign activities of Italian firms are mainly substitutes or complements. We take advantage of a unique firm-level panel data set from the Bank of Italy Survey of Industrial and Service Firms, which provides information on the international activity of a representative sample of Italian enterprises. We use matching methods to compare the performance of firms that become multinationals with that of firms that had considered the possibility to invest abroad, but had not yet done so. Using a different approach, we supplement the counterfactual strategy by studying the conditional over-time correlation between domestic and foreign employment of a sample of multinational firms. Both methods suggest that domestic and foreign activities are more likely to be complements than substitutes. The positive correlation between domestic and foreign employment is higher for the domestic highly-skilled workforce and for firms that have adopted complex strategies of internationalization.foreign direct investment, multinational enterprises, matching, delocalization

The effect of investment incentives: an assessment of Law 488/1992

Since the second half of the ’90s, investment incentives channeled through the Law 488 have represented the main policy instrument for reducing territorial disparities in Italy. From 1996 to2003, the total amount of funds distributed to industrial firms has accounted for 16 billions of Euro involving 27,846 financed projects mainly in the southern regions. The Law 488 allows firms willing to invest in lagged areas to receive a public subsidy that covers a fraction of the investment outlays. The incentives are assigned through competitive auctions according to pre-determined specific criteria, such as the proportion of own funds invested in the project; the number of jobs involved and the proportion of assistance sought. This paper aims at evaluating the impact of Law 488 subsidies on firms’ investment. We employ a linked dataset that matches for all the firms that have applied for the grants –both subsidized firms and firms with rejected applications,– the features of the Law 488 intervention with financial account data that covers both pre-intervention and post-intervention periods. The focus is to evaluate whether the Law 488 made it possible investments that otherwise would not have been done. In doing so, we compare the investment performance of subsidized firms with that of the firms that applied for the grants but were not financed. We analyze the extent to which investments have been triggered by intertemporal substitution (firms could have anticipated investment projects originally planned for the post-intervention period to take advantage of the incentives). Moreover, we study the role of cross-sectional substitution (subsidized firms could have taken some of the investment opportunities that non-subsidized firms would have got in absence of the incentives). We find that financed firms have substantially increased their investments when compared with the pool of rejected application firms. We also find evidence of intertemporal substitution: financed firms slow down significantly their investment activity in the years following the program. Finally, the impact of the L488 is more pronounced when the size of the market where the firms compete is small or when the firms are close as for their industrial distance, so to suggest that financed firms displace their non-financed competitors.incentivi; disparità territoriali

"Florenz 1900. Die Suche nach Arkadien". L’immagine di Firenze, tra utopia e reale, degli intellettuali e artisti tedeschi "fin de siècle"

The aim of this article is to analyse the multifaceted identity of the city of Florence at the beginning of the 20th Century, under the perspective of the German artists and intellectuals, who chose the “reachable Arcadia” of the Renaissance as their home. The Florentine diaries of Aby Warburg, who is the protagonist of Florenz 1900. Die Suche nach Arkadien, written by the Swiss historian Bernd Roeck (2001), guide us through the analysis

Planejamento familiar e educação sexual na Unidade de Saúde Antônio Saliba : uma atividade interdisciplinar

Orientador : Profa. Dra. Laura MacedoMonografia (especialização) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Ciências da Saúde, Curso de Especialização em Atenção BásicaInclui referências: p. 14-15Resumo: Atualmente, na UBS Antônio Saliba, no município de Ponta Grossa – PR, existem 76 gestantes cadastradas, sendo 22 gestantes menores de idade, 24 entre 18-25 anos, 22 entre 25-35 e 8 acima de 35 anos. 61.5% das gestantes são adolescentes e adultas jovens. Diante deste quadro, o objetivo deste trabalho foi capacitar a equipe de saúde da família para ações de educação sexual, planejamento familiar, prevenção de IST’S e promoção em saúde da população adscrita no território da Unidade de Saúde. Por meio de pesquisa ação foi proposta a seguinte intervenção: duas reuniões em educação em saúde com o tema planejamento familiar com fim de melhorar a capacidade técnica da equipe resultando em melhor serviço para a comunidade adscritaAbstract: Resulting from the large number of high-risk pregnant women, adolescents and young adults in the town of Ponta Grossa, registered at UBS Antonio Saliba and the performance of high-risk prenatal consultations being held at UBS due to the dismissal of professionals due to the pandemic of covid faced the need to carry out continuing education planning with UBS professionals to better meet the family planning needs of young people in the region. Through meetings with education and participation of the multidisciplinary team, a meeting was held with a specific agenda to improve the technical knowledge of the entire team, to provide continuous care as patients with guidance during consultations at the UBS and visit home with all the professionals who make up the tea