On the concept of territorial competitiveness: sound or misleading?

In a globalising economy, territories and not just firms increasingly find themselves in competition with each other. In fact, differently from the case of countries, cities and regions compete, on the international market for goods and production factors, on the basis of an absolute advantage principle, and not of a comparative advantage principle; this means that no efficient, automatic mechanism like currency devaluation or prompt flexibility of wages and prices - may grant each territory some role in the inter-national division of labour, whatever its relative performance. Competitiveness of territories emerges as a central issue, in order to secure employment stability, benefits from external integration, continuing growth of local wellbeing and wealth. The arguments put forward by Paul Krugman, defining the concept of competitiveness wrong and misleading, cannot be accepted in a territorial 'regional and urban' context.

Opcions de política en el cas de l'Arc Llatí

Es presenten les quatre grans classes d'elements del capital territorial de l'Arc Llatí en què s'hauria d'incidir des del punt de vista polític: el capital d'infraestructura i l'estructura dels assentaments, que inclouen també les característiques del sistema urbà i la qualitat del medi ambient; el capital cognitiu, en forma de coneixement, competències, habilitats, estructures de recerca i educació, integrat tant en el capital productiu com en el capital humà; el capital cultural i identitari, que abraça el patrimoni cultural, el paisatge i el capital natural; i el capital social i relacional, en forma de civisme, voluntat associativa i capacitat de cooperació

Sustainability of Urban Sprawl: Environmental-Economic Indicators for the Analysis of Mobility Impact in Italy

Sound empirical and quantitative analysis on the relationship between different patterns of urban expansion and environmental or social costs of mobility are still very rare in Europe and the few studies available provide only a qualitative discussion on this. Recently, Camagni et al. (2002) have performed an empirical analysis on the metropolitan area of Milan, aimed at establishing whether different patterns of urban expansion generate different levels of land consumption and heterogeneous impacts of urban mobility. Results confirm the expectation that higher environmental impact of mobility is associated with more extensive and sprawling urban development, more recent urbanisation processes and residential specialisation. The present paper enlarges further the empirical analysis to seven Italian metropolitan areas (namely, Bari, Florence, Naples, Padua, Perugia, Potenza and Turin) to corroborate previous results for the Italian context. The novelty of the present paper is threefold. Firstly, we are interested in exploring the changes occurred to the intensity of the mobility impact across a ten-year period, from 1981 to 1991, corresponding to the Italian economic boom years. Secondly, using an econometric analysis in cross-section, we consider several metropolitan areas at once, being therefore able to explore whether there are significant differences in the way the model explains variations in the mobility impact across various Italian urban areas. Finally, we propose a conceptual interpretation of the causal chain in the explanation of the mobility impact intensity and we test it using Causal Path Analysis.Urban mobility, Sprawl, Environmental sustainability, Collective costs

Sustainability of Urban Sprawl: Environmental-Economic Indicators for the Analysis of Mobility Impact in Italy

Sound empirical and quantitative analysis on the relationship between different patterns of urban expansion and environmental or social costs of mobility are still very rare in Europe and the few studies available provide only a qualitative discussion on this. Recently, Camagni et al. (2002) have performed an empirical analysis on the metropolitan area of Milan, aimed at establishing whether different patterns of urban expansion generate different levels of land consumption and heterogeneous impacts of urban mobility. Results confirm the expectation that higher environmental impact of mobility is associated with more extensive and sprawling urban development, more recent urbanisation processes and residential specialisation. The present paper enlarges further the empirical analysis to seven Italian metropolitan areas (namely, Bari, Florence, Naples, Padua, Perugia, Potenza and Turin) to corroborate previous results for the Italian context. The novelty of the present paper is threefold. Firstly, we are interested in exploring the changes occurred to the intensity of the mobility impact across a ten-year period, from 1981 to 1991, corresponding to the Italian economic boom years. Secondly, using an econometric analysis in cross-section, we consider several metropolitan areas at once, being therefore able to explore whether there are significant differences in the way the model explains variations in the mobility impact across various Italian urban areas. Finally, we propose a conceptual interpretation of the causal chain in the explanation of the mobility impact intensity and we test it using Causal Path Analysis

Escenaris integrats per a les regions europees

Es proposen tres escenaris posteriors a la crisi, que tenen com a punt de partida les tensions que han caracteritzat l'economia mundial en els últims anys i que són, en gran majoria, responsables de la crisi actual. Es considera que la manera en què es perceben els canvis estructurals consegüents i s'ajusten les polítiques constitueix el principal factor responsable de les diferències entre els tres escenaris presentats

L’OCCASIONE DEGLI STATUTI METROPOLITANI E L’ESEMPIO DELLE MÉTROPOLES FRANCESI

The initiation of the Metropolitan Cities is certainly a great opportunity for the effectiveness of governance in large urban areas, however, there are concerns about the poverty of attributed competences, the silence on resources and the desirable competences on local taxation on urban developments, the weakness of wide area planning. Beyond that, doubts persist on the potential interestconflict in the coexistence of the position of Metropolitan and municipality Mayor on the same person and the absurd condition of a break inf up of the central municipality into small municipalities for the transition to a direct election of the Major by citizens. There is still a chance to recover: the wise formulation of the Statutes metropolitan. There is still a chance to recover: the wise formulation of the Statutes metropolitan.DOI: http://dx.medra.org/10.19254/LaborEst.09.0

Analysis of Environmental Costs of Mobility due to Urban Sprawl - A Modelling Study on Italian Cities

A sound empirical and quantitative analysis on the relationship between different patterns of urban expansion and the environmental or social costs of mobility is rare, and the few studies available provide at best a qualitative discussion of these issues. Some recent tentative studies on the metropolitan area of Milan have empirically explored whether different patterns of urban expansion generate different levels of land use and heterogeneous impacts of urban mobility. The results confirmed the expectation that a higher environmental impact of mobility may result from more extensive and sprawling urban development, from recent urbanisation processes and from residential specialisation. The present paper extends the previous empirical analysis to seven major Italian metropolitan areas (namely, Bari, Florence, Naples, Padua, Perugia, Potenza and Turin) in order to corroborate the previous tentative results for the Italian context. The novelty of the present paper is threefold. First, we are interested in exploring the changes that have occurred due to the increased intensity of mobility across a ten-year period, from 1981 to 1991, which corresponds to the Italian economic boom years. Secondly, using an econometric analysis of cross-section data, we consider several metropolitan areas simultaneously, and are therefore able to explore whether there are significant differences in the way the model explains variations in the mobility impact across various Italian urban areas. And finally, we offer a structural interpretation of the causal chain in the explanation of the mobility impact intensity by using Causal Path Analysis as a statistical test framework

Escenaris per a les regions europees i les províncies de l'Arc Llatí

Els autors desenvolupen les prospectives quantitatives dels tres escenaris integrats descrits al capítol anterior. En concret, es proporciona un breu resum dels aspectes metodològics de les prospectives quantitatives i, especialment, es descriuen en detall els resultats empírics obtinguts en els àmbits provincial i regional