HUMAN CAPITAL AND OPENNESS TO INTERNATIONAL TRADE: EVIDENCE FROM THE ENLARGED EUROPE

In the increasingly knowledge-based global economy, a well-educated and highly-skilled labour force and a significant degree of openness to international trade are vital for countries to successfully meet the challenge of worldwide competition. This paperhuman capital, openness to international trade, economic growth

EU INTEGRATION, HEALTH STANDARDS AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Health is one of the most important assets for human beings, since it allows people to fully use their capacity. Poor or compromised health reduces the well-being of individuals, by affecting their future incomes, wealth and consumption. For policy implicHealth, Human capital, Development

HUMAN CAPITAL AND DEVELOPMENT: SOME EVIDENCE FROM EASTERN EUROPE

The concept of development is not only referred to the level or to the growth rate of GDP of a country, but it concerns different aspects of individual life. Development leads to a changing of values, behaviours and attitudes of people interested in it and in the well-being of the whole society. \\r\\nSince the second part of the last century, more and more economists always assert that human capital is a fundamental asset to promote economic growth and development. Health and education are the two principal ingredients of human capital. There is a strong positive bidirectional relationship between education and health; in fact, it is statistically supported that the two variables move together, so healthy people are more likely to achieve an higher level of education rather than sick people and, vice-versa, more educated people are more likely to enjoy good health status. This generates a virtuous cycle that can lead to greater development. Indeed, health increases people's capabilities allowing achievement in their well-beings, since healthy people can work longer and with higher productivity than poor health people. For this reason individuals' income rises allowing them major choices in terms of consumption, savings and investments. Considering the economic benefits that start from health and education, not only at microeconomic level but also for a country, it is important to pay attention to the role of this two variables in the economic development process. There are several channels through which health and education can be associated with better enhancement in economic results. They can be find in the labour market and in the participation in the labour market; worker productivity; human capital investments; saving capacity; availability of save to invest in physical and intellectual capital; fertility choices and structure of population.\\r\\nThe present paper analyzes the two-way linkage between education and health and their relationship with economic development identifying the conditions of some Eastern European countries. The methodology through which the results are obtained is the multidimensional scaling method which allows to define relations between countries in terms of proximity/distance with respect to the considered indicators, providing a spatial representation of themhuman capital, education, health, economic development, multidimensional scaling

INTERNATIONALIZATION AND INNOVATION: THE CHALLENGES FOR EUROPE IN A CHANGING WORLD

A large part of the economic literature is unanimous in believing technological progress and openness to foreign trade are key variables to trigger the processes of stable and persistent economic growth. An in-depth analysis of these factors, thus, becomes necessary both to meet the challenges of the international market, and to strengthen the European integration process. This paper aims to provide an empirical analysis of the interaction between foreign trade and technological progress by performing a multidimensional scaling. This technique is used to produce a graphical representation of the 27 EU member states, in accordance to the degree of similarity or dissimilarity between them. The indicators used, and the indexes calculated, reflect the different degree of internationalization of each country's economy, the regulation of trade flows, investment in specific R&D and technological progress.International trade, integration, technological progress

SOCIAL CAPITAL FORMATION: DO ICT MATTER FOR EUROPE?

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have impacted the way in which individuals, government and society interact each other. As a consequence, ICTs represent a dynamic and new way by which it could be possible to explain the countries’ development into the Knowledge-Based Society. Why is it possible to consider ICTs as a dynamic instrument for explaining this phenomenon? ICT can create networking, to connect learning experience and innovation to each other. Alongside the growing increase in ICTs, the concept of social capital in the twenty years has found interest in all sectors due to the rise of the concept of virtual community. In this context, researchers have focused on the role it could play in building communities, increasing economic productivity and contributing to country development. In this sense, ICT and social capital concepts interlink with each other in a variety of ways: social capital could contribute to the diffusion of ICT but, at the same time, ICTs could have a role in the social capital formation. Given the possible interactions between the two concepts, this paper aims to map out the relationship between ICT and social capital studying the related variables’ disparities among European countries. This paper shows evidence of the geography of this relationship in Europe. For the statistical and geographical analysis, we used a non-linear cluster neural network, the Self-Organizing Map (SOM). This tool was used to analyse the performance of European countries in 2015. The properties of the algorithm lead the SOM map to be a representation of the statistical property of the original dataset used to create it thanking the learning nature of the algorithm; the statistical dissimilarity is translated into space distance and vice versa. Also, it was possible because the dataset has been mapped onto the surface of the SOM by adding each neuron up to colour gradient. The results show the isolation of Balkan and Eastern European countries. In particular, we found that ICT may promote social capital, that is, ICT could play a decisive role in creating and developing social capital. These results prompt the formulation of new policies for European countries

SOCIAL CAPITAL AND INDUSTRIAL DISTRICT DEVELOPMENT: THE ROLE OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT

The paper represent a theoretical attempt to investigate the role that the local government can play in improving the level of social capital for the development of industrial districts. The social capital is not, as generally suggested by the socio-economic literature, an individual attitude towards something which does not imply privately appropriable economic benefits, as it is for a pure public good (which would not imply privately appropriable benefits). Social capital should be interpreted as a public component of an investment which implies private and public benefits entangled with each other. Firms could not have sufficient incentive to increase its investment in social capital, because this investment strictly depends on the economic convenience of investing in the impure public good. Starting from this point of view, we underline the importance of investing local public resources (funds, time and effort) for the development of the local social capital

FROM INDUSTRIAL DISTRICTS TO FIRMS NETWORKS: THE ITALIAN CASE

The local source for competitiveness is vital to achieve static and dynamic economies of scale for firms; it is useful to interact with the aim of learning and innovating. The local system can create benefit by opening to international markets and it should be a good source of knowledge and technology. Nowadays, the concept of industrial district, usually characterized by the spatial proximity of the involved firms, may evolve into firms network; this may emphasize the advantages deriving from cooperation, without the need of spatial proximity. Firms networks may represent the evolution of industrial districts, where territoriality is overcome by the dissolution of borders. The importance of firms networks is increased since they intensify information exchange, continuous learning, stimulate economies of scale, allow economic development and give more market opportunities. Firms networks share different aims, resource, common interests and factors, like material and immaterial inputs and outputs. This new form of cooperation may allow to overcome physical distance and replicate knowledge and information. Firms networks may represent a success organizational forms that may give impetus to development in an economy. They are based on mutual trust between partners and are created over time to facilitate information circulation, knowledge dissemination and innovation. Trust reduces uncertainty and transaction cost and limits the opportunistic behaviour by free-rider agents. The aim of the paper is to assess the determinants for firms networks training in the Italian context using regional data. Particularly, the firms networks development needs key factors such as ICTs diffusion, high rate of social security, open capability, RxD activities. These factor constitute the basis for a new kind of capital, the so called “network capital”. It consists of collaborative practices in a network as the result of cooperation in the ICTs era. Network capital may be considered as social capital evolution in a globalized context. The entrance in the knowledge economy era, in which technological advancement runs very quickly and the pace of innovation is intensified, significantly reduces the exploitation of competitive advantages. Industrial districts, therefore, should develop, improve and change their shape in a new competitive environment, where the globalization of markets cancels the boundaries of many firms that collaborate beyond national boundaries. The paper analyzes the firms networks determinant for Italian regions and the role of network capital as pre-condition for their development. The multidimensional scaling analysis it the chosen methodology that allows us to identify the relations among Italian regions in terms of proximity/distance with respect to considered determinants, and to provide a spatial representation of them

FROM SOCIAL CAPITAL TO FIRMS NETWORKS: SOME EVIDENCE FOR EUROPE

The concept of development is not only referred to the level or to the growth rate of GDP of a country, but it concerns different aspects of individual and social life. Development leads to a changing of values, culture, behaviours and attitudes of people interested in it. That is to say that not only quantitative dimensions, but also qualitative ones became relevant in fostering development trajectories. Reasoning in these general terms a long and rich intellectual debate grow up in social sciences within which we focused the social capital and firm network debate. Social capital is a multidimensional determinant at base of the industrial district framework as the “network capital†represent a driver of firm’s network framework. By moving from social capital, as a local development driver, to network capital, as a global development driver, the present paper analyzes the firms’ networks determinants by identifying the conditions for some European countries. The methodology through which the results are obtained is the multidimensional scaling method which allows to define relations between countries in terms of proximity/distance with respect to the considered determinants providing a spatial representation of them