Direct Detection Signatures of Self-Interacting Dark Matter with a Light Mediator

Self-interacting dark matter (SIDM) is a simple and well-motivated scenario that could explain long-standing puzzles in structure formation on small scales. If the required self-interaction arises through a light mediator (with mass $\sim 10$ MeV) in the dark sector, this new particle must be unstable to avoid overclosing the universe. The decay of the light mediator could happen due to a weak coupling of the hidden and visible sectors, providing new signatures for direct detection experiments. The SIDM nuclear recoil spectrum is more peaked towards low energies compared to the usual case of contact interactions, because the mediator mass is comparable to the momentum transfer of nuclear recoils. We show that the SIDM signal could be distinguished from that of DM particles with contact interactions by considering the time-average energy spectrum in experiments employing different target materials, or the average and modulated spectra in a single experiment. Using current limits from LUX and SuperCDMS, we also derive strong bounds on the mixing parameter between hidden and visible sector.Comment: 21 pages, 8 figures. To be published on JCA

Fiscal Autonomy and EU Structural Funds : The Case of the Italian Regional Income Tax System

In light of the principle of additionality, the inflow of European Union (EU) funds should complement domestic public funds, which are required to cofinance the investment. EU funds should either be unrelated to fiscal decisions of recipient regions, and as such should not affect taxation choices, or they could imply an increase in taxation to finance the additional domestic funds required by the additionality principle. Empirical results linking fiscal autonomy of Italian regions, considered by looking at the number and the level of average tax rates for the regional surcharge on the personal income tax and committed EU funds, suggest the existence of a significant relationship, even after controlling for relevant economic and political factors. The level of average tax rates is lower the more EU funds are received, as is the complexity of the system, measured by the number of income tax brackets

Additionality and regional development: are EU Structural Funds complements or substitutes of national Public Finance?

This paper deals with the effects of the transfer of additional funds on the real economy of recipient countries, in particular the European Member States. The intended and unintended effects of additional funds on national public finances and, ultimately, economic performance are discussed. Understanding the real effects of additional public funds and the possible complementarity or substitutability with national public finance is important for shaping the policies for the allocation of Structural Funds. Verification of additionality plays a role in ensuring that additional funds are used to effectively complement national expenditure programmes. In the case of the European Union, it is widely recognised that the current verification mechanism is affected by weaknesses, that prevent it from providing reliable and useful data to effectively assess additionality. For this reason, the paper suggests the European Commission to move away from the current verification approach and to adopt a new one that could more effectively assess to what extent the Structural Funds complement national investments.Public investment, substitution, displacement

Smart Cities : is It Just a Fad?

This editorial frames the contents of this special issue within the broad context of the smart city literature. In particular, the editorial first argues for the novelty of the smart city concept with respect to previous planning notions. The smart city literature has provided much insight into present-day urban management issues. In this sense, this special issues presents new insights into the following topics: (i) The smart city literature is characterized by remarkable heterogeneity in terms of geographical and disciplinary approaches; (ii) Relevant attention is being paid to the impact of smart city policies; (iii) New findings are presented for the relevance of benchmarking exercises and a first quantitative impact measurement is discussed; (iv) Beyond the new results presented in the Special Issue, ample space is dedicated to the discussion of future challenges for this literature, for both academics and policymaker

Smart cities and the urban digital divide

The debate on urban smartness as an instrument for managing more efficient cities has been revolving around the notion that Smart Cities might be causing an increase in inequalities. This effect would be caused by the role played in smart urban transformations by Multi-National Corporations, which would be influencing local policymakers’ agendas. In this work we empirically verify whether smart urban characteristics are associated with an increase in urban inequalities along the digital divide dimension among urban dwellers. To this aim, we exploit a large database of 181 European cities, with data on smart urban characteristics, along with measures of the digital divide obtained with the use of survey data carried out at the European Union level. Results show a negative causal relation between the level of urban smartness and the digital divide within-EU cities. Our findings are robust to a number of robustness checks

Smart cities in Europe

Urban performance depends nowadays not only on the endowment of hard infrastructure, but also, and increasingly so, on the availability and quality of communication and social infrastructure. The concept of “smart city” has been devised to encompass modern urban production factors into a common framework and in particular to interpret the wide diffusion of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the last twenty years. The present paper aims at shedding light on the elusive definition of the concept of smart cities. We provide a narrower and clearer definition of this idea and present consistent evidence on the geography of smart cities in the EU27. Our statistical and graphical analysis exploit in depth, for the first time to our knowledge, the most recent version of the Urban Audit dataset. We show that the presence of a creative class, the quality of and attention to the urban environment, the level of education, multimodal accessibility and the use of ICTs for the Public Administration are all positively correlated with urban wealth. This defines a feasible agenda for European smart cities, in order to achieve sustainable development and a better urban landscape

A map of human capital in European cities

Human capital is a fundamental input in modern knowledge-based economies; it increases the individual productivity of workers, while also making their interactions more productive. Moreover, cities are the major loci of innovation. In Europe, evidence suggests that human capital levels are increasing in cities. However, the distribution of human capital shows a widening gap between top performers and laggards. This paper aims to analyse the spatial and relational geography of human capital in European cities. With the use of a novel and comprehensive data set based on the Urban Audit (UA-EUROSTAT), the European Values Study (EVS) and Globalization and World Cities (GaWC) data, we highlight the general spatio-temporal trends in the endowment, distribution, and evolution of European urban human capital. The economic literature on human capital identifies three main dimensions of this concept: namely, formal education; the sectoral composition of the labour force; and creativity. The link between human capital and relational and managerial capital, with particular reference to the functional urban hierarchy, is analysed on the basis of the presence of international and human capital-intensive firms in cities. In the present work we measure human capital along these four dimensions, and assess the extent to which spatial and temporal disparities affect European cities. Our approach is based on ESDA (Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis) and geographical information systems (GIS), while also taking into account the presence of networks among cities. In addition, we also address the time variation of the human capital indicators.The combination of these techniques allows us to provide an insightful analysis of the map of human capital in European cities, to verify its change in space and time, and to provide statistical support for decision makers. The wealth of information gathered by us allows a better understanding and interpretation of the current trends, thus offering a clearer explanation of the different performance levels of European cities, in terms of both human capital accumulation and economic activit