Local and territorial determinants in the realization of public–private–partnerships: an empirical analysis for Italian provinces

ABSTRACT Relational networks and intangible factors are crucial elements for the competitiveness of a territory. Public–Private–Partnerships (PPPs), in particular, allow for the provision of goods and services that favour the exploitation of complementarities between public and private resources. They aim at promoting an increase in the overall efficiency of investment projects through a complex mechanism that distributes risk and revenues among stakeholders. This paper examines the local and territorial determinants of PPPs through an econometric analysis based upon Italian municipal data, grouped at the provincial level. Using a tobit model, we analyse the relationship between the realization of successful PPP initiatives and different sets of factors, including less analysed local and territorial determinants. We stress the role of the local management of infrastructure assets, the administrative efficiency of local authorities and the diffusion of previous local development initiatives. Local management and territorial context factors explain most of the occurrence of successful PPP initiatives in the pre-crisis period while usual determinants (infrastructure endowment and financial distress) display a weaker effect

Territorial Capital and the Great Recession: a Nuts-3 Analysis for Central and Southern Italy

The analyses on the effects of the actual crisis have been mainly concentrated on a national and international dimension, leaving aside the differential effects of the crisis on regions and sub-regional areas. Notwithstanding the international character of the Great Recession, it has to be stressed that the different structural features of regions and urban areas might influence the economic and social impact of the crisis. They also might have an important effect on the resilience and recover chance. In the present paper, we focus on territorial capital, a concept that takes into account of the different features of goods and services in terms of their degree of appropriability and rivalry and, also, of their material-immaterial content. The aim is to identify the strategic territorial elements which help in the evaluation of the absorption capacity of the recession at regional and sub-regional levels. For that purpose, we use a wide dataset for Central and Southern Italian provinces in order to measure the empirical relations between the territorial capital and the change in the provincial performance. The intent is to measure how the territorial capital endowment might have determined different reactions on a sub-regional scale and, conversely, how the crisis might influence the territorial capital in different areas. If, on one hand, we expect that the “soft” dimensions of the territorial capital (relations among firms, cooperation networks, public-private partnership, territorial governance, innovation linkages, and so on) have some relevance in shaping the growth process of less developed and peripheral areas, the role of these dimensions in the reaction to crisis is still to be debated. The paper examines the relation between territorial capital and performance at NUTS-3 (provincial) level. during the period 1999-2011 and on the basis of exports and employment dynamics

Local and territorial determinants in the realization of public-private-partnerships: an empirical analysis for Italian provinces

This is an accepted manuscript of an article published by Taylor and Francis in European Planning Studies on 17/07/2019, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/09654313.2019.1640187 The accepted version of the publication may differ from the final published version.Relational networks and intangible factors are crucial elements for the competitiveness of a territory. Public–Private–Partnerships (PPPs), in particular, allow for the provision of goods and services that favour the exploitation of complementarities between public and private resources. They aim at promoting an increase in the overall efficiency of investment projects through a complex mechanism that distributes risk and revenues among stakeholders. This paper examines the local and territorial determinants of PPPs through an econometric analysis based upon Italian municipal data, grouped at the provincial level. Using a tobit model, we analyse the relationship between the realization of successful PPP initiatives and different sets of factors, including less analysed local and territorial determinants. We stress the role of the local management of infrastructure assets, the administrative efficiency of local authorities and the diffusion of previous local development initiatives. Local management and territorial context factors explain most of the occurrence of successful PPP initiatives in the pre-crisis period while usual determinants (infrastructure endowment and financial distress) display a weaker effect.This work was supported by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR) through the Fund for Research Projects of National Interest (PRIN) [Grant Project Number 2008PP5E98].Published versio

Sistemi dell'innovazione: una tassonomia interpretativa

Il concetto di Sistema regionale dell’innovazione ha ispirato negli ultimi decenni un filone di ricerca volto ad evidenziare il funzionamento di relazioni sistemiche rilevanti per il processo innovativo anche a livello meso economico, regionale in particolare. Al di là del dibattito sulla consistenza di tale approccio il quale, peraltro, ha dato impulso ad interessanti riflessioni sui processi di trasferimento delle conoscenze a livello regionale, crescente nel tempo è stata la mole di studi su singoli case-studies e sulle metodologie per rappresentare e misurare le variabili rilevanti per un Sistema regionale dell’innovazione. Il presente lavoro, partendo dall’ipotesi che l’utilizzo dell’approccio menzionato, pur con i suoi limiti, possa essere significativo per cogliere talune dinamiche virtuose ma anche meccanismi di lock-in e malfunzionamento dei sistemi innovativi a livello regionale, propone una tassonomia che consenta una classificazione dei Sistemi regionali dell’innovazione secondo caratteristiche di omogeneità che prescindano da elementi di mera collocazione geografica e che, altresì, contribuisca a rendere significativi i risultati di singoli case-studies

European integration and regional dimension of unbalances

European integration and regional dimension of unbalances are analysed in the light of knowledge economy mechanisms

Positive forces and vicious mechanisms behind innovative activity in a lagging region

Literature about economic growth of less developed regions is traditionally concentrated on problems related to gaps and on the ways by which such regions might “run after” or even catch-up the more advanced economies. In these approaches, therefore, the central issue very often consists in the application of growth models constructed on the experiences of development. On the other hand, pure literature on development refers mainly to Third World realities and deals essentially with problems linked to economic and social development of low income countries. Last but not least, traditional literature about technological change generally analyses growth processes of industrialised countries and aims at identifying general patterns and models that, however, reflect the success cases they are build upon. However, in the last decades theoretical frameworks considering the role of “system” variables and mechanisms have provided some interpretative guidelines that seem useful to catch some aspects of the innovation processes taking places in lagging regions. In this paper, therefore, through an empirical approach it is verified if “context” variables are relevant for innovative activity in a lagging self-contained region (i.e. Sicily)

Infrastrutture: efficienza, accessibilità ed attrattività come elementi del capitale territoriale

Per cogliere l’influenza delle infrastrutture sulla competitività di un territorio, esse devono essere esaminate non soltanto rispetto alla componente “fisica” e trasportistica, ma anche rispetto alla componente qualitativa e sociale. Lo scopo del presente lavoro è di analizzare tale componente ed evidenziarne gli elementi che maggiormente influenzano la dotazione di Capitale Territoriale (Camagni, 2008). In particolare riteniamo che effetti di agglomerazione/dispersione e di variazione del capitale territoriale emergono con l’osservazione delle caratteristiche delle infrastrutture che coniugano una dimensione geografica e spaziale negli aspetti della reticolarità, dell’accessibilità e dell’attrattività.To catch the role of infrastructures for territorial competitiveness, they have to be examined not exclusively in their phisical nature but also in their qualitative and social value. The aim of this paper is then to analise such particular territorial assets, which are low level of rivalry and material goods, to identify the factors more relevant in influencing the territorial capital endowment (Camagni, 2008). In particular, taking account of both quantitative and qualitative aspects, connecting with NEG and network theory, we focus on the infrastructures effects on agglomeration/dispersion and increase/decrease of territorial capital