Local expenditure interaction in Italian municipalities. Do local council partnerships make a difference?

This paper investigates interdependence among local councils in Italy in their public spending and distinguishes between possible sources of this interdependence. We find significant positive interaction among neighbouring local councils in regard to both spending at the level of total expenditure and spending on different sub-categories. Attempts to identify the source of this horizontal interaction seem to reject the yardstick competition hypothesis. Addressing the role that local council partnerships may play in internalising fiscal externalities, we suggest that expenditure interaction may be driven by spill-over

Differentiated property tax and urban sprawl in Italian urbanized areas

City’s core and suburbans tax differentials can affect sprawl within an urban area. We empirically address this issue by analyzing the pattern of growth of 72 Italian urbanized areas. As a novelty, we investigate the causes of the emerging land development pattern. Our results show that density of urban area declines in response to an increase in the city’s core property tax rate. We find that this effect is due to changes in dwelling size. By contrast, density of urban area significantly rises when suburbans property tax rates increase, making the urban area more compact. This effect is attributable to changes in the improvement effect of property taxation

Differentiated property tax and urban sprawl in Italian urbanized areas

City’s core and suburbans tax differentials can affect sprawl within an urban area. We empirically address this issue by analyzing the pattern of growth of 72 Italian urbanized areas. As a novelty, we investigate the causes of the emerging land development pattern. Our results show that density of urban area declines in response to an increase in the city’s core property tax rate. We find that this effect is due to changes in dwelling size. By contrast, density of urban area significantly rises when suburbans property tax rates increase, making the urban area more compact. This effect is attributable to changes in the improvement effect of property taxation

The body of evidence of late-life depression: the complex relationship between depressive symptoms, movement, dyspnea and cognition

Background: Physical symptoms play an important role in late-life depression and may contribute to residual symptomatology after antidepressant treatment. In this exploratory study, we examined the role of specific bodily dimensions including movement, respiratory functions, fear of falling, cognition, and physical weakness in older people with depression.Methods: Clinically stable older patients with major depression within a Psychiatric Consultation-Liaison program for Primary Care underwent comprehensive assessment of depressive symptoms, instrumental movement analysis, dyspnea, weakness, activity limitations, cognitive function, and fear of falling. Network analysis was performed to explore the unique adjusted associations between clinical dimensions.Results: Sadness was associated with worse turning and walking ability and movement transitions from walking to sitting, as well as with worse general cognitive abilities. Sadness was also connected with dyspnea, while neurovegetative depressive burden was connected with activity limitations.Discussion: Limitations of motor and cognitive function, dyspnea, and weakness may contribute to the persistence of residual symptoms of late-life depression

Porphyromonas gingivalis in Alzheimer's disease brains : evidence for disease causation and treatment with small-molecule inhibitors

Porphyromonas gingivalis, the keystone pathogen in chronic periodontitis, was identified in the brain of Alzheimer's disease patients. Toxic proteases from the bacterium called gingipains were also identified in the brain of Alzheimer's patients, and levels correlated with tau and ubiquitin pathology. Oral P. gingivalis infection in mice resulted in brain colonization and increased production of Aβ1-42, a component of amyloid plaques. Further, gingipains were neurotoxic in vivo and in vitro, exerting detrimental effects on tau, a protein needed for normal neuronal function. To block this neurotoxicity, we designed and synthesized small-molecule inhibitors targeting gingipains. Gingipain inhibition reduced the bacterial load of an established P. gingivalis brain infection, blocked Aβ1-42 production, reduced neuroinflammation, and rescued neurons in the hippocampus. These data suggest that gingipain inhibitors could be valuable for treating P. gingivalis brain colonization and neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's disease

Toward a Sustainable Urbanization in Rural Districts? Insights from a Case Study in Central Italy

Urban expansion adapts to rural areas, as far as shape and structure, on the basis of the local socio-economic backgrounds and the spatial configuration of forms. Due to urbanization pressure in rural areas, landscapes significantly transformed over time. In traditional peripherical regions of Europe, urban dispersion has become to blend the typical rural landscapes with a new residential settlement matrix based on low-density patches. In Italy, sprawl has been particularly intense, thanks to the lack of compliance with residential planning rules. Tuscia (province of Viterbo, near the city of Rome) is a rural district located in Central Italy and characterized by traditional crops of high agricultural value coexisting with urban dispersion due to “tolerant” urban plans. Therefore, in these areas, urban sprawl phenomena are intrinsically associated with agricultural activities. Our work originates from the assumption that, while the study area is more liveable compared to the 64neighbourhoods around the city of Rome, urbanization processes in Tuscia are shaped by mixed processes of socio-economic transformations associated with rural population trends that depend on the primary sector. This, in turn, has contributed to preserve a strong naturalness of the local context. Ultimately, Tuscia is probably one of the most pertinent Mediterranean local contexts where spatial dynamics have better adapted to rural communities, influencing the long-term development growth

Oltre Gibrat. Capitale umano dei fondatori, endogeneita' del finanziamento pubblico e crescita delle giovani imprese hi-tech italiane

Questo lavoro sviluppa un'analisi empirica delle determinanti della crescita dimensionale di un panel di 510 giovani imprese hi-tech italiane nel periodo tra il 1990 e il 2001. Inizialmente, si esamina la relazione tra crescita d'impresa da un lato e dimensione e eta' dall'altro. L'analisi si concentra quindi sulla valutazione dell'impatto sulla crescita d'impresa del capitale umano dei fondatori e di un finanziamento pubblico selettivo focalizzando l'attenzione sulle conseguenze di una possibile endogeneita' del finanziamento pubblico al capitale umano dei fondatori. I risultati evidenziano che le imprese piu' piccole crescono piu' velocemente. Contrariamente all'evidenza dominante, l'eta' ha un impatto positivo; la particolare natura del settore high-tech puo' spiegare questo risultato. La crescita d'impresa Š inoltre influenzata dalle caratteristiche del capitale umano dei fondatori che descrivono la sua attitudine 'vocazionale' tecnico-scientifica, valutata a partire dalle scelte accademiche, e la sua esperienza di lavoro specifica nel settore. Se si introducono controlli per la possibile endogeneita' del finanziamento pubblico, emerge che l'accesso a sussidi pubblici selettivi non favorisce la crescita delle giovani imprese hi-tech Complessivamente, si suggerisce che vi sia un problema di auto-selezione nell'accesso ai finanziamenti pubblici da parte degli imprenditori piu' capaci.capitale umano, crescita di impresa, finanziamenti pubblici, imprese hi-tech, legge di Gibrat

Decentralization, administrative reforms and local government performance: The impact of inter-communality in a pre-crisis time

This paper attempts to evaluate if local council partnerships are effective in the decentral- ization design accordingly to the suggestions put forward by the literature on functional, overlapping and competing jurisdictions (FOCJ). The issue is empirically addressed by evaluating the effect of local partnerships on two local council performance indicators, namely revenue autonomy and expenditure. Heterogeneity responses are also examined by considering differences in the partnerships according to their institutional nature, i.e. mandatory versus voluntary partnerships. The case study consists of the whole set of 246 municipalities belonging to the Marche Italian region and estimation is carried out with ref- erence to the years 1999 and 2003. Results show the degree of autonomy assigned to local councils to choose partners for cooperation is a crucial element of an effective local government reform. While mandatory local council partnerships show to be not effective to improve local council performance, voluntary local council partnerships enhance revenue autonomy without affecting local council expenditure. Thus, inter-communality projects that fit the theoretical prerequisite of FOCJ, as it is the case of voluntary local council partner- ships, can help to improve horizontal decentralizatio