Economic growth and mental well-being in Italian regions

Measuring economic growth is not only an arithmetic problem, it also in- volves an economic vision and a philosophy for the choice of indicators (i.e. Gross Domestic Product). Today it seems more relevant to measure not only the economic well-being as it is, using Gross Domestic Product, but also the people’s well-being, considering other dimensions such as health and happi- ness. Over the years, national accounts and Gross Domestic Product have never changed their nature, instead combining social and economic indicators can offer important indications for well-being research. As pointed out by the World Health Organization, health is well-being, but it is not always coinci- dent with a high level of Gross Domestic Product. In particular, as regards the mental health condition it has become an important aspect in measuring people’s well-being. Mental health has been considered an important signal of the society’s discomfort due to economic growth that, generally, is argued to be caused by the disamenities of the ”industrial lifestyle”. This study in- volves an empirical investigation using a panel econometric model in Italian regions, considering antidepressant expenditures per capita (an expression of society’s unhappiness) as the dependent variable and, as covariates, the old age index, the poverty rate, the employment rate, the NEET rate (NEET: Not in Education, Employment, or Training), and the percentage of public expenditure in services

Tourism attractiveness in Italy: Regional empirical evidence using a pairwise comparisons modelling approach

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A multiple inflated negative binomial hurdle regression model: analysis of the Italians' tourism behaviour during the Great Recession

We analyse tourism behaviour of Italian residents in the period covering the 2008 Great Recession. Using the Trips of Italian Residents in Italy and Abroad quarterly survey, carried out by the Italian National Institute of Statistics, we investigate whether and how the economic recession has affected the total number of overnight stays. The response variable is the result of a two-stage decision process: first we choose to take a holiday, then for how long. Moreover, since the number of overnight stays is typically concentrated on specific lengths (week-end, week, fortnight) we observe multiple peculiar spikes in its distribution. To take into account these two distinctive characteristics, we generalise the usual hurdle regression model by specifying a multiple inflated truncated negative binomial distribution for the positive responses. Results show that the economic recession impacted negatively on both components of the decision process and that, by controlling for the inflated nature of the response variable's distribution, the proposed formulation provides a better representation of the Italians' tourism behaviour in comparison with non-inflated hurdle models. Given this, we believe that our model can be a useful tool for policy makers who are trying to forecast the effects of new targeted policies to support tourism economy

Urban Planning and Sustainable Storm Water Management: Gaps and Potential for Integration for Climate Adaptation Strategies

While climate change urges cities to define appropriate strategies for climate adaptation, urban planning practices are still unable to encompass a broader understanding of hydraulic hazards and to exploit the mitigation potential of nature-based solutions (NBS) for stormwater management. This inability is particularly deep in the Italian context, where the integration of climate adaptation strategies within urban planning is very limited; thus, one of the planner's overriding needs is to determine where NBS can be most effective. The objective of this paper is to identify key drivers and tools for the introduction of hydrological resilience assessments and sustainable storm water management in urban planning practices, as a contribution to climate adaptation strategies. Through a case study in the city of Bari, the paper proposes a method for identifying the most suitable urban areas for implementing NBS, i.e., areas where NBS are able to intercept runoff. On the other hand, the same approach allows one to evaluate in advance the impact of urban planning choices, or rather of the planned land use change. Finally, the planning tools that may favor the adoption of a NBS approach in urban planning are analyzed, with particular reference to the territorial landscape plan of the Apulia region and urban regeneration plans

Chapter A statistical information system in support of job policies orientation

A significant problem for labour market policies relies on the individuation of the most advisable skills to have and to enhance through focused training offers. Vocational training systems and institutions are called to answer the question posed by every person looking for a new job or professional opportunities: which are the skills-to-have to enhance the professional profile? Many efforts have been made to answer this question, mainly designing predictive models; however, these models are often limited to specific economic sectors and usually don’t adopt a country-specific perspective. This paper proposes a recommendation system oriented to specific users: once that the user has described his/her skills profile, the system suggests the skills that, once got, will fit with the most frequent job vacancies. In this proposal perspective, the skills are proposed regardless of the economic sector, and they are compatible with the characteristics of the specific country labour market. In this contribution, we will focus on the Italian market; the recommendation system is based on the job ads published by Italian companies on various websites for both 2019 and 2020 after the skills required for each job offer have been mapped to one of the skills presented in the classification of European Skills/ competence, qualifications ad Occupations (ESCO)

Chapter Big data analysis and labour market: an analysis of Italian online job vacancies data

Economists and social scientists are increasingly making use of web data to address socio-economic issues and to integrate existing sources of information. The data produced by online platforms and websites could produce a lot of useful and multidimensional information with a variety of potential applications in socio-economic analysis. In this respect, with the internet growth and knowledge, many aspects of job search have been transformed due to the availability of online tools for job searching, candidate searching and job matching. In European countries there is growing interest in designing and implementing real labour market information system applications for internet labour market data in order to support policy design and evaluation through evidence-based decision-making. The analysis of labour market web data could provide useful information for policy-makers to define labour market strategies as big data, jointly with official statistics, support policy makers in a pressing policy question namely “How to tackle the mismatch between jobs and skills?”. In this regard, the topic of skills gap, how to measure it and how to bridge it with education and continuous training have been tackled by using the big data collection, such as the Cedefop (European Center for the Development of Vocational Training) initiative and the Wollybi Project (made by Burning Glass). In this framework, this contribution focuses on the issues arising from the use (and the usefulness) of on-line job vacancy data to analyse the Italian labour market by using the Wollybi data available for the years 2019 and 2020. Furthermore, the availability of data for the year 2020, will allow us to evaluate whether there has been an impact of COVID19 in terms of needed skills and required occupations in the online job vacancies

Sustainable water management - an approach

This paper sets out some of the main problems of water management in low & middle income countries and proposes a comprehensive decision support tool based on multi criteria analysis to cope with these problems. Further, this decision support tool will be discussed in the context of developing countries

Realisation and characterisation of Cu-based references for neutron imaging calibration purposes and first results

The long-term purpose of this study is to assess the capabilities of the new Neutron Imaging beamline developed at the LENA facility of Pavia (Italy) for the characterisation of bronze artefacts. In this preliminary work, a set of Cu-based reference alloys has been produced and analysed in order to test and calibrate the facility. The first step involved the production of Cu-based alloys with chemical composition and microstructure similar to ancient artefacts. The chemical composition of the reference alloys was analysed by Optical Emission Spectroscopy. Secondly, some samples were artificially patinated with different chemical treatments obtaining an artificial corrosion products layer comparable to natural corrosion. X-Ray Diffraction, Scanning Electron Microscopy and Raman Spectroscopy have been used to characterise the corrosion patina. The main corrosion products on sulphate-induced patina are cuprite and brochantite, whereas atacamite and clinoatacamite were detected on chloride-induced patinas. Finally, preliminary Neutron Imaging measurements were performed on a first set of coated and uncoated specimens in order to try to correlate the neutrons attenuation coefficients with the chemical compositions with promising results

X-ray Imaging Investigation on the Gilding Technique of an Ancient Egyptian Taweret Wooden Statuette

Diagnostic physical methods are increasingly applied to Cultural Heritage both for scientific investigations and conservation purposes. In particular, the X-ray imaging techniques of computed tomography (CT) and digital radiography (DR) are non-destructive investigation methods to study an object, being able to give information on its inner structure. In this paper, we present the results of the X-ray imaging study on an ancient Egyptian statuette (Late Period 722–30 BCE) belonging to the collection of Museo Egizio in Torino and representing an Egyptian goddess called Taweret, carved on wood and gilded with some colored details. Since few specific studies have been focused on materials and techniques used in Ancient Egypt for gilding, a detailed investigation was started in order to verify the technical features of the decoration in this sculpture. Specifically, DR and CT analyses have been performed at the Centro Conservazione e Restauro “La Venaria Reale” (CCR), with a new high resolution flat-panel detector, that allowed us to perform tomographic analysis reaching a final resolution better than the one achievable with the previous apparatus operating in the CCR