LE PRODUZIONI BIOLOGICHE: UN SETTORE EMERGENTE

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Water Conservation Behavior and Environmental Concerns

Water conservation represents important pro-environmental behavior for a sustainable environment. This paper investigates the link between water conservation behavior and general environmental concerns using a large dataset from the Multipurpose Household Survey conducted annually by the Italian Central Statistics Office. Univariate probit models show that pollution and resource exhaustion are positively related to individual water conservation behavior while alteration of environmental heritage exhibits a negative relationship with water saving behavior. These findings are robust to the inclusion of environment knowledge and social capital variables. Robustness analysis also indicates that television and radio, participation in environmental initiatives, money for environmental protection and churchgoing are significant determinants of water conservation behavior

R&D Spillovers Effects on strategic behaviour of Large International Firms

This study contributes to existing literature on firms’ innovative activity examining the relationship between the R&D rivalry and spillovers at the firm level. In particular, we present an empirical analysis in United States, Japan and Europe based upon a new dataset composed of 879 worldwide R&D-intensive firms. In order to identify the technological proximity, we use the Jaffe industry weight matrix, based on the construction of technological vectors for each firm, where its patents are distributed across technology classes, in such a way that we compute knowledge spillovers. Opportune econometric techniques, which deal with both firm’s unobserved heterogeneity and weak exogeneity of the explanatory variables, are implemented. In order to test the robustness of our results, we introduce also the combined spatial-autoregressive model with autoregressive disturbances and additional endogenous variables. The empirical results are differentiated across countries, and suggest that the spatial effects are statistically significan

R&D Spillovers Effects on strategic behaviour of Large International Firms

This study contributes to existing literature on firms’ innovative activity examining the relationship between the R&D rivalry and spillovers at the firm level. In particular, we present an empirical analysis in United States, Japan and Europe based upon a new dataset composed of 879 worldwide R&D-intensive firms. In order to identify the technological proximity, we use the Jaffe industry weight matrix, based on the construction of technological vectors for each firm, where its patents are distributed across technology classes, in such a way that we compute knowledge spillovers. Opportune econometric techniques, which deal with both firm’s unobserved heterogeneity and weak exogeneity of the explanatory variables, are implemented. In order to test the robustness of our results, we introduce also the combined spatial-autoregressive model with autoregressive disturbances and additional endogenous variables. The empirical results are differentiated across countries, and suggest that the spatial effects are statistically significan

Influence of radical initiators in gold catalysis: Evidence supporting trapping of radicals derived from azobis(isobutyronitrile) by gold halides

[EN] Gold halides (AuCl3, HAuCl4, and AuCl) efficiently trap the radicals generated in the room-temperature photolysis of azobis(isobutyronitrile) (AIBN) to give an organogold H[(CH3)(2)CCN](2)AuCl2 compound that has been characterized by spectroscopy. The characteristic features of the organogold are a quaternary carbon at 100 ppm on C-13 NMR and a HR-MS peak with a molecular formula Of C8H13N2AuCl. Catalytic data for cyclohexene aerobic oxidation confirms the beneficial influence of the presence of AlBN on the catalytic activity of Au/CeO2C.Alvaro Rodríguez, MM.; Aprile ., C.; Corma Canós, A.; Ferrer Ribera, RB.; García Gómez, H. (2006). Influence of radical initiators in gold catalysis: Evidence supporting trapping of radicals derived from azobis(isobutyronitrile) by gold halides. Journal of Catalysis. 245(1):249-252. doi:10.1016/j.jcat.2006.10.003S249252245

Photocatalytic Performance of Undoped and Al-Doped ZnO Nanoparticles in the Degradation of Rhodamine B under UV-Visible Light:The Role of Defects and Morphology

Quasi-spherical undoped ZnO and Al-doped ZnO nanoparticles with different aluminum content, ranging from 0.5 to 5 at% of Al with respect to Zn, were synthesized. These nanoparticles were evaluated as photocatalysts in the photodegradation of the Rhodamine B (RhB) dye aqueous solution under UV-visible light irradiation. The undoped ZnO nanopowder annealed at 400 °C resulted in the highest degradation efficiency of ca. 81% after 4 h under green light irradiation (525 nm), in the presence of 5 mg of catalyst. The samples were characterized using ICP-OES, PXRD, TEM, FT-IR, 27Al-MAS NMR, UV-Vis and steady-state PL. The effect of Al-doping on the phase structure, shape and particle size was also investigated. Additional information arose from the annealed nanomaterials under dynamic N2 at different temperatures (400 and 550 °C). The position of aluminum in the ZnO lattice was identified by means of 27Al-MAS NMR. FT-IR gave further information about the type of tetrahedral sites occupied by aluminum. Photoluminescence showed that the insertion of dopant increases the oxygen vacancies reducing the peroxide-like species responsible for photocatalysis. The annealing temperature helps increase the number of red-emitting centers up to 400 °C, while at 550 °C, the photocatalytic performance drops due to the aggregation tendency

Le Politiche Ambientali

Lo sviluppo economico degli ultimi decenni ha determinato rilevanti conseguenze negative in termini di impatto ambientale. La problematicità del rapporto tra salvaguardia dell'ambiente e sviluppo economico sta assumendo dimensioni preoccupanti, tanto da divenire un impegno prioritario nelle agende delle politche pubbliche. Il testo fornisce un quadro sintetico ed aggiornato degli indirizzi generali della politica dell'ambiente definiti a livello internazionale, comunitario e nazionale, e un'analisi degli strumenti utili per la loro attuazione. Una particolare attenzione è riservata alle politche volte a ridurre e controllare i problemi di vivibilità nei centri urbani e di degrado dell'ambiente rurale e a quelle per il recupero e la conservazione dell'ambiente naturale

Water Conservation Behavior and Environmental Concerns

Water conservation represents one important pro-environmental behavior for a sustainable environment. This paper investigates the link between water conservation behavior and general environmental concerns using a large dataset as the1998 wave of Multipurpose Household Survey conducted annually by the Italian Central Statistical Office. Univariate probit models show that pollution and resource exhaustion are positively related to individual water conservation behavior while alteration of environmental heritage exhibits a negative relationship with water saving behavior. These findings are robust to the inclusion of environment knowledge and social capital variables. The robustness analysis also indicates that television and radio, participation to environmental initiatives, money for environmental protection and churchgoing are significant determinants of water conservation behavior

Other-regarding preferences in pro-environmental behaviours: Empirical analysis and policy implications of organic and local food products purchasing in Italy

This paper investigates the link between organic and local food products purchasing as pro-environmental behaviours, and “other-regarding preferences”, such as altruism, intrinsic motivation and self-image, which is measured through individuals’ environmental concerns, volunteering, participation in ecological associations and pro-social behaviours. Using the Italian data from the Multipurpose survey on households “Aspects of daily life” conducted in 2019, and bivariate probit models, this paper shows that environmental egoistic and altruistic concerns, volunteering in formal organizations and participation in ecological associations are positively correlated with the purchase of more organic and local food products. Higher pro-social behaviours correlate positively with the purchase of more local products and negatively with the purchase of more organic products. Furthermore, higher education and better household economic conditions are strongly correlated with the purchase of more organic products, while participation in cultural activities is positively associated with the purchase of more organic and local food products

Intrinsic incentives in household waste recycling: The case of Italy in the year 1998

This paper studies the relationship between environmental concern and household separate waste collection, controlling for social capital, in Italy in the year 1998 when policy makers started to raise awareness of the importance of waste prevention, disposal and recycling. At the time, the public's sensitivity and attitude to waste issues were mainly influenced by their own lifestyles. We consider five separate waste collections, namely paper, plastic, glass, aluminium and food waste, to be taken to the relevant roadside containers. It focuses on three types of environmental concerns, classified as egoistic, altruistic and biospheric, and identifies five measures of general environmental issues able to match the different types of concerns considered. It also controls for three types of social relations: bonding, bridging and linking social capital. We use the dataset from the Multipurpose Household Survey, conducted by the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT), and five probit models to shape the number of separate waste collections. The results show that greater concern for waste production and disposal, pollution, climate change, resource depletion and alteration of environmental heritage is related to a higher likelihood of doing household waste recycling. Nonetheless, for the highest number of separate waste collections, the magnitude of the marginal effect of environmental concern variables decreases, showing the relevance of marginal costs in recycling behaviour. Finally, bridging social capital is the only social capital positively correlated with all five separate waste collections