Analysis of the soial acceptance of PV and BIPV technologies in Mediterranean cities

This paper provides an analysis of six Mediterranean countries as regards the attitudes and preferences on solar technologies. It analyses the social acceptance of PV technologies both in the private dimension (i.e. willingness to install a specific PV system) and in the public dimension (i.e. acceptability of specific BIPV applications in the urban context where the individual resides). We designed an original experiment, using simulations of BIPV applications in residential buildings representative of each city, in order to elicit preferences for different technological and aesthetic solutions, conditional on different levels of information on the cost effectiveness of each option. Results show the positive influence of awareness of benefits, subsidies, “neutral” information and peer effect on the potential adopter of PV technologies; a positive attitude and attachment toward the city also plays an important role. Similar results are found when we examine the social acceptability of different PV applications on residential buildings in the urban context. A comparative analysis across countries reveals that Italian, Tunisian and Jordanian respondents seem the most interested in PV technologies, while Spanish respondents focus on negative aspects associated with a PV investment. Lebanese and Egyptian respondents are in between the two positions

The economic enhancement of military sites and landscapes: what are the lessons of international practice?

The presence of military assets characterizes the landscape of the areas where the asset is located also in socio-economic terms. In our analysis, we first distinguish between “historical” sites covering events up to the Second World War, and “recent sites” related to the Cold War. We also distinguish between tangible heritage, such as constructions and artefacts of various ages, and intangible heritage, mainly areas where battles and major military events took place. Battlefields form the core of a variety of tourism products: from cultural and educational tourism, to commemoration of events with re-enactment of battles, to the so-called “memory tourism”, up to the so-called “dark tourism”. We start with a short analysis of strategies adopted by public administration to dismantle and reuse historical military sites, focusing on the shift from a totally public management to the gradual involvement of privates. Usually, reuse of historical sites is addressed to tourism and cultural purposes. Then, we focus on the Cold War heritage, characterised by larger areas, important infrastructures and high environmental contamination. Private investment is fundamental to the reuse and management of these sites. A wide range of possibility of reuse has been identified. Finally, we analyse battlefield-related tourism megatrends. Our analysis aims to make a review of reuse of military sites, especially where economic data are available to verify the amount of resources used or catalysed by the reuse of a military sites. During the analysis, we will proceed to identify the main characteristics of the reuse process. These and other information will be useful to derive general indications on what are the economic potentials (and limits) of Sardinian military vestments, considered in their dual nature of tangible asset and intangible heritage. In addition, we discuss the application of economic valuation tools to closure and reuse of military sites

Studio della domanda di servizi di pubblica utilità : un'analisi panel dei consumi residenziali di acqua ed energia elettrica

The present work analyses the determinants of water and electricity demand for residential purposes in an Italian region. This thesis analyses a dataset on water consumption in 240 municipalities for a period of 6 years (2000-2005) and a dataset of electricity consumption in 374 municipalities for a period of 11 years (1995-2005), using aggregated data. The aim is to estimate the value of the price elasticity, of the income elasticity, and to analyse the influence of socio-economic, demographic, structural, climate variables on consumption levels and trends. We analyse also the cross-price elasticity of other fuels and the influence of heating systems (central vs single, fuel used) on electricity consumptions, and the influence of management practices applied by water utilities on water consumption. The FEVD (Fixed Effect Vector Decomposition) procedure, recently proposed by Plumper and Troeger (2007), is adopted to estimate panel data characterised by the presence of time invariant variables, or variables which vary rarely in time. FEVD results are compared to other static panel estimators. Results obtained can be useful to elaborate future policies and management practices

The Socio-Psychological Determinants of Preferences toward Ecosystem Services: a Choice Experiment study with Posterior Analysis of Conditional Preference Distributions

Aim of this paper is to analyze the determinants of social preferences toward measures to improve water ecosystem services, that European countries should implement in compliance with the Water Framework Directive 2000(60). A Choice Experiment study has been conducted to evaluate social costs and benefits associated with measures to improve water ecosystem services in Sardinia, Italy. Socio-psychological factors complement usual socio-demographic and economic factors to analyze the determinants of individuals’ preferences. After fitting the choice data by means of a Random Parameter Logit model, we apply a set of Posterior Analysis methods to examine the conditional distributions for identification of socioeconomic, demographic and psychological factors influencing individual preferences and WTP. This approach proves useful to uncover a variety of causal effects that could not be estimated efficiently by Mixed Logit models with heterogeneity in mean and/or variance