CREDIT, VENTURE CAPITAL AND REGIONAL ECONOMIC GROWTH

In this paper we investigate the relationship between finance and regional economic growth. The dataset consists of a panel of 53 regions belonging to three countries, Germany, Italy and Spain, for the period 1995-2008. To avoid a problem of endogeneity, we estimate a dynamic panel using the generalised method of moments (GMM). The results underline the important role played by bank lending in regional economic growth. The distinction between mutual and commercial credit suggests that both types of bank are important for regional growth but the role of mutual banks is greater in economically deprived areas [EDAs]. Similar results are obtained for the venture capital variableregional economic growth, relationship lending, venture capital, economically deprived areas, dynamic panel techniques

Credit crunch: analisi e possibili soluzioni

La seconda fase della grande crisi finanziaria iniziata nel 2010, c.d. del debito so-vrano, ha pesantemente colpito le banche italiane, determinando dal 2011 una si-tuazione di credit crunch per famiglie e imprese. L’obiettivo del presente contributo è di analizzare come il credit crunch stia determinando una situazione di disintermediazione, ormai strutturale, del canale bancario per il credito alle imprese, modificando il tradizionale rapporto banca-impresa in Italia. Come conseguenza occorre individuare e implementare azioni volte a intervenire sull’assetto complessivo del nostro sistema finanziario per porre rimedio a severe carenze strutturali in termini di strumenti, mercati e intermediari

Conservare e valorizzare le arti performative nei contesti carcerari

The preservation of intangible cultural heritage responds to the need to prevent it from being forgotten and to ensure its transmission across generations. In hidden and marginalized contexts, such as total institutions, the creation of archives that document cultural practices not only enables knowledge transmission but also creates a bridge with the external society. The article examines the case study of Compagnia della Fortezza, led by director Armando Punzo, which has been working in the Volterra’s Prison for over thirty years. The archive of Compagnia della Fortezza represents a cultural and artistic heritage of inestimable value for the history of prison theatre and contemporary theatre in Italy and Europe. The company’s archive is preserving the memory and legacy of a pioneering experience, which has transformed a correctional institution into a cultural one

Birds of a Feather Flock Together: The Inclusive Effect of Similarity Patterns in Equity Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding is helping to drive financial inclusion by expanding the availability of funds to traditionally excluded and underserved groups of individuals, such as ethnic minority and female entrepreneurs. This study verifies how ethnic and gender similarity between investor and entrepreneur can affect the invested amount in an equity crowdfunding campaign. Using an integrated approach with linear regression and Shapley decomposition, we analyze 8600 investments made by 5996 unique personal shareholder investors in 81 equity crowdfunding campaigns. Results show that similarity patterns seem to significantly influence the amount invested in a campaign but their effects change according to investor’s gender and ethnic origin. In fact, even if female investors give a higher amount to men-led companies, their preference changes if the company is run by a female founder belonging to the same ethnic minority group. Results emphasize equity crowdfunding’s potential as a tool for the financial inclusion of ethnic minority groups of investors and entrepreneurs

Life Cycle Assessment of an Industrial Laundry: a Case Study in the Italian Context

The high volumes of wastewater from industrial laundry with known toxicological concerns represent a relevant source of pollution for water bodies. Moreover, the unavailability of a detailed and specific Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) referring to the use of detergent within the laundry system could undermine the overall quality of the environmental assessment. This is related to the use of a substitutional product or proxy dataset for specific processes like the use of detergents. Laundry services are also known as highly energy consuming sites. This paper thus aims to make a Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) and Assessment (LCA) for an industrial laundry to provide the environmental profile for an Italian case study. The primary data input to finalize the LCI came from data collected directly from an Italian industrial laundry, integrated with literature, data provided from supporting databases (i.e. Ecoinvent 3.8), and data specifically obtained from the technical datasheets of detergents. The industrial laundry system considers the product’s overall supply chain: extraction and manufacturing of raw materials, including the detergent, transportation and logistics, the industrial process associated with the laundry activity, wastewater treatment, recirculation packaging, and final disposal stages. The calculated environmental profiles refer to the functional unit of 1 kg of linen washed by a standard washing cycle. The system boundaries of this study include the production stages of the process. The analysed activities are the transportation for the delivery and collection of linen, the purchase of raw materials, and the sanitization and washing processes. SimaPro 9.2 software and the ReCiPe 2016 H method are used for the LCA study. The baseline scenario has been compared with an alternative scenario introducing renewable energy technology (i.e. solar PV panel). The result shows a total impact of 12.77 mPt. The most impacting activities are the washing phase (4.62 mPt), the ironing phase (4.29 mPt), and the drying phase (1.56 mPt). The greatest impact in the washing phase is caused by the use of detergents and washing products. It is observed that most of the impacts fall into the categories of ‘Global Warming, Human Health’, ‘Fine Particulate Formation’, ‘Carcinogenic Human Toxicity’, ‘Non- Carcinogenic Human Toxicity’, ‘Fossil Resource Scarcity’. The midpoint category with the highest impact is ‘Fine Particulate Formation’ with a value of 5.18 mPt. The alternative scenario introducing renewable energy technology (i.e. solar PV panel) reduces the impact by 19.7 %. Sensitivity analyses have been performed to evaluate the LCA model’s uncertainty, with specific reference to the washing agents, the transportation of raw materials, and the energy consumption

Sex differences in the effect of type 2 diabetes on major cardiovascular diseases: results from a population-based study in Italy.

The aim of the study is to assess sex difference in association between type 2 diabetes and incidence of major cardiovascular events, that is, myocardial infarction, stroke, and heart failure, using information retrieved by diabetes register. The inhabitants of Reggio Emilia (Italy) aged 30\u201384 were followed during 2012\u20132014. Incidence rate ratios and 95% confidence intervals were calculated using multivariate Poisson model. The age- and sex-specific event rates were graphed. Subjects with type 2 diabetes had an excess risk compared to their counterparts without diabetes for all the three major cardiovascular events. The excess risk is similar in women and men for stroke (1.8 times) and heart failure (2.7 times), while for myocardial infarction, the excess risk in women is greater than the one observed in men (IRR 2.58, 95% CI 2.22\u20133.00 and IRR 1.78, 95% CI 1.60\u20132.00, resp.; P of interaction < 0.0001). Women had always a lesser risk than men, but in case of myocardial infarction, the women with type 2 diabetes lost part of advantage gained by women free of diabetes (IRR 0.61, 95% CI 0.53\u20130.72 and IRR 0.36, 95% CI 0.33\u20130.39, resp.). In women with type 2 diabetes, the risk of major cardiovascular events is anticipated by 20\u201330 years, while in men it is by 15\u201320

Determinants of inappropriate setting allocation in the care of patients with type 2 diabetes: A population-based study in Reggio Emilia province

The study aims to describe the distribution of patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) by care plan and to highlight determinants of underuse and overuse of integrated care (IC). This cross-sectional study included all T2D patients resident in Reggio Emilia on 31/12/2015 based on the population-based diabetes registry. Eligibility for IC requires good glycaemic control, no rapid insulin, no kidney failure and no diabetes complications. We calculated the proportion of IC underuse and overuse and adjusted prevalence estimate using multivariate logistic regression. Determinants were age, sex, citizenship, district of residence and time since diagnosis. Of 29,776 patients, 15,364 (51.6%) were in diabetes clinic plan, 9851 (33.1%) in IC plan and 4561 (15.3%) not in any care plan (i.e., in Other group). There were 10,906 (36.6%) patients eligible for IC, of whom 1000 in Other group. When we adjusted for all covariates and restricted the analysis to patients included in care plans, the proportion of those eligible for IC plan but cared for in diabetes clinic plan (i.e. underuse of IC) was 28% (n = 3028/9906; 95%CI 27–29). Similarly, the proportion of those not eligible for IC but cared for in IC plan (i.e. overuse of IC) was 11% (n = 1720/11,896; 95%CI 10–11).The main determinant of both IC underuse and overuse was the district of residence. Foreign status was associated with underuse (37%; 95%CI 33–43), while old age (≥80 years) with both underuse (36%; 95%CI 0.33–0.38) and overuse (23%; 95%CI 22–25). The criterion for suspension of IC plan most frequently found was renal failure, followed by hospitalization for diabetes-related complications. Patients are more often allocated to more specialized settings than not. Healthcare provider-related factors are the main determinants of inappropriate setting allocation

Effectiveness of integrated care model for type 2 diabetes: A population-based study in Reggio Emilia (Italy)

Aims To compare the effectiveness of integrated care with that of the diabetes clinic care model in terms of mortality and hospitalisation of type 2 diabetes patients with low risk of complications. Methods Out of 27234 people with type 2 diabetes residing in the province of Reggio Emilia on 31/12/2011, 3071 were included in this cohort study as eligible for integrated care (i.e., low risk of complications) and cared for with the same care model for at least two years. These patients were followed up from 2012 to 2016, for all-cause and diabetes-related mortality and hospital admissions. We performed a Poisson regression model, using the proportion of eligible patients included in the integrated care model for each general practitioner as an instrumental variable. Results 1700 patients were cared for by integrated care and 1371 by diabetes clinics. Mortality rate ratios were 0.83 (95%CI 0.60-1.13) and 0.95 (95%CI 0.54-1.70) for all-cause and cardiovascular mortality, respectively, and incidence rate ratios were 0.90 (95%CI 0.76-1.06) and 0.91 (95%CI 0.69-1.20) for all-cause and cardiovascular disease hospitalisation, respectively. Conclusion For low risk patients with type 2 diabetes, the integrated care model involving both general practitioner and diabetes clinic professionals showed similar mortality and hospitalisation as a model with higher use of specialized care in an exclusively diabetes clinic setting

Antitarget, Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Leads, Drugs, and the Drug Discovery-Genetics Alliance Perspective

: The most advanced antiviral molecules addressing major SARS-CoV-2 targets (Main protease, Spike protein, and RNA polymerase), compared with proteins of other human pathogenic coronaviruses, may have a short-lasting clinical efficacy. Accumulating knowledge on the mechanisms underlying the target structural basis, its mutational progression, and the related biological significance to virus replication allows envisaging the development of better-targeted therapies in the context of COVID-19 epidemic and future coronavirus outbreaks. The identification of evolutionary patterns based solely on sequence information analysis for those targets can provide meaningful insights into the molecular basis of host-pathogen interactions and adaptation, leading to drug resistance phenomena. Herein, we will explore how the study of observed and predicted mutations may offer valuable suggestions for the application of the so-called "synthetic lethal" strategy to SARS-CoV-2 Main protease and Spike protein. The synergy between genetics evidence and drug discovery may prioritize the development of novel long-lasting antiviral agents