The role of industry variety in the creation of innovative start-ups in Italy

This paper aims to ascertain whether related and unrelated industry variety affects the creation of innovative as opposed to other start-ups in Italian local labor market areas. The analysis combines elements from the knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship, the recombinant growth approach, and evolutionary economic geography. Using data on Italian innovative start-ups created between 2012 and 2015, and on firms newly registered with the Italian Chambers of Commerce, and applying appropriate count data models, our estimates show that innovative start-ups are more frequently created in areas where unrelated variety is higher. This is because innovative startups find more opportunities to recombine different pieces of knowledge or maximize their portfolio of demand opportunities, in such a setting, whereas a higher related variety stimulates the creation of other types of new start-up, for which it is easier to combine similar, complementary knowledge sources. We also find that half of the effect of related and unrelated variety comes from the localization of (innovative) start-ups in large urban areas

International linkages, local externalities, innovation and productivity. A structural model of Italian manufacturing firms

Using a large sample of Italian manufacturing firms, in this paper we estimate a structural model of research, innovation, productivity and export performance augmented to take account for the role played by local externalities. This model, which is an "enlarged" version of Crepon, Duguet and Mairesse (1998) model, comprises four main equations. The first identifies the factors underlying the intensity of Research and Development (R&D) investments; the second links R&D capital to innovation output; the third focuses on Total Factor Productivity (TFP) as determined by innovation; the fourth relates export performance to TFP. Our estimates show the significant role played by local externalities in these processes. In particular, related variety and urbanization positively affect the creation of new ideas through R&D, while specialization impacts on TFP to complement innovation output. Finally, urbanization economies support TFP in driving firms' export performance.export, innovation, productivity, R&D, spatial agglomeration

Techno-organizational change and skill formation: Evidence from Italian manufacturing firms

This paper emphasizes the role of labour demand as a determinant of working skill formation. In particular, we study the relationship between techno-organizational innovation and skill formation from a labour demand perspective. In this respect, we investigate if activities aimed at increasing the international commitment and the technological and organizational change do have an effect on both the propensity of firms to train and on the intensity of training. On this purpose, by relying on a job-competition-like framework about the operation of the labour market in allocating skills, we first estimate which factors do affect the propensity of firms to invest in work-based training activities, and, secondly, we estimate if the same factors do also play a role in determining the degree of intensity of such a training activity. Relying on a new dataset on Italian manufacturing firms active over the period 2001-2006, we first estimate a probit model on the probability for a firm to train; then we employ a Heckman two-stage selection model on the share of trainees with which we can control for selectivity bias. Our results point to a positive and significant effect of both firms’ characteristics, like size, specialization and capital intensity, and firms' techno-organisational activities on both training incidence and on training intensity. A particularly significant role, in this respect, is played by the combination of process innovation and the adoption of new organizational practices.human capital, international commitment, labour demand, organizational change, skill, technological innovation, work-based training

Spatial Agglomeration, Technology and Outsourcing of Knowledge Intensive Business Services Empirical Insights from Italy

Aim of this paper is to explore the main drivers of outsourcing of knowledge intensive business services by Italian manufacturing firms. While anecdotal and empirical evidence has emphasized labour cost and scale economies as behind firms’ choices to outsource production or service activities, here we focus on spatial agglomeration and technology as important factors. Using microeconomic data on a repeated cross-section of Italian manufacturing firms for the period 1998-2003, we develop a two-stage model in order to avoid selection bias: first, we estimate the determinants of the firm's decision to outsource business-related services; second, we estimate the main factors underlying the intensity and complexity of KIBS outsourcing, expressed by the number of service activities that are externalized. Our results show that labour cost-savings are not relevant in driving the decision to outsource KIBS, but ICT, R&D and location within a dense and technologically developed industrial district have very positive effects.KIBS, Service Outsourcing, R&D, ICT, Spatial Agglomeration

Production Offshoring and the Skill Composition of Italian Manufacturing Firms: A Counterfactual Analysis

This work explores the effects of cross-border relocation of production on the skill composition of Italian manufacturing firms. Its aim is to assess if the firms’ strategy to offshore production activities towards cheap labor countries determines a bias in the relative employment of skilled versus unskilled workers. Using a balanced panel of firm-based data across the period 1995-2003, we test this skill-bias hypothesis by means of a counterfactual experiment in which we employ a difference-in-differences propensity score matching estimator in order to control for selectivity bias without relying on a specific functional form of the relations of interest. In line with the literature, our results point to confirm a general, although weak, skill bias effect of production offshoring on the labor-force composition of Italian manufacturing: in particular, we find that firms farming out production stages in 1998-2000 show an upward shift in the skill ratio with respect to the counterfactual of firms not moving their production abroad. However, when we look at the single components of the skill ratio, we find that the skill bias effect is primarily driven by a fall in the employment of production workers, while a weak or not significant effect is found with respect to the employment of skilled personnel.Production Offshoring, Skill Bias, Difference-in-Differences, Propensity

A new conducting polymer with exceptional visible-light photocatalytic activity derived from varbituric acid polycondensation

Abstract A novel covalent, metal-free, photocatalytic material is prepared by thermal polymerization of barbituric acid (BA). The structure of the photocatalyst is analyzed by using scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and infrared, UV?visible, and 1H solution and 13C solid-state NMR spectroscopy. The photodegradation efficiency of BA thermally polymerized at different temperatures is tested by photocatalytic degradation of aquatic rhodamine B (RhB) dye under visible-light irradiation. It is shown that heating BA at an optimized temperature of 300 °C, that is, still in the range that polymer-like polycondensation takes place, results in a photocatalyst that can remove RhB with 96% photodegradation efficiency after 70 min exposure to visible light. The polycondensation reaction of BA is identified to process through precipitation of trimer units as primary building blocks. Reference experiments such as addition of scavengers and saturation with oxygen are studied to understand the photodegradation process. It is shown that the presence of triethanolamine, and excess of oxygen and p-benzoquinone in the solution of RhB and photocatalyst (BA300) is not beneficial, but decreases the photodegradation efficiency