Agglomeration economies, knowledge spillovers, technological diversity and spatial clustering of innovations.

This paper explores the spatial patterns of innovative activities from an empirical perspective and with reference to the Italian case. Using patent and other economic data at the NUTS 3 level (provinces), it borrows methodology and techniques from spatial statistics in order to analyse the way innovative and economic activities are arranged in space. Results show that innovative activities are considerably more spatially concentrated than production, but that there are also large differences across sectors in the spatial patterns of innovation. In mechanical engineering, industrial equipment and instruments sectors innovative activities tend to cluster around local systems of contiguous provinces, while in most chemical and electronic sectors innovative activities tend to concentrate in few metropolitan provinces surrounded by other non-innovative provinces. Regression analysis is also carried out to evaluate the impact of agglomeration economies, knowledge spillovers and technological diversity on the innovative performance of provinces.

Technological change and international competitiveness: the case of Switzerland.

The paper presents the preliminary results of a research project on the relationship between technological and trade performance with a special focus on Switzerland. The analysis is based on two sources of data: a dataset based on patent applications by firms from major industrialized countries to the European Patent Office (EPO) and a data set on export flows of OECD countries (IMPEX database). For both datasets, the period of time is 1980-1992. The analysis is carried out both for the whole aggregate of manufacturing sectors (WS49) and for a subsample of high-tech sectors (HT49). In the first part of the paper, the relationship between trade and technological variables is analyzed descriptively using indexes of technological (RTA) and trade specialization (RCA). Then, in the second part of the paper, the relationship between trade and technological specialization is analyzed using econometric techniques and exploiting the information contained in the datasets along three dimensions: country, sector, time. Finally, sectoral and geographical patterns of innovative activities are analyzed for the case of Switzerland. The paper broadly confirms the existence of a positive relationship between technological and trade specialization. Such relationship is also stable over time. However, the relationship is not very strong and it holds differently across countries.

Spatial patterns of innovation and trade competitiveness

A renewed concern has been growing recently for the role that the spatial organisation of innovation and production plays in determining trade performances. Purely technological externalities can be seen as a core component of this process, and their degree of influence can be investigated in terms of how factors that shape the structure of the innovative activity are definite in space. In the present paper we explore the relationship between technological and trade performances by focusing on the spatial configuration of different structures of the innovative activity in high technology industries in Italy. The data used in the analysis are based on the European Patent Office data base and on trade statistics from the five digit S.I.T.C. classification, and are spatially referenced to the Italy NUT 3 regional partition. Technological and knowledge externalities are modelled through the use of information associated to the connectivity structure of the geographical system under study. The analysis is ultimately aimed at investigating how technology factors evolve with respect to specific and space related carachteristics of the industrial context giving rise to cumulativeness of technology advantages, and to what extent these factors appear to affect trade competitiveness in specific industries. Keywords: spatial externalities. spatial innovation systems. trade competitiveness

Demographic responses to short-term stress in a 19^th century Tuscan population: the case of household out-migration

This paper deals with the relationship between household emigration and short-term crisis in a rural community of mid-19th century Tuscany. Based on a detailed reconstruction of individual and household life-histories, the paper shows the close relationship between household emigration and different kinds of short-term stresses, either economic, epidemiologic or within the household. Despite the different response by SES - with the poorest strata of the population much exposed to price changes and mortality crisis - the death of the household head appears as one of the most powerful factor of household emigration

Knowledge spillovers and local innovation systems: a critical survey

The paper re-examines critically the growing literature on localised knowledge spillovers (LKSs), and finds the econometric evidence on the subject still lacking of a firm theoretical background, especially in respect of the more recent developments in the economics of knowledge. Therefore such evidence, and even more the concept itself of LKS, should not be read as supportive of new industrial geographers' work on industrial districts, hi-tech agglomerations and 'milieux innovateur'. On the contrary, it may represent a threat to the necessary efforts for gaining more theoretical rigour and getting more empirical fieldwork done. Key words: knowledge, innovation, spillovers, externalities, regional agglomeration. JEL classification: D62, O30, R12

Demographic responses to short-term stress in a 19th century Tuscan population: The case of household out-migration

This paper deals with the relationship between household emigration and short-term crisis in a rural community of mid-19th century Tuscany. Based on a detailed reconstruction of individual and household life-histories, the paper shows the close relationship between household emigration and different kinds of short-term stresses, either economic, epidemiologic or within the household. Despite the different response by SES - with the poorest strata of the population much exposed to price changes and mortality crisis - the death of the household head appears as one of the most powerful factor of household emigration.emigration, household, Italy, sharecropping, short-term stress

Fitting Jump Models

We describe a new framework for fitting jump models to a sequence of data. The key idea is to alternate between minimizing a loss function to fit multiple model parameters, and minimizing a discrete loss function to determine which set of model parameters is active at each data point. The framework is quite general and encompasses popular classes of models, such as hidden Markov models and piecewise affine models. The shape of the chosen loss functions to minimize determine the shape of the resulting jump model.Comment: Accepted for publication in Automatic

Health and socio-demographic conditions as determinants of marriage and social mobility

This paper makes use of data collected from military registers and marriage certificates for the population of Alghero, in Sardinia, for the period 1866-1925, with the aim of investigating the role played by physical characteristics and health in the possibility of social mobility through marriage. Our findings demonstrate that, whereas physical defects and ill health had little impact on the chances of marrying an illiterate woman, these factors did have a negative effect on the chances of marrying a woman who was literate. In a context in which intergenerational social mobility remained limited and the family had the final say on marriage arrangements, it is likely that only healthy individuals were selected for marriages regarded as strategic for the purposes of forming and strengthening family alliances, and/or improving the social position within the community.health, marriage, Sardinia, social mobility