Flâneur or fast food culture? Issues on typologies of cultural tourist

In cultural tourism two trade-offs are present: a traditional one describing preservation and valorisation effects and a second one about the different levels of quality that can be experienced during a visit. The latter emerged recently over a renewed popularity of the "lone traveller", the flâneur, who searches for the Aura (Benjamin, 1936) away from crowded museums where globalization of tastes may turn them in a sort of "fast food" places. The aim of this work is to describe possible types of visitors and their related economic effects (mostly the crowding out). The various dimensions to the value of heritage in contemporary societies (community values versus the rule of fashion, Musgrave, 1956) will also be discussed. The conclusions drawn here will suggest that the trade offs arising among different types of visitors, make more complex the management of cultural sites, as well as much more problematic the current debate on the relationship between democracy and opportunities for cultural experiences.cultural tourism, cultural consumption, merit good.

Governance-technology co-evolution and misalignment in the electricity industry

This paper explores some reasons why the alignment between governance and technology in infrastructures may be unstable or not easy to achieve. Focusing on the electricity industry, we claim that the decentralization of governance – an essential step towards a decentralized technical coordination - may be hampered by if deregulation magnifies behavioural uncertainties and asset specificities; and that in a technically decentralized system, political demand for centralized coordination may arise if the players are able to collude and lobby, and if such practices lead to higher electricity rates and lower efficiency. Our claims are supported by insights coming from approaches as diverse as transaction cost economics, the competence-based view of the firm, and political economy.Governance; Technology; Coherence; Competence; Transaction costs; Regulation.

Exploring Convergence in some OECD Public Social Expenditure Trends

Triggered by the phenomenon of globalisation, during recent years there has been a process of State policy rationalisation in the social expenditure domain; hence the debate over the present role and dimension of welfare state has intensified. Following on the extensive multidisciplinary literature on this issue, the purpose of this paper is two-fold 1) to apply a more traditional analysis of convergence (sigma and beta convergence) in public social expenditures and 2) to analyse public social expenditure allocation expressed as a % of GDP and derive a possible classification of the countries by means of a multivariate approach. We conclude by explaining some similarities in the expenditure behaviour of certain countries in terms of the policy transfer process. Our results can be interpreted as a further contribution to the literature on contemporary public policy evaluation in the welfare domain.Policy Making, Welfare Programme, Public social Expenditures, Policy Transfer, principal component analysis, cluster analysis

NON-RESIDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS HERITAGE: EXPLORING TOURIST TYPOLOGIES BY CULTURAL CONSUMPTION

Koristeći multidimenzionalnu analizu, ova studija istražuje ponašanje turista na povijesnim lokalitetima u regiji Campania. Kao rezultat klaster analize identifi cirane su četiri skupine nerezidentnih kulturnih posjetitelja. Analiza potvrđuje da proces odabira povijesnog lokaliteta varira ovisno o karakteristikama posjetitelja – ne samo socio-demografskim, već i onim vezanim uz prethodna turistička iskustva. Usmjeravajući se na dva klastera – „upoznate“ i „usko segmentirane“ turiste – predlažu se moguće ekonomske interpretacije različitih modela ponašanja u procesu konzumacije nasljeđa. Zaključci sugeriraju da su akumulirano znanje i emocionalna povezanost s lokalitetom, kao dio šireg više nego lokalnog nasljeđa, ključne varijable kod donošenja odluka turista te da se potražnja ne može jednostavno stimulirati mjerama ponude.This study examines tourists’ behaviour in heritage sites in the Campania region using a multidimensional analysis. Four types of non-resident cultural visitors have been identifi ed resulting from a clustering technique. The analysis has confi rmed that the process of selecting cultural sites varies according to the characteristics of the visitor that are not only socio-demographic but related to previous tourist experiences as well. Focusing on two clusters – “familiar” and “niche” tourists – we propose a possible economic interpretation of different behaviours in the process of heritage consumption. The conclusions suggest that the accumulated knowledge and emotional involvement with the site as a part of a wider rather than local heritage are the key variables in tourist choices and that demand cannot be simply stimulated by supply measures

Exploring public social expenditure trends in the globalization era

Triggered by the phenomenon of globalisation, during recent years there has been a process of State policy rationalisation in the social expenditure domain; hence the debate over the present role and dimension of welfare state has intensified. Following on the extensive multidisciplinary literature on this issue, the purpose of this paper is two-fold 1) to apply a traditional analysis of convergence (sigma and beta convergence) in public social expenditures and 2) to analyse public social expenditure allocation expressed as a % of GDP and derive a possible classification of the countries by means of a multivariate approach. Our results, revealing that some convergence in the expenditure domain occurred for certain Southern and Northern European countries, can be interpreted as a further contribution to the literature on contemporary public policy evaluation in the welfare domain.peer-reviewe

Exploring public social expenditure trends in the globalization era

Triggered by the phenomenon of globalisation, during recent years there has been a process of State policy rationalisation in the social expenditure domain; hence the debate over the present role and dimension of welfare state has intensified. Following on the extensive multidisciplinary literature on this issue, the purpose of this paper is two-fold 1) to apply a traditional analysis of convergence (sigma and beta convergence) in public social expenditures and 2) to analyse public social expenditure allocation expressed as a % of GDP and derive a possible classification of the countries by means of a multivariate approach. Our results, revealing that some convergence in the expenditure domain occurred for certain Southern and Northern European countries, can be interpreted as a further contribution to the literature on contemporary public policy evaluation in the welfare domain.peer-reviewe

Una Prima Stima del Residuo Fiscale e del suo Effetto sulla Localizzazione delle Imprese in Cina

In the present work we analyze fiscal differences among Chinese provinces using indexes built on the concept of fiscal residuum. Our analysis help us to verify the role of public transfers in promoting both fiscal equalization and competition among provinces. We further study the impact of the fiscal residua on the localization of foreign enterprises. Our first results show that enterprises are conditioned, in their localization choices, by the general welfare conditions of each jurisdiction. Our results underscore the role of local and central institutions in affecting the productive structures.Public Finance, Fiscal Policy, Revenue, Subsidies, Fiscal residuum

Exploring Convergence in some OECD Public Social Expenditure Trends

Triggered by the phenomenon of globalisation, during recent years there has been a process of State policy rationalisation in the social expenditure domain; hence the debate over the present role and dimension of welfare state has intensified. Following on the extensive multidisciplinary literature on this issue, the purpose of this paper is two-fold 1) to apply a more traditional analysis of convergence (sigma and beta convergence) in public social expenditures and 2) to analyse public social expenditure allocation expressed as a % of GDP and derive a possible classification of the countries by means of a multivariate approach. We conclude by explaining some similarities in the expenditure behaviour of certain countries in terms of the policy transfer process. Our results can be interpreted as a further contribution to the literature on contemporary public policy evaluation in the welfare domain

Quantum Computing for High-Energy Physics: State of the Art and Challenges. Summary of the QC4HEP Working Group

Quantum computers offer an intriguing path for a paradigmatic change of computing in the natural sciences and beyond, with the potential for achieving a so-called quantum advantage, namely a significant (in some cases exponential) speed-up of numerical simulations. The rapid development of hardware devices with various realizations of qubits enables the execution of small scale but representative applications on quantum computers. In particular, the high-energy physics community plays a pivotal role in accessing the power of quantum computing, since the field is a driving source for challenging computational problems. This concerns, on the theoretical side, the exploration of models which are very hard or even impossible to address with classical techniques and, on the experimental side, the enormous data challenge of newly emerging experiments, such as the upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider. In this roadmap paper, led by CERN, DESY and IBM, we provide the status of high-energy physics quantum computations and give examples for theoretical and experimental target benchmark applications, which can be addressed in the near future. Having the IBM 100 x 100 challenge in mind, where possible, we also provide resource estimates for the examples given using error mitigated quantum computing