Human capital and "club convergence" in Italian regions

The aim of the study is to investigate the presence of “convergence clubs†among Italian regions applying the stochastic notion of convergence. Regions are sorted according to some human capital accumulation indicators using the Classification and Regression Tree Analysis (CART). The analysis evidences a strong stochastic convergence process which characterizes all the regions suggesting the presence of different growth patterns. Furthermore, results seem to highlight that human capital accumulation favours regional growth particularly in initially “backwards†regions.

A new approach for β-convergence estimation in Italy

In this paper we test the presence of β-convergence among Italian regions, in the period 1980-2003, in presence of a trend break in the series following a new approach (Vogelsang and Tomljanovich, 2002). The break year is considered either known (1992) and endogenously estimated from the data. When we consider a known trend break date model the results evidence the presence of a convergence process for most of the Italian regions in the considered period. The outcome relative to the unknown break date model, on the contrary, strongly depend on the econometric model used to estimate the β-convergence.β-convergence regional convergence

Specialization and growth in Italy: what spatial econometric analysis tells us.

This paper investigates the determinants of Italian regional specialization in the period 1995-2006. In particular, it tests and evaluates the presence of spatial autocorrelation in sectoral specialization patterns by the use of spatial econometrics tools. Results show positive effects of neighbouring regions specialization for advanced industry and services sectors and hence a progressive synchronization of economic cycles. By contrast, sectors traditionally considered backward, evidence the presence of a core-periphery structure. The introduction of spatial effects in the general regression model increases the number of significant explicative variables. In accordance with the findings from New Economic Geography openness and market access positively affect regional specialization in most of the considered sectors.Specialization, Regional growth, Spatial Econometrics.

IS THERE A CLUB CONVERGENCE AMONG ITALIAN REGIONS?

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Regional convergence in Italy: time series approaches

This paper investigates the evolution of the gap between Italian regions and Italy as a whole during the period 1980-2007. We tested for the presence of the stochastic and β-convergence hypotheses using different time series approaches. The former was studied, first, for all the sample period and then, with an exogenous instantaneous break in the series. The presence of β-convergence, instead, was estimated considering a known and an unknown trend break date model. Our results show that most of the regions does not converge in an “actual” way, since they do not present a stochastic and β convergence simultaneously.β-convergence; stochastic convergence; time series approach; regional convergence

To regulate or not to regulate.

Within a few days of his appointment as business, innovation and skills secretary on May 11, 2015, and in the immediate post-election period, Sajid Javid has promised to reduce the red tape that besets businesses, increasing operating costs dramatically and slowing the speed with which business can respond to changes in the economy or their markets

How high can you bounce? [Newspaper article]

I was intrigued and a little surprised recently to be told by a colleague that I was resilient. It wasn't a label that I would necessarily have ever thought of or aspired to for myself. But it set me thinking about the nature of resilience, why it might be a good quality to possess and how it might be important not only for individuals but also for organisations today

Random acts of unkindness.

I was intrigued to read a statement by the World Health Organisation (WHO) recently that mental health is more than the absence of mental disorders in the same way that health is not just freedom from illness

Asking the right questions about Europe.

The European Debate - do we know the right questions to ask

Politics and the era of uncertainty.

And so again this month many of us woke to an unexpected election outcome: and the deep irony is not that you and I did not expect it but that governments, pollsters and political experts all over the world did not expect it. As with Brexit, we woke to find a world surprised and unprepared for what would come next - but knowing that the world order had changed