Different waves and different policy interventions in 2020 Covid-19 in Italy: did they bring different results?

Working Paper Ircres-CNR 05/2021. Covid-19 pandemic hit very harshly Italy in two waves: the first can be temporally placed in spring and the second between autumn and winter. Data shows some relevant differences among the two phases, in particular, the first wave caused less infection but with a higher lethality rate. These differences in epidemic and social conditions in the two phases suggested a change in the strategy of containment measures: stricter and homogeneous in the first wave, flexible and diversified in the second wave. The interrupted analysis applied to daily data of new infected shows positive results for both interventions in flattening the infection curve. Both policies achieved almost the same percentage of positives cases avoided. For this reason, these measures seem rightly tuned, in both cases, to the specific epidemic and social conditions of each wave

Water Consumption and Long-Run Urban Development: The Case of Milan

Analyses of long run consumption series are rare in literature. We study the evolution of water consumption in Milan in the twentieth century. The objective is twofold: on one side, the univariate analysis tries both to assess the impact of relevant socio-economic and environmental changes on water consumption in Milan and verify if consumers have deeply rooted consumption habits. On the other side, the multivariate analysis is used to identify the socio-economic factors that are relevant in explaining consumption evolution. Results indicate both that water users have well entrenched consumption habits and that population, climate and economic structure behave more similarly, in Euclidean terms, to water consumption than to other economic and social variables.Urban consumption, Long-run, Development, Environmental changes

La misurazione del capitale umano: una rassegna della letteratura

As well known, human capital plays a crucial role both for private and social wellbeing. Notwithstanding, measurement of human capital is not univocally defined in empirical analyses, since different indicators and methods are employed and, sometimes, the proxies seem to be not very efficient for human capital econometric specification. The main aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of different measurements of human capital showing the most diffused approaches based both on simple indexes and on more complex statistical and econometric tools. Since human capital is a multifaceted and complex asset, a necessary condition to better measure it is to improve its understanding and definition, which are the basic requirements of an efficient measurement. Two major results emerge from this analysis. Firstly, it appears quite clearly that the best measurement of human capital in absolute terms does not exist, but, on the contrary, methods or formula which seem the most efficient and coherent to analytical objectives should be adopted. Secondly, approaching human capital measurement, data quality and availability are essential, more than any other methodological and theoretical issue.Human capital measurement; Quantity and quality of education; Education statistics and estimation

Does intentional mean hierarchical? Knowledge flows and innovative performance of European regions

The production of scientific and technical knowledge is mostly concentrated in specific locations (high-tech clusters, innovative industry agglomerations, centres of excellence, and technologically advanced regions). Knowledge flows very easily within regions; however, scientific and technical knowledge also flow between regions. The aim of this paper was to analyse how knowledge flows between regions, and the effect of these flows on the innovative performance, measured by patent applications. We estimate a regional knowledge production function, and, using appropriate spatial econometric estimation techniques, we test the effect of both geographical and relational autocorrelation (measured by participation in EU funded research networks as part of Fifth Framework Programme). We model unobservable structure and link value of knowledge flows in these joint research networks. We find that knowledge flows within inter-regional research networks, along non-symmetrical and hierarchical structures in which the knowledge produced by network participants tends to be exploited by the network coordinator

La misurazione del capitale umano: una rassegna della letteratura

WP 02/2009; As well known, human capital plays a crucial role both for private and social wellbeing. Notwithstanding, measurement of human capital is not univocally defined in empirical analyses, since different indicators and methods are employed and, sometimes, the proxies seem to be not very efficient for human capital econometric specification. The main aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of different measurements of human capital showing the most diffused approaches based both on simple indexes and on more complex statistical and econometric tools. Since human capital is a multifaceted and complex asset, a necessary condition to better measure it is to improve its understanding and definition, which are the basic requirements of an efficient measurement. Two major results emerge from this analysis. Firstly, it appears quite clearly that the best measurement of human capital in absolute terms does not exist, but, on the contrary, methods or formula which seem the most efficient and coherent to analytical objectives should be adopted. Secondly, approaching human capital measurement, data quality and availability are essential, more than any other methodological and theoretical issue

Water Consumption and Long-run Socio-economic Development: an Intervention and a Principal Component Analysis for the City of Milan

JEL classification: C22; Q25International audienceThis paper analyses the evolution of water consumption in Milan during the twentieth century. However, dealing with a century time series raises some complicated statistic and econometric issues. To study the main research questions outlined by the literature, as the presence of consumption habits and the link between consumption and price, we use a quite original approach – based on intervention analysis and principal component analysis (PCA) – which seems to be more adequate than “regression-type” approaches to study a so long time series. Results indicate (1) how some events have modified the normal evolution of per-capita water consumption; (2) that per-capita water consumption is a very persistent series, namely, that water users should have well-developed consumption habits; (3) that per-capita consumption and water price present a strong negative correlation

Water Consumption and Long-run Socio-economic Development: an Intervention and a Principal Component Analysis for the City of Milan

This paper analyses the evolution of water consumption in Milan during the twentieth century. Howev- er, dealing with a century time series raises some compli- cated statistic and econometric issues. To study the main research questions outlined by the literature, as the presence of consumption habits and the link between consumption and price, we use a quite original approach – based on intervention analysis and principal component analysis (PCA) – which seems to be more adequate than “ regres- sion-type ” approaches to study a so long time series. Results indicate (1) how some events have modified the normal evolution of per-capita water consumption; (2) that per- capita water consumption is a very persistent series, namely, that water users should have well-developed consumption habits; (3) that per-capita consumption and water price present a strong negative correlatio

Dynamics of residential water consumption in a panel of Italian municipalities

The purpose of this study is to estimate a residential water demand function in a dynamic framework for a panel of Italian municipalities and to calculate both short-run and long-run price elasticities. The Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) provides a suitable framework for obtaining asymptotically efficient estimators in this context. Specifically, the system GMM estimator is applied, which improves the properties of the standard first-difference estimator. The most relevant result shows that persistence of habits is coupled with high long-term price elasticity which is higher, in absolute value, that the instantaneous (one-year) price elasticity. Under an economic policy perspective, the effects of policy interventions can be suitably evaluated only in the long-run.

Long-run water demand estimation: habits, adjustment dynamics and structural breaks

This article examines a water demand equation for Milan for the second half of the 20th century: 1950-2001. We focus mainly on the effects of price and habits, but also account for other factors in the demand for water such as climate, income and productive activity. Allowing for trend break stationarity or nonlinear trend stationarity, we find evidence against the unit root hypothesis for many time series. Based on this result, standard cointegration analysis would not be appropriate; therefore we adopt an alternative estimation and testing procedure. We focus, in particular, on the so-called bounds testing approach, which can be applied irrespective of the level of integration of the variables and which can be a useful modelling strategy given that dynamics are important when estimating a water demand equation. The main results are that long-run price elasticity is higher than short-run elasticity, and that consumption habits are relevant. We also find that both climate, sectoral and technological modifications affect water consumption, while income is not significant. Finally, the changes to pricing schemes in the mid-1970s provoked reactions of different magnitudes among households and firms.