The Legacy of History for Economic Development: The Case of Putnam's Social Capital

Putnam (1993) argues that (i) center-northern Italy has developed faster than southern Italy because the former was better endowed with social capital; and (ii) that the endowments of social capital across Italian territories have been highly persistent over centuries. This paper provides an empirical investigation of PutnamÂ’s case. To evaluate the relevance of social capital, we present a test based on worker productivity, entrepreneurship, and female labor market participation. Using as instruments regional differences in civic involvement in the late ninetieth century and local systems of government in the middle age, we show that social capital does have economic effects.Social Capital, Economic Development

Explaining labor productivity differentials on Italian regions

Labor productivity convergence is a key factor in the catching up process of less developed regions. For the regional economies as a whole labor productivity differentials can be traced back to three distinct determinants: - composition effects due to the peculiar structure of the regional economy; a lower than average productivity level could, for instance, be due to the fact that a greater share or the regional labor force is employed in sectors that are denoted by lower productivity at the aggregate level; - different regional endowments, within each given industry, of physical and human capital per worker; - differing levels of total factor productivity (TFP). The study aims at explaining substantial and persistent regional differentials in labor productivity in Italy providing: 1. an assessment of the role played by the three factors above outlined in the variuos regions; 2. an empirical evaluation of the role played by some of the relevant factors suggested in the related literature (e.g., public and social capital, R&D expenditure, international openness, financial markets development, agglomeration and diversification economies, geographic factors), in explaining regional TFP differentials. The empirical analysis makes use of a particularly rich data set including annual regional accounts and capital stock data for 17 industries covering the period 1970-1994. Estimates of human capital broken down by region and industry are produced by the authors pooling information from the Labor force survey and Bank of Italy’s Survey of households income and wealth. The analysis of structural composition effects is carried out by means of the shift-share technique proposed by Esteban (2000), while a cointegrated panel model is used to estimate total factor productivity by region and sector. In an attempt to assess the relevance of spatial externalities in explaining regional TFP levels the final regression analysis makes use of spatial econometric techniques.

Metaforología e historicidad: Sobre algunos problemas y perspectivas de investigación.

The essay, firstly, points out the complexity of the levels on which the theme about historical characters of the uses of metaphors can be investigated, in the philosophical language. Then it claims that, specially as concerns this theme, ¿metaphorology¿ is more similar to the so-called ¿methodological hermeneutics¿ than to the ¿ontological¿ ones. In fact the important presence of ontological elements in the thought of Blumenberg (in any case the metaphorological studies have not to be reduced to it) does not compromise the essential methodological character of his research program

L’utilizzazione di manodopera altrui in agricoltura e in edilizia: possibilità, rischi e rimedi sanzionatori = The use of others' labor in agriculture and construction: possibilities, risks and sanctioning remedies. WP C.S.D.L.E. “Massimo D’Antona”.IT – 357/2018

The essay analyses the phenomenon of the exploitation of workers in the agriculture and construction sectors. First, it examines labour markets structural characteristics to verifiy the different diffusion of the phenomenon. In this view, temporary work and other specific forms of employment contracts, as "workers exchanges" or "worker sharing", have been analysed. Then, the essay focuses on the recent criminal law discipline for a first evaluation of the possible effects. Particularly, by looking at the other reforms concerning the agricoltural labour market, the Author suggests the importance of regulating such fenomenon with a different approach capable to overcome the mere repressive logic and to focus on incentives regulation. It's necessary, specialy in the agricultural labour market, to engrave on the economic conveniences

Vix sibi credere. Appunti per la storia di un topos

A partire dall'episodio odissiaco in cui il protagonista, riportato a Itaca dai Feaci, non riconosce la terra natìa, viene analizzato il motivo del "non credere ai propri occhi" in diversi autori latini come Catullo, Plauto, Seneca e altri

Eugenio Montale o della classicità senza classicismo

Motivi 'classici' nella poesia di Montale, con particolare riferimento al rapporto intertestuale fra "La casa dei doganieri" e l'ode 1, 11 di Orazio

La “mente contracta”. Entre cuerpos desmedidos y facultades de lo indefinido en Vico

Este trabajo plantea el tema viquiano del cuerpo y de sus facultades, centrándose en la noción de “indefinido”, y en la reflexión sobre diversos binomios conceptuales y categoriales en la filosofía de Vico.This paper faces the Viquian problem of the body and its faculties, focusing on the concept of ‘undefined’, as well as on some varied conceptual and categorical binomials in Vico’s philosophy