Productivity Growth and Pecuniary Knowledge Externalities: An Empirical Analysis of Agglomeration Economies in European Regions

International audienceThe article investigates the effects of the agglomeration of technological activities on the growth in regional productivity, applying the notion of pecuniary knowledge externalities. Pecuniary knowledge externalities enable one to appreciate both the gains and losses associated with the regional concentration of knowledge-generating activities. Both are two sides of the same coin. The gains are due to the reduction in the prices of knowledge as input into its dedicated markets, while the losses stem from the reduction in the prices of knowledge as an output. This analysis allows us to contextualize the effect of geographic proximity on knowledge externalities and their impact on regional growth. Our analysis leads to the hypothesis of an inverted U-shaped relationship between the agglomeration of innovation activities and productivity growth. The empirical analysis based on a large sample of European regions from 1996 to 2003 supports the hypothesis that agglomeration yields diminishing net positive effects beyond a maximum

Il sentiero dell’innovazione. Letture di un concetto economico controverso

A partire dagli anni ’50 e ’60 del XX secolo, l’economia dell’innovazione si definisce come un nuovo campo di studio costruito dall’intersezione di temi dalla forte caratterizzazione dinamica, dallo sviluppo economico alla crescita della produttività dei fattori, dai fenomeni di agglomerazione spaziale alla crescita dell’impresa, che avevano trovato soluzioni insoddisfacenti nel paradigma tradizionale.- Indice #5- Introduzione L’economia dell’innovazione: tra rigore disciplinare e ambizioni metodologiche #9- Parte prima Percorsi teorici nell’economia dell’innovazione, Cristiano Antonelli #15- Bibliografia #98- Parte seconda L’economia dell’innovazione in Italia: presupposti, programmi e prospettive, Pier Paolo Patrucco #117- Bibliografia #17

Determinants of long COVID among adults hospitalized for SARS-CoV-2 infection: A prospective cohort study

Rationale: Factors associated with long-term sequelae emerging after the acute phase of COVID-19 (so called "long COVID") are unclear. Here, we aimed to identify risk factors for the development of COVID-19 sequelae in a prospective cohort of subjects hospitalized for SARS-CoV-2 infection and followed up one year after discharge. Methods: A total of 324 subjects underwent a comprehensive and multidisciplinary evaluation one year after hospital discharge for COVID-19. A subgroup of 247/324 who consented to donate a blood sample were tested for a panel of circulating cytokines. Results: In 122 patients (37.8%) there was evidence of at least one persisting physical symptom. After correcting for comorbidities and COVID-19 severity, the risk of developing long COVID was lower in the 109 subjects admitted to the hospital in the third wave of the pandemic than in the 215 admitted during the first wave, (OR 0.69, 95%CI 0.51-0.93, p=0.01). Univariable analysis revealed female sex, diffusing capacity of the lungs for carbon monoxide (DLCO) value, body mass index, anxiety and depressive symptoms to be positively associated with COVID-19 sequelae at 1 year. Following logistic regression analysis, DLCO was the only independent predictor of residual symptoms (OR 0.98 CI 95% (0.96-0.99), p=0.01). In the subgroup of subjects with normal DLCO (> 80%), for whom residual lung damage was an unlikely explanation for long COVID, the presence of anxiety and depressive symptoms was significantly associated to persistent symptoms, together with increased levels of a set of pro-inflammatory cytokines: interferon-gamma, tumor necrosis factor-alpha, interleukin (IL)-2, IL-12, IL-1β, IL-17. In logistic regression analysis, depressive symptoms (p=0.02, OR 4.57 [1.21-17.21]) and IL-12 levels (p=0.03, OR 1.06 [1.00-1.11]) 1-year after hospital discharge were independently associated with persistence of symptoms. Conclusions: Long COVID appears mainly related to respiratory sequelae, prevalently observed during the first pandemic wave. Among patients with little or no residual lung damage, a cytokine pattern consistent with systemic inflammation is in place

Complexity and the coordination of technological knowledge: the case of innovation platforms

En: C. Antonelli (ed), Handbook of the Economic Complexity of Technological Change. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. pp. 201-220The chapter integrates insights from complexity theory into the economics of technological knowledge in order to refl ect systematically on the variety of forms and processes that underpin knowledge production, dissemination and coordination. In so doing the chapter brings together two complementary bodies of scholarly research: the analysis of multiple interactions occurring within network- type structures which is typical of the literature on complex dynamic systems; on the other hand the study of learning processes as intentional, mindful and purposive behaviors set in motion by myopic agents, which is at heart of the economics of innovation. For what concerns the formalization of structured interactions and the emergence of networks we draw from complexity theory and emphasize the intentional nature of those interactions aimed at sourcing external knowledge and competences, and integrating them in the extant repertoires. In this view actors possess limited resources and knowledge, and their ability to innovate is contingent to the implementation of selective interactions by means of research, development and learning processesPeer reviewe