Environment, human development and economic growth

Over the last few years, environmental issues have entered into policy design, particularly development and growth policies. Natural resources are considered necessary production inputs and environmental quality is considered a welfare determinant. The integration of environmental issues into economic growth and development theories and empirics is currently widely analyzed in the literature. The effects of natural resources endowment on economic growth are mainly analyzed through the so-called Resource Curse Hypothesis (RCH) whereas the effects of economic growth on environmental quality are part of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC). Furthermore, recent contributions on RCH and EKC have shown the important role of institutions and human development dimensions in building a sustainable development path. In this paper, we attempt to analyze the causal relationships between economic growth, human development and sustainability combining the RCH and EKC models and adopting a human development perspective.Natural resources, Sustainability, Human Development, Trade

Measuring human and Sustainable Development: An Integrated Approach for European Countries

During the last few years, sustainable development has represented one of the most important policy goals at global level and how to design specific policy actions, measuring performance and results continues to present a challenge. Scientific research has explored different analysis directions in order to identify a synthetic indicator to evaluate policy planning and achievements that goes beyond traditional income indicators such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In consideration of the social dimension of sustainable development, including health, education and employment, the Human Development Index (HDI) of the United Nations Development Programme represents a widely accepted methodology to be used as a starting point for building a more sustainable-oriented development index. The aim of this paper is to identify a numerical measure of what Amartya Sen defined as “sustainable human development” using a human development framework and adapt it taking into account more specific environmental aspects. For this purpose, building a complex Sustainable Human Development Index (SHDI) may be a difficult task because of data availability and the European countries – especially the European Union - could be a useful pilot area for testing the methodology. The most recent efforts of the EU to standardize statistical information at country level enable us to build more complex indicators, including those with economic, social and environmental dimensions. Long-term sustainability requires the maintenance of capital stock to guarantee constant or growing welfare levels. In a human development perspective, the sustainability condition has been directly analysed on the well-being side, assuming that a constant or growing SHDI could be the result of constant growing capital assets. An SHDI represents the core element of a comparative analysis to assess the effectiveness and the distributional effects of European policies, including environmental actions. Finally, a sensitivity analysis of the results will enable us to underline the key factors of effective sustainable human development and, at the same time test the real meaning of such a modified composite index compared with the existing GDP and HDI.human development, sustainable development, sustainability indicators

Gender disparities in Italy from a Human Development Perspective

(1) All citizens have equal social dignity and are equal before the law, without distinction of sex, race, language, religion, political opinion, personal and social conditions. (2) It is the duty of the Republic to remove those obstacles of an economic or social nature which constrain the freedom and equality of citizens, thereby impeding the full development of the human person and the effective participation of all workers in the political, economic and social organisation of the country.* Sixty years after the first political election in which women voted in Italy (1946), and considering that the Article 3 of the Italian Constitution reminds the role of the republic to promote formal (art. 3.1) and substantial (art. 3.2) equality of Italian citizens, the aim of this paper is to analyse, which is situation of the gender disparities in Italy and how such disparities are distributed among Italian regions. In order to quantify such disparities a comprehensive framework for assessment is required. First, we will compare at national and regional level traditional indicators as income per capita, employment and educational level. Secondly, adopting a human development perspective, we will build some regional Gender Human Development indices with the aim to catch the disparities in terms of capabilities for men and women. Finally to better understand our results, we will build an index of empowerment using data concerning number of seats in national parliament and regional assemblies, in order to catch such existing disparities from a different point of view. In our opinion, the gender disparities in the empowerment dimension and the gender disparities in the other social dimensions are mutually reinforcing, where lack of equally distributed political power corresponds to less gender-related policy actions, and therefore wider disparities in daily life.Gender disparities, Human Development, Empowerment

Shifting the Focus from Paradigms to Goals: A New Approach Towards Defining and Assessing Wellbeing

GDP as an indicator is relatively recent. It was introduced seventy years ago and like many other institutions it is an issue of the historical period in which it was created in the years between the Great Depression and World War II. The adoption of the GDP as an indicator is not a neutral choice, but rather the logical consequence of a well-defined theoretical paradigm in which GDP appears the essential tool apt to promote well-being and development. Since then, however, times have changed, new problems have emerged and new theories and approaches have been developed to address them. Starting from these considerations the paper examines the problems connected with adopting an indicator as an absolute measure of progress. Indicators, in fact, are not neutral: they are the result of a specific economic approach; hence they are biased in nature and contribute to define policies that are implemented. After reviewing the main theories and indicators introduced by literature in the last sixty years, we propose to adopt a different approach according to which progress is measured against stated goals and not in absolute terms. Subsequently, we present an example of this approach by introducing a new indicator (ICSES – Index of Competitiveness and Social and Environmental Sustainability) to measure the performance of EU countries vis-à-vis the goals explicitly stated by the European Union.ISES, GDP , Sustainability, Human Development, Wellbeing

Environment, Human Development and Economic Growth

Over the last few years, environmental issues have entered into policy design, particularly development and growth policies. Natural resources are considered necessary production inputs and environmental quality is considered a welfare determinant. The integration of environmental issues into economic growth and development theories and empirics is currently widely analyzed in the literature. The effects of natural resources endowment on economic growth are mainly analyzed through the so-called Resource Curse Hypothesis (RCH) whereas the effects of economic growth on environmental quality are part of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC). Furthermore, recent contributions on RCH and EKC have shown the important role of institutions and human development dimensions in building a sustainable development path. In this paper, we attempt to analyze the causal relationships between economic growth, human development and sustainability combining the RCH and EKC models and adopting a human development pers ective.Natural Resources, Sustainability, Human Development, Trade

What Next? How the Internalization Process Might Lead to the Dissolution of Veneto's Low-technology Industrial District

Since the early '90s Veneto's firms have progressively internationalised their production process. After having described this phenomenon, we discuss the conditions under which it could lead in the medium term to the vanishing of the district of origin and the potential development of an industrial district in the recipient area. To support our case we examine the characteristics, trends and effects of the internationalisation process of the Montebelluna industrial district. We conclude by suggesting the adoption of policy measures to amplify possible positive effects and counter negative consequences.Internationalisation, Clusters, Industrial districts, Delocalisation, Organization of Production

A convergence analysis of human development

The aim of the paper is to try to understand if GDP convergence across the European Union also reflects a convergence in terms of human development. We built a composite index, the RsHdi (Regional specific Human development index), to rank the single regions of Europe in terms of human development and then focused our attention on the existence of convergence in the period from 1991 to 1996 and a possible increase in the dispersion of the RsHdi across the European UnionHuman Development, Regional specific Human development index, European Union

A step-by-step approach to social marketing in energy transition

International audienceBy examining social marketing this articles has featured a step-by step approach for residential behavioural change towards sustainable energy transition. Specifically, this article considers the value-based approach instead of rational information campaigns for behavioural change of energy users. The proposed framework is based on environmental values and designed to transform the selected destructive behaviour into a sustainable one. The framework consist of five steps: (1) selecting the behaviour, (2) user orientation, (3) exchange, (4) marketing mix: elements of intervention, (5) measuring behaviour change. As behavioural change is the final goal of any energy efficiency campaign, it becomes also a starting point and an objective of the rest of the activities in the framework. Second, we suggest using the user orientation concept that divides the society into three groups based on their attitude towards environmental issues, i.e. environmentalist, the environmentally concerned and the disinterested. In the third step we apply the exchange theory; whereas in the step of 'marketing mix' a conceptual combination of six elements for energy transition is reasoned: proposition, cost, communication, communities and partnership. Finally, the fifth step stresses on the measurement of the behavioural change that enables energy transition. The proposed step-by step framework is based on theory and builded on current practice in a field that is analysed in the article

The co-operative firm: Keywords

Questo libro è strutturato come un dizionario e come tale presenta 23 brevi contributi, ciascuno con un diverso argomento, scritto da autori con un background differente e una diversa prospettiva disciplinare. Tutti i capitoli ambiscono a descrivere quanto sia antico, ricco e diverso il settore cooperativo a livello mondiale. Tutti i capitoli descrivono esplicitamente o meno il peso del settore cooperativo sulla crescita e lo sviluppo. Presi insieme, i capitoli offrono una spiegazione multidisciplinare del contributo offerto alle nostre vite dal settore cooperativo, illustrano come così è stato da molto tempo e come potrebbe essere ancora a lungo attraverso il reinventarsi del ruolo delle cooperative nella nostra società. Tutti i capitoli descrivono le cooperative con riferimento alle imprese tradizionali ma fanno ciò in maniera critica, piuttosto che retorica o polemica