BOOKS BY MARUSCA DE CASTRIS

The XLII AISRe Conference called the Italian community of regional and urban scientists to debate on the long-term consequences, issues and challenges imposed by the coronavirus global emergency. In a world already characterized by increasing social inequalities, the pandemic is likely to exacerbate the rise of disparities. Limited mobility, the restricted access to public services such as schools and hospitals, and the higher uncertainty generated by the healthcare emergency hit more severely those individuals in a condition of relative economic, occupational, and educational disadvantage.

Le tensioni socio-economiche provocate da crisi di diversa natura (da quella economico-finanziaria del 2008 ad una serie di eventi quali la gestione dei flussi migratori o il verificarsi di disastri naturali) hanno richiesto ai sistemi territoriali risposte oltre la semplice resilienza. Quali strategie possono mettere in atto i territori per superare una crisi? Questo il tema della XL Conferenza Italiana di Scienze Regionali, che si è svolta dal 16 al 18 settembre 2019 a L’Aquila, nel decennale del sisma che colpì duramente la città. L’obiettivo del volume è capire in che modo i cambiamenti e le trasformazioni in atto nel mercato delle tecnologie possano avere effetti sulla crescita in contesti regionali molto diversi tra loro.

Questo lavoro si propone di misurare l’influenza delle diverse caratteristiche di impresa sull’impatto degli strumenti di incentivazione, che puo essere eterogeneo. L’analisi empirica si focalizza sugli strumenti per il finanziamento di progetti privati in r&s in Italia. Vengono sviluppati alcuni strumenti metodologici non parametrici capaci di identificare e sottoporre a test la presenza di eterogeneita degli effetti rispetto ad alcune specifiche dimensioni di analisi. I risultati mostrano che, sebbene nel complesso gli strumenti di incentivazione abbiano avuto un’efficacia modesta, alcune caratteristiche, come l’essere esportatore ed effettuare ricerca intramuros, influenzano in modo statisticamente significativo l’entita degli effetti dell’intervento.

Incentives to Invest for Consortia of Firms: an ex-ante - Evaluation of Contratti di Programma Objectives The paper presents an ex-ante evaluation of subsidies allocated by Contratti di Programma (CdP) to the consortia of firms in Italy. It is an assessment of the instrument in order to affect the composition of the firms of the consortia and verify if they will co-operate in product or market development. The focus of the paper is the evaluation of three main aspects of the investments generating externalities: the supply chain, the territorial distribution of the initiatives and the product range of all firms inside of the consortia. The general question is if the subsidies lead to a generation of positive externalities for the firms inside the consortium. The theorical analysis suggests that a major concentration of the initiatives in the same region or in the same sector and in the same supply chain can create positive aggregation externalities. Methods and Results The study is based on a statistical analysis of data from administrative archives and official statistics. Data are organized in a database by single initiative. Each initiative is classified by Contratto di Programma, local labour system, economic sector and supply chain. Also investment, public subsidy and new jobs are presented by initiative. Territorial concentration, sectorial and supply chain heterogeneity are measured by a statistical index of concentration and heterogeneity. The results show a strong territorial concentration of investments inside the consortia but also high product heterogeneity. Conclusions Several consortia can ex-ante generate positive externalities through the realisation of their investment and they should be incentivated. On the other hand, exist consortia that generate only weak externalities due to the dispersion of the initiatives inside the region, the economic sector and the supply chain. The incentive to consortia helps to coordinate the investments but it is not always able to bring together firms to co-operate. The results suggest that policy makers should subsidize investment aggregated in consortia only if the coherence and cohesion of the investment is high enough to generate positive externalities.

The Italian labour market has registered in the last decades a substantial growth in the qualification of human capital, mainly as a consequence of both active job policies and sectorial structural changes. The composition of professional figures has changed across sectors, in favour of the more qualified ones. The object of this paper is to analyse the structure by professions of employment in Italy in the period 1993-2003. The focus is on the adjustment of the composition of professional employment after cyclical shocks and structural changes. The analysis singles out professions with higher growth rates in employment, conditioned to sectorial effects, idiosyncratic trend and cyclical fluctuations. A particular attention is dedicated to the presence of polarization in employment dynamics between high skill and low skill professions.