Essays in Economic Geography and Long-Term Development

This dissertation has two main themes: first, the economic impact of tourism on cities and, secondly, the determinants of European long-run development, with a focus on the pre-Industrial era. The common thread is the attempt to develop economic geography models that incorporate spatial frictions and are liable to be given empirical content. Chapter 1, written in conjunction with G. Alfredo Minerva, provides an empirical analysis of the relationship between tourism and economic activity across Italian municipalities, and lays down the basic elements of an urban theory of tourism in an a-spatial setting. Chapter 2 extends these ideas to a quantitative urban framework to study the economic impact and the welfare consequences of tourism into the city of Venice. The model is given empirical content thanks to a large collection of data at the Census tract level for the Municipality of Venice, and then used to perform counterfactual policty analysis. In chapter 3, with Matteo Santacesaria, we consider a setting where agents are continuously distributed over a two-dimensional heterogeneous geography, and are allowed to do business at a finite set of markets. We study the equilibrium partition of the economic space into a collection of mutually-exclusive market areas, and provide condition for this equilibrium partition to exist and to be unique. Finally, chapter 4 "The rise of (urban) Europe: a Quantitative-Spatial analysis", co-authored with Matteo Cervellati and Alex Lehner, sets up a quantitative economic geography model to understand the roots of the Industrial Revolution, in an attempt to match the evolution of the European urban network, and the corresponding city-size distribution, over the period A.D. 1000-1850. It highlights the importance of agricultural trade across cities for the emergence of large manufacturing hubs.

Dietary strategies to minimize the detrimental impact of weaning on gut morphology, physiology and microbiota of piglets

Weaning is a crucial period in the management of piglets. In modern piggeries economic interest make weaning age decrease more and more and the detrimental consequences of weaning have as much importance as earlier the weaning occurs. The risk of development of post-weaning diarrhea (PWD) in piglets is high and PWD is the cause of serious economic losses in pig herds. In the past the supplementation of the feed given after weaning with growth promoters antibiotics, in order to keep PWD under control, used to be a common practice, but their usage has been banned in EU since 2006. This measure led to the investigation of alternative suitable feed supplements that would be reasonably efficient in protecting and sustaining animal health and performance. Aim of this thesis was to evaluate the effect of some different alternatives to growth-promoters antibiotics on weaning piglets and to assess if some of them could be considered as valuables options to replace auxinic in animal feeding. The study is composed by four experimental trials. The first one aims to identify mechanisms involved in the auxinic effects of antibiotics in the diets; the following three evaluate the addition butyric acid, tryptophan, and nitrate as alternative to in-feed antimicrobials. Although some results are controversial, it appears from the data presented that the alternatives to in-feed antibiotics considered may exert positive effects on some zootechnical and health parameters on piglet in the post-weaning period. Anyway, the mechanism of action and the interaction with microbiota of such additives should be investigated inside out because many effects remains poorly understood.

International Agricultural Trade under Regulatory Asymmetry: An Economic Analysis of SME Export Behavior

Over the last three decades, international agricultural trade has grown significantly. Technological advances in transportation logistics and storage have created opportunities to ship anything almost anywhere. Bilateral and multilateral trade agreements have also opened new pathways to an increasingly global market place. Yet, international agricultural trade is often constrained by differences in regulatory regimes. The impact of “regulatory asymmetry” is particularly acute for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) that lack resources and expertise to successfully operate in markets that have substantially different regulatory structures. As governments seek to encourage the development of SMEs, policy makers often confront the critical question of what ultimately motivates SME export behavior. Specifically, there is considerable interest in understanding how SMEs confront the challenges of regulatory asymmetry. Neoclassical models of the firm generally emphasize expected profit maximization under uncertainty, however these approaches do not adequately explain the entrepreneurial decision under regulatory asymmetry. Behavioral theories of the firm offer a far richer understanding of decision making by taking into account aspirations and adaptive performance in risky environments. This paper develops an analytical framework for decision making of a single agent. Considering risk, uncertainty and opportunity cost, the analysis focuses on the export behavior response of an SME in a situation of regulatory asymmetry. Drawing on the experience of fruit processor in Muzaffarpur, India, who must consider different regulatory environments when shipping fruit treated with sulfur dioxide, the study dissects the firm-level decision using @Risk, a Monte Carlo computational tool.

Impact of Geomatic Techniques on Topo-Bathymetric Surveys for Coastal Analysis

Sandy coasts represent vital areas whose preservation and maintenance also involve economic and tourist interests. Besides, these dynamic environments undergo the erosion process at different levels depending on their specific characteristics. For this reason, defence interventions are commonly realized by combining engineering solutions and management policies to evaluate their effects over time. Monitoring activities represent the fundamental instrument to obtain a deep knowledge of the investigated phenomenon. Thanks to technological development, several possibilities both in terms of geomatic surveying techniques and processing tools are available, allowing to reach high performances and accuracy. Nevertheless, when the littoral definition includes both emerged and submerged beaches, several issues have to be considered. Therefore, the geomatic surveys and all the following steps need to be calibrated according to the individual application, with the reference system, accuracy and spatial resolution as primary aspects. This study provides the evaluation of the available geomatic techniques, processing approaches, and derived products, aiming at optimising the entire workflow of coastal monitoring by adopting an accuracy-efficiency trade-off. The presented analyses highlight the balance point when the increase in performance becomes an additional value for the obtained products ensuring proper data management. This perspective can represent a helpful instrument to properly plan the monitoring activities according to the specific purposes of the analysis. Finally, the primary uses of the acquired and processed data in monitoring contexts are presented, also considering possible applications for numerical modelling as supporting tools. Moreover, the theme of coastal monitoring has been addressed throughout this thesis by considering a practical point of view, linking to the activities performed by Arpae (Regional agency for prevention, environment and energy of Emilia-Romagna). Indeed, the Adriatic coast of Emilia-Romagna, where sandy beaches particularly exposed to erosion are present, has been chosen as a case study for all the analyses and considerations.

Impact of gentrification processes in rural landscapes: a methodology for landscape assessment towards sustainable rural development

With an increasing demand for rural resources and land, new challenges are approaching affecting and restructuring the European countryside. While creating opportunities for rural living, it has also opened a discussion on rural gentrification risks. The concept of rural gentrification encircles the influx of new residents leading to an economic upgrade of an area making it unaffordable for local inhabitants to stay in. Rural gentrification occurs in areas perceived as attractive. Paradoxically, in-migrants re-shape their surrounding landscape. Rural gentrification may not only cause displacement of people but also landscape values. Thus, this research aims to understand the twofold role of landscape in rural gentrification theory: as a possible driver to attract residents and as a product shaped by its residents. To understand the potential gentrifiers’ decision process, this research has provided a collection of drivers behind in-migration. Moreover, essential indicators of rural gentrification have been collected from previous studies. Yet, the available indicators do not contain measures to understand related landscape changes. To fill this gap, after analysing established landscape assessment methodologies, evaluating the relevance for assessing gentrification, a new Landscape Assessment approach is proposed. This method introduces a novel approach to capture landscape change caused by gentrification through a historical depth. The measures to study gentrification was applied on Gotland, Sweden. The study showed a population stagnating while the number of properties increased, and housing prices raised. These factors are not indicating positive growth but risks of gentrification. Then, the research applied the proposed Landscape Assessment method for areas exposed to gentrification. Results suggest that landscape change takes place on a local scale and could over time endanger key characteristics. The methodology contributes to a discussion on grasping nuances within the rural context. It has also proven useful for indicating accumulative changes, which is necessary in managing landscape values.

Sustainability and environmental impact of the Italian ceramic tile industry

The increasing consumption rates among citizens and the uncontrolled exploitation of natural resources have made environmental pollution and management of waste the main problems facing humanity in its upcoming future. Together with generation of energy and transport, industrial production certainly plays a key role in the genesis of these problems. It is for this reason that the concepts of environmental, social and economic sustainability have emerged over the years as the cornerstones for future development. In light of this, the most forward-looking industries have begun to study their impact on environment and society in order to improve their performances and, at the same time, to anticipate the increasingly rigorous environmental regulations. In this work, various performance indicators related to the Italian ceramic tile sector will be presented and discussed. In particular, the emission factor of characteristic pollutants will be reported on a period of up to fifteen years while data regarding waste management, concentration of pollutants and emission legal limits for the last decade will be here disclosed as a result of a vast analysis on recorded data. The collected information describes the present level of performance of the ceramic tile manufacturing industries in Italy and shows how recycling is now a consolidated reality and how some pollutants, such as particulate matter, fluorine and lead are actually disappearing from production processes and how others, such as volatile organic compounds, are increasing instead. Moreover, the adoption of alternative raw materials for the production of ceramic tiles is discussed and the implementation of the recycling of various waste is addressed at experimental or industrial scale. Finally, the development of a new ceramic engobe with high content of waste glass (20%) is presented as an experimental example of reutilization of resources in the ceramic tile industry.