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.

Competitività in sostenibilità urbana e territoriale. L’Emilia Romagna, regione d’Europa

The thesis in Urban and Regional Geography titled “URBAN AND TERRITORIAL COMPETITIVENESS IN SUSTAINABILITY. EMILIA-ROMAGNA, REGION OF EUROPE” is divided into two sections. Section one is additionally composed by two chapters (chap. 1 and 2) and deals with theoretical and gnosiological issues. Section two, of two more chapters (chap. 3 and 4), provides practical contributions: these issues give explanatory patterns to interpret the performances of emiliano-romagnoli urban systems. Chapter one is an introductory chapter. It analyzes globalization that involves a larger and larger number of cities, rich or poor. It also considers the so called “digital divide” either as one of the major phenomena of this unhomogeneous development or as an interesting gnosiological and practical challenge of geography. Globalization is now involving all the cities, large or small, but the small ones have higher risks of exclusion: it depends on their more fragile socio-economic, cultural, and environmental urban structure. That’s why European Union (chapter two) promotes policies and endows politics to sustain cities, because urban systems are the basis for the territorial development. So, European, national and local Institutions are firmly interested in promoting urban and local interventions and projects. Section two deals with economic-geography methods, which consists on collecting indicators and the benchmarking methodology. It also specifically analyzes the urban systems of Emilia-Romagna. Consequences of the globalization on the cities are interpreted with a study of their local resources, intended as potentials for their development. The STeMA approach, proposed by Professor Maria Prezioso (University of Roma, “Tor Vergata”) and used by the ESPON (European Spatial Program Observation Network) project, describes the main “determinants” of the territorial and urban development. These are easily comparable to one another (similar or better performing). This approach achieves two goals. On one hand, it is possible to analyze every urban system in its all main characteristics and to preserve its historical and cultural factors. On another hand, each city is “knowable” and “understandable” by all scholars, as it is objectively comparable. So, urban planners can propose specific “multi-level” and “multi-varied” programs of governance. These will face globalization by exalting local empowerment.

Welfare provision in Sweden and the dominant position of the Sap

There have been almost fifty years since Harry Eckstein' s classic monograph, A Theory of Stable Democracy (Princeton, 1961), where he sketched out the basic tenets of the “congruence theory”, which was to become one of the most important and innovative contributions to understanding democratic rule. His next work, Division and Cohesion in Democracy, (Princeton University Press: 1966) is designed to serve as a plausibility probe for this 'theory' (ftn.) and is a case study of a Northern democratic system, Norway. What is more, this line of his work best exemplifies the contribution Eckstein brought to the methodology of comparative politics through his seminal article, “ “Case Study and Theory in Political Science” ” (in Greenstein and Polsby, eds., Handbook of Political Science, 1975), on the importance of the case study as an approach to empirical theory. This article demonstrates the special utility of “crucial case studies” in testing theory, thereby undermining the accepted wisdom in comparative research that the larger the number of cases the better. Although not along the same lines, but shifting the case study unit of research, I intend to take up here the challenge and build upon an equally unique political system, the Swedish one. Bearing in mind the peculiarities of the Swedish political system, my unit of analysis is going to be further restricted to the Swedish Social Democratic Party, the Svenska Arbetare Partiet. However, my research stays within the methodological framework of the case study theory inasmuch as it focuses on a single political system and party. The Swedish SAP endurance in government office and its electoral success throughout half a century (ftn. As of the 1991 election, there were about 56 years - more than half century - of interrupted social democratic "reign" in Sweden.) are undeniably a performance no other Social Democrat party has yet achieved in democratic conditions. Therefore, it is legitimate to inquire about the exceptionality of this unique political power combination. Which were the different components of this dominance power position, which made possible for SAP's governmental office stamina? I will argue here that it was the end-product of a combination of multifarious factors such as a key position in the party system, strong party leadership and organization, a carefully designed strategy regarding class politics and welfare policy. My research is divided into three main parts, the historical incursion, the 'welfare' part and the 'environment' part. The first part is a historical account of the main political events and issues, which are relevant for my case study. Chapter 2 is devoted to the historical events unfolding in the 1920-1960 period: the Saltsjoebaden Agreement, the series of workers' strikes in the 1920s and SAP's inception. It exposes SAP's ascent to power in the mid 1930s and the party's ensuing strategies for winning and keeping political office, that is its economic program and key economic goals. The following chapter - chapter 3 - explores the next period, i.e. the period from 1960s to 1990s and covers the party's troubled political times, its peak and the beginnings of the decline. The 1960s are relevant for SAP's planning of a long term economic strategy - the Rehn Meidner model, a new way of macroeconomic steering, based on the Keynesian model, but adapted to the new economic realities of welfare capitalist societies. The second and third parts of this study develop several hypotheses related to SAP's 'dominant position' (endurance in politics and in office) and test them afterwards. Mainly, the twin issues of economics and environment are raised and their political relevance for the party analyzed. On one hand, globalization and its spillover effects over the Swedish welfare system are important causal factors in explaining the transformative social-economic challenges the party had to put up with. On the other hand, Europeanization and environmental change influenced to a great deal SAP's foreign policy choices and its domestic electoral strategies. The implications of globalization on the Swedish welfare system will make the subject of two chapters - chapters four and five, respectively, whereupon the Europeanization consequences will be treated at length in the third part of this work - chapters six and seven, respectively. Apparently, at first sight, the link between foreign policy and electoral strategy is difficult to prove and uncanny, in the least. However, in the SAP's case there is a bulk of literature and public opinion statistical data able to show that governmental domestic policy and party politics are in a tight dependence to foreign policy decisions and sovereignty issues. Again, these country characteristics and peculiar causal relationships are outlined in the first chapters and explained in the second and third parts. The sixth chapter explores the presupposed relationship between Europeanization and environmental policy, on one hand, and SAP's environmental policy formulation and simultaneous agenda-setting at the international level, on the other hand. This chapter describes Swedish leadership in environmental policy formulation on two simultaneous fronts and across two different time spans. The last chapter, chapter eight - while trying to develop a conclusion, explores the alternative theories plausible in explaining the outlined hypotheses and points out the reasons why these theories do not fit as valid alternative explanation to my systemic corporatism thesis as the main causal factor determining SAP's 'dominant position'. Among the alternative theories, I would consider Traedgaardh L. and Bo Rothstein's historical exceptionalism thesis and the public opinion thesis, which alone are not able to explain the half century social democratic endurance in government in the Swedish case.

Antecedents and consequences of individual flexibility in project-based organizations

In the last decades, the increasing significance of “projectivization” (Lundin & Steinthórsson, 2003) has stimulated considerable interest in project-based organizations as new economic actors able to introduce a new logic of organizing work and weakening boundaries in favour of networks of collaborations. In these contexts, work is often delegated to project teams. Deciding whom to put on a project team is one of the biggest challenges faced by a project manager; in particular which characteristics rely on to compose and match effective teams. We address this issue, focusing on the individual flexibility (Raudsepp, 1990), as team composition variable that affects project team performance. Thus, the research question investigated is: Is it better to compose project teams with flexible team members or not flexible project team members to achieve higher levels of project performance? The temporary nature of PBOs involves that after achieving the purpose for which team members are enrolled, they are disbanded but their relationships remain, allowing them to be involved in future projects (Starkey, Barnatt & Tempest, 2000). Pre-existing relationships together with the current relationships create a network of relationships that yields some implications for project teams as well as for team members. We address this issue, exploring the following research question: To what extent is the individual flexibility influenced by the network structure? The conceptual framework is used to articulate the research questions investigated with respect to the Television drama serials production. Their project-team organizing combined with their capacity to dissolve and recreate over time make it an interesting field to develop. We contribute to the organizational literature, providing a clear operationalization of individual flexibility construct and its role on affecting project performance. Second, we contribute to the organizational network literature addressing the effects yielded by the network structure-structural holes and network closure- on the individual flexibility.

Essays in Long-run Development and Spatial Economics

This thesis tries to further our understanding for why some countries today are more prosperous than others. It establishes that part of today's observed variation in several proxies such as income or gender inequality have been determined in the distant past. Chapter one shows that 450 years of (Catholic) Portuguese colonisation had a long-lasting impact in India when it comes to education and female emancipation. Furthermore I use a historical quasi-experiment that happened 250 years ago in order to show that different outcomes have different degrees of persitence over time. Educational gaps between males and females seemingly wash out a few decades after the public provision of schools. The male biased sex-ratios on the other hand stay virtually unchanged despite governmental efforts. This provides evidence that deep rooted son preferences are much harder to overcome, suggesting that a differential approach is needed to tackle sex-selective abortion and female neglect. The second chapter proposes improvements for the execution of Spatial Regression Discontinuity Designs. These suggestions are accompanied by a full-fledged spatial statistical package written in R. Chapter three introduces a quantitative economic geography model in order to study the peculiar evolution of the European urban system on its way to the Industrial Revolution. It can explain the shift of economic gravity from the Mediterranean towards the North-Sea ("little divergence"). The framework provides novel insights on the importance of agricultural trade costs and the peculiar geography of Europe with its extended coastline and dense network of navigable rivers.

Verso una regolamentazione dei contratti intelligenti: particolare riferimento al settore finanziario

Esta tesis doctoral aborda un tema complejo y de actualidad. Complejo, porque no es posible estudiarlo desde un punto de vista jurídico, sin un conocimiento previo de la tecnología subyacente - el blockchain. Y de actualidad, porque esta tecnología ya ha tenido un profundo impacto en el sector financiero en general, coincidiendo con una tendencia reguladora en este campo que no tiene precedentes normativos en los que basarse. El mundo financiero, el derecho bancario, el derecho de valores y los contratos comerciales se enfrentan a retos que no se pueden ignorar. Este trabajo de investigación aborda esta tecnología desde una perspectiva jurídica, valorando en qué medida el ordenamiento jurídico se está adaptando al ritmo exigido; en qué medida el régimen jurídico vigente ofrece soluciones y puede aplicarse, con ligeras adaptaciones, a esta nueva realidad económico-comercial; y, por último, cuáles son los elementos y características diferenciales de las aplicaciones de la tecnología blockchain, que deben tenerse en cuenta para una adecuada regulación de las mismas, que responda a los problemas que plantean. Conocer los beneficios, riesgos y ventajas son elementos esenciales a considerar en el proceso de regulación, ya iniciado y guiado por la UE, en su voluntad de apostar por la innovación digital en la economía de la Eurozona.

L'intervento pubblico europeo per il territorio tra globalizzazione e crisi dello Stato. Strumenti teorici per la riduzione delle disuguaglianze.

Il presente elaborato indaga l’evoluzione del rapporto tra ordinamento giuridico e territorio, alla luce dei processi di globalizzazione e integrazione europea. Nel secondo dopoguerra, infatti, si è assistito ad un’evoluzione dello Stato moderno in quello che è stato definito come lo Stato keynesiano, nel quale convivevano una forte presenza pubblica nell’economia interna e un basso livello di internazionalizzazione del commercio mondiale. La crisi di tale modello è la crisi dello Stato territoriale, che viene attraversato da nuovi flussi economici che premiano città e regioni, facendo perdere di importanza alla dimensione nazionale. Ciò è avvolorato dal processo di integrazione europea che dagli anni ’80 in poi trova nuovo vigore e comincia a limitare l’intervento pubblico nell’economia agendo sia sul piano degli aiuti di Stato, che sui bilanci nazionali. Tali dinamiche producono la crisi dell’unità dello Stato sotto un aspetto giuridico-territoriale, per via del crescente ruolo tanto delle istituzioni europee, da una parte, e di città e Regioni, dall’altra, le quali diventano nuove dimensioni normative che sfidano la sovranità statale. Allo stesso tempo, si indebolisce anche l’unità sociale, con divari territoriali crescenti, sia a livello inter- che intra- regionali. In questo contesto, si approfondirà come l’intervento pubblico europeo sia sul piano della coesione, che su quello relativo agli aiuti di Stato non solo tenda ad una riduzione dei divari, ma anche ad una riconfigurazione del territorio europeo. Infatti, grazie ai suoi strumenti, città e regioni hanno la possibilità di superare i propri confini amministrativi al fine di creare nuove forme di cooperazione territoriale. In questo scenario, si proporrà una riflessione sulla possibilità di un rinnovato principio di sussidiarietà, che tenga conto della struttura reticolare dell’attuale contesto territoriale europeo, così come degli attuali rapporti tra la dimensione del mercato e quella sociale, al fine di meglio descrivere un ordinamento europeo in senso materiale.

La paradoja de Maastricht. Los distintos modelos económicos y políticos para el futuro integrador de la UE

La crisis existencial del proyecto de integración europea constituye el principal reto al que debe enfrentarse la Comunidad en su futuro más inmediato puesto que se alza como toda una amenaza para la continuidad del sistema establecido desde el Tratado fundacional de Roma (1957). Las tres crisis acontecidas durante los primeros años del siglo XXI, véase la gran crisis económica del año 2008, la pandemia global de la Covid-19 y la actual intervención de la Federación Rusa en Ucrania, están poniendo constantemente a prueba la firmeza de los cimientos y valores sobre los cuales se ha construido la Comunidad durante todos estos años. Esta tesis doctoral pretende ser una contribución académica al debate abierto en las sociedades comunitarias acerca de por donde debe de transitar la evolución del proyecto de integración europea en los próximos años. Para conseguir alcanzar este objetivo, la investigación se retrotrae hasta los orígenes del proceso de integración y avanza en la línea temporal hasta nuestros días, analizando con ello las posibles causas que pudieran encontrarse detrás de la crisis existencial actual. A su vez, , la investigación estudia con detenimiento los múltiples efectos que está generando la problemática existencial en los Estados miembros en los últimos años, tales como el aumento del apoyo social a favor de actores considerados populistas o el fenómeno de la creciente desafección ciudadana. Esta investigación analiza los distintos escenarios propuestos por la Comisión Europea en su Libro Blanco sobre el futuro de Europa para determinar cuál podría ser el mejor escenario que concordara con la nueva realidad económica y sociopolítica que actualmente impera en los Estados miembro. Lo que se persigue es formular una propuesta que pueda dar por terminada la crisis existencial de la Comunidad abriendo con ello una nueva etapa en la historia de la integración europea.

An Analysis of Living Conditions in Rural Villages in China. A New Geography of the Country.

Analysts, politicians and international players from all over the world look at China as one of the most powerful countries on the international scenario, and as a country whose economic development can significantly impact on the economies of the rest of the world. However many aspects of this country have still to be investigated. First the still fundamental role played by Chinese rural areas for the general development of the country from a political, economic and social point of view. In particular, the way in which the rural areas have influenced the social stability of the whole country has been widely discussed due to their strict relationship with the urban areas where most people from the countryside emigrate searching for a job and a better life. In recent years many studies have mostly focused on the urbanization phenomenon with little interest in the living conditions in rural areas and in the deep changes which have occurred in some, mainly agricultural provinces. An analysis of the level of infrastructure is one of the main aspects which highlights the principal differences in terms of living conditions between rural and urban areas. In this thesis, I first carried out the analysis through the multivariate statistics approach (Principal Component Analysis and Cluster Analysis) in order to define the new map of rural areas based on the analysis of living conditions. In the second part I elaborated an index (Living Conditions Index) through the Fuzzy Expert/Inference System. Finally I compared this index (LCI) to the results obtained from the cluster analysis drawing geographic maps. The data source is the second national agricultural census of China carried out in 2006. In particular, I analysed the data refer to villages but aggregated at province level.