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This paper investigates whether urbanization plays a role in determining the importance of each happiness domain on overall happiness. The analysis focuses on Italy. We exploit a multilevel model to consider regional heterogeneity in happiness determinants. We first verify whether a direct effect of urbanization exists on each specific components of happiness, as well as on overall happiness. Consistent with the findings in the literature, happiness decreases with urbanization. In the analysis of the mediating role, we find that the importance of satisfaction family explains more overall happiness in urban areas. On the contrary, satisfaction with health, friendships and environment gain more weight in rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to estimate, through the use of a spatial model, the determinants of fiscal policies on property tax adopted by Italian municipalities in 2014, to assess the existence of strategic interactions influencing their revenue decisions and, finally, to investigate the possible sources of such tax mimicking. The analysis evaluates the impact of political and socio‐economic variables on the local policy decisions and confirms that the choices on property tax are influenced by the neighbouring municipalities' behaviour. With regard to the tax mimicking sources, results highlight that the imitative behaviour among municipalities on their tax policy is determined mainly from spillover effects, with a decreasing effect in relation to municipal size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses four statistical distributions used to describe city size distributions: lognormal, double Pareto lognormal, q-exponential, and log-logistic. We use un-truncated city size data for the US, Spain and Italy from 1900 until 2010, and, in addition, the last available year for the remaining countries of the OECD. We estimate the four functions by maximum likelihood. To check the goodness of the fit we use the Kolmogorov- Smirnov and Cramér-von Mises tests, and compute the Akaike information criterion and Bayesian information criterion. The results show that the distribution which best fits data in most of the cases (86.76%) is the double Pareto lognormal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to detect mimicking behaviour in the tax setting of local governments which share similar political ideology. We conduct an empirical investigation of municipalities' cross-sectional data of the Marche region using spatial econometrics models. Discriminating between several sources of fiscal interaction, empirical evidence suggests that municipalities governed by the same coalition tend to implement similar tax rates according to their ideology. Resumen. El objetivo de este artículo es detectar comportamiento de imitación en la política tributaria de gobiernos locales que comparten una ideología política similar. Realizamos una investigación empírica con datos transversales de municipios de la región de las Marcas con modelos econométricos espaciales. Realizando una discriminación entre fuentes diferentes de interacción fiscal, la evidencia empírica sugiere que los municipios gobernados por la misma coalición tienden a establecer tasas fiscales similares de acuerdo con su ideología. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By exploiting the Roback model, we analyze the impact of agglomeration on both production and consumption. We postulate that the evaluation of urban amenities may vary across skill-groups. Empirically, we use the Bank of Italy's survey of household income and wealth (SHIW) dataset, and find evidence of a substantial urban rent premium, while we do not find support for an urban wage premium. We conclude that urban agglomeration is predominantly a source of positive amenities for residents and, in particular, highly-educated individuals seem to care about the welfare effects of agglomeration more than their less-educated counterparts. Survey results also suggest that urban skilled workers benefit from jobs of higher quality, and from shopping possibilities and cultural consumption opportunities, such as cinemas, theatres, and museums. Resumen Aprovechándonos del modelo de Roback, analizamos el impacto de la aglomeración tanto en la producción como en el consumo. Postulamos que la valoración de la oferta de servicios urbanos puede variar entre grupos con un grado diferente de cualificación. Empíricamente, utilizamos los datos de la encuesta del Banco de Italia sobre ingresos familiares y patrimonio (SHIW, siglas en inglés), y mientras que encontramos pruebas de una prima de renta urbana sustancial no las encontramos para una prima salarial urbana. Concluimos que la aglomeración urbana es predominantemente una fuente de ventajas positivas para los residentes y, en particular, parece que a las personas con un alto nivel educativo les importa más los efectos de bienestar de la aglomeración que a quienes poseen un nivel educativo más bajo. Los resultados de la encuesta sugieren también que la mano de obra urbana cualificada disfruta tanto de mejores puestos de trabajo como de una mayor oferta al ir de compras y oferta cultural en cuanto a cines, teatros y museos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]