Search

This paper examines the underexplored impact of the procedures in public contracts on market allocation efficiency that are at risk of corruption. We integrated the GMM-SYS estimator with analyses of a balanced panel database of all the provinces in Italy between the period 2013–2021. The use of a high level of spatial granularity in an under-researched context revealed two distinct scenarios. In competitive markets, a more entrepreneurial and less widespread form of corruption emerged which may enhance market efficiency (bottom-up pattern). Conversely, in a context with limited market competition and low institutional quality, corruption indicators may be less useful due to potential pre-bribery behavior (top-down pattern). Our study underscores the capacity of corrupt suppliers to exploit market opportunities and secure selection. We found that corruption risk practices within public contracts have the potential to improve market efficiency, thus rendering them appealing to corrupt suppliers due to their capacity to deliver economic advantages. This also applies to provinces with high-quality governance. Additionally, the paper highlights the limitations of indicators in alternative contexts. The paper has significant implications for policymakers in defining assignation criteria in high-quality contexts, but also offers insights into the effectiveness of grand corruption indicators for academics. • Examines the impact of public contract procedures on market efficiency. • GMM-SYS estimator and innovative matching DID for panel analysis. • Bottom-up corruption in competitive markets, top-down in less competitive ones. • Corrupt suppliers exploit market opportunities, enhancing efficiency. • Offers insights in assignation criteria, and limitation of indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the determinants and effects of technological catch-up and knowledge spillover effects on employment productivity in the Innovation Startup Segment in Italy using a sample of 260 Innovative Startup companies. Estimates indicate that regional specialization provides the highest potential for employment productivity gains, while higher levels of competition and higher regional diversity suppress the prospects for knowledge spillover effects to develop. Particularly, the analysis using the comprehensive sample of firms indicates the presence of forces leading to output per worker convergence at the national level, i.e., technological catch-up is present at the per-worker level; yet, the overall value of production convergence across regions is not present. We also detect the presence of Spatial Dependency in relation to the neighboring firms. That is, there is support for weak convergence across regions in favor of the Marshallian hypotheses. However, sectorial estimations for the Services, Information Technology, and Manufacturing sector indicate the presence of large differences in terms of technological catch-up effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper builds on the empirical literature that analyses the relationship between government efficiency and economic growth by investigating the link on a sample of about 3800 Italian municipalities. While the correlation has been explored at country or regional level, empirical studies at municipal or city level are virtually absent. This is a severe limitation given the numerous fiscal decentralization reforms that took place in many European countries over the last few decades aimed at increasing the autonomy and responsibilities of sub-national government. Estimation results show that government efficiency, when instrumented, is conducive for economic growth. The effect is larger for low populated municipalities, for those located in the South of Italy, and in more peripheral areas. Results are robust to alternative measures of efficiency and growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Post-WWII political forces wanted to dismantle most of the state-owned enterprises. • Saraceno sketches out a pragmatic approach to economic policy-making. • He provides valuable insights on economic growth in a mixed economy. • Economic policy should merge the political sphere and the managerial one. • Competence, accountability, civicness are useful reference also in today's debate on the role of the entrepreneurial state. This paper aims to depict, through the interweaving of facts and theories, the debate in Italy on economic growth policies and on the consolidation of a mixed economy. By identifying and analysing significant phases, we will show that the theme of structural growth and economic development covers a broad temporal spectrum and reveals different positions on state capitalism. Pasquale Saraceno (1903–1991) was a key figure in shaping many of the significant phases of Italian economic policy, especially in the post-WWII period. He played a central role and provided important insights in the debates on the role of public companies and the emergence of a state-led market economy in the economic development process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper focuses on the evolution of the capacity of Italian goods to reach international markets from the time of unification (1861) up to the present day (2009). It presents a wide range of new data series that present both the general trends of macroeconomic data related to the evolution of Italian foreign trade focusing, in particular, on the characteristics of export flows. The paper illustrates Italy's tortuous path to maintain its position among the most advanced countries despite its peculiar specializations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Wagner''s Law is the first model of public spending in the history of public finance. The aim of this study is to assess its empirical evidence in Italy for the period 1960–2008 at a disaggregated level, using a time series approach. After a brief introduction, a survey of the economic literature on this issue is shown, before estimating the specifications of Wagner''s Law for some specific items of public spending (for interests, for final consumption, for labor dependent income, for grants on production, and for public investments), according to the Bank of Italy classification. We found a cointegration relationship for three out of five items. Moreover, results from Granger causality tests show evidence in favor of Wagner''s Law only for passive interests spending in the long-run, and for dependent labor income spending in the short-run. Some notes on the policy implications of our empirical results conclude the paper. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The nexus between trade and economic growth in Italy has been widely debated by historiography. However, there are no long run analyses on this topic that cover the whole span from Unification to present days. This paper contributes to fill this gap by investigating the relationship between real exports, imports and GDP in Italy from 1863 to 2004 by using cointegration analysis and causality tests, The outcome suggests that these variables comove in the long run but the direction of causality varies across time, In the period prior to the First World War import growth led GDP growth that in turn led export growth. Conversely, in the post-Second World War period we have a strong bidirectionality between imports and exports consequent on the increase in intra-industry trade. We also find a weak support for export-led growth and growth-led imports. This suggests that exports were not the only or the main driver of economic growth. There was probably a multiplicity of factors at work, among which high rates of capital formation and the expansion of internal demand probably stood out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW) was introduced by Daly and Cobb in 1989 in order to integrate the information embodied in GDP. Since economic growth implies externalities and market failures, and a portion of it can be defined as “uneconomic”, the ISEW method introduces some corrections and adjustments to the GDP calculation framework. The ISEW has been calculated for a number of nations but it has been rarely applied to sub-national systems. Its calculation at the local level is important especially in case of administrative decentralization, and autonomy and responsibility of local authorities in certain fields. For this reason, a more and more comprehensive knowledge of the characteristics and peculiarities of the territorial system they manage is necessary. This paper presents the results of the ISEW calculation for Tuscany, a region in central Italy, in the period 1971–2006. This is one of the few attempts to apply the ISEW in time series at the regional level. Final results show that a discrepancy between ISEW and GDP appeared in the 1970s. Social and environmental pressures increased during the period under study making the gap equal to about 30 percent of regional GDP in 2006. The ISEW can be used also as a tool for evaluating policies, but further adjustments in calculation of certain items are considered necessary for taking into account and evaluating punctual policies. A case of energy policy is presented. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper evaluates the recent economic dynamics in Italy and their implications for a specified environmental topic - land quality and its vulnerability to degradation. As opposed to the traditional economic literature, centred on GDP level and changes, a multidimensional concept of 'economic growth' was developed in the present study by considering several variables (share of agriculture and industry on the total production, labour productivity by sector, per capita value added) within a Principal Component Analysis (PCA). This analysis was carried out with the aim of assessing diachronically the spatial association between (and, possibly, to clarify the implications of) the economic growth and the distribution of the vulnerable lands to degradation across nearly 700 Italian districts in the mid-1990s and mid-2000s. The geographical gradients and the socio-economic factors supposed to have a prominent role in this relationship were analysed by dividing the investigated area into three geographical belts with different environmental characteristics. PCA results indicate that the traditional north-south economic gap has not been significantly reduced throughout the last 10 years. Furthermore, coastal-inland and urban-rural gradients were revealed as crucial in the environment-economic transition. Finally, the implications of this nexus on land quality were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between tourist demand and supply is investigated employing four time series models. To test for Granger causality a bivariate vector autoregression framework is used. Empirical results from each model are derived for the island of Sardinia (Italy) over the time span 1955 to 2004. The first model suggests supply is demand-driven; the second model implies a bi-directional Granger-causal relationship between demand and capacity. The third and fourth models indicate demand is quality-driven. This empirical finding implies that an environmental conservation policy may be feasible without compromising the number of tourists visiting Sardinia and hence its economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]