Suchergebnisse

This thesis investigates presumptive effects of the political participation on the economic growth through social capital accumulation. In the second section, by using an endogenous growth model, we examine the issue with a comparison of two economic systems; decentralized and centralized economy in the latter of which the representative household internalizes all externalities in social, productive and private sector, in contrast to the decentralized economy. In the third section, we approach the same point by adopting an efficient bargaining model in which we assume that average level of the political participation is a contributor to the labour union's bargaining strength. Upon this approach, we develop a comparative analysis by solving the representative household optimization problem in two different scenarios, with and without efficient wage hypothesis. We demonstrate that there exists an effect of the political participation resulting in a positive stationary growth rate in all models. Moreover, we found the average level of political participation to be correlated with the bargained wage rate and the bargained employment rate under the ef- ficient wage hypothesis.

Understanding why some countries are prosperous while others fail in achieving high standards of welfare and wellbeing is one of the most interesting and investigated topics in economics. Several candidate exlplanations have been proposed, for instance cultural factors (Banfield 1958, Putnam 1993), geographical determinism (Diamond 1997), institutional determinants (North 1990, Acemoglu 2000, Acemoglu 2012). Interestingly, a common feature of any theoretical argument is that each of them fits well with the recent European history. If it is the theory which has been adapted to Europe or if it is Europe which presents the characteristics suited to successful economic growth is debatable. According to Landes (1999), it is just a stylized fact that Europe took and kept the lead for at least the last one thousand years. Therefore, even though "some would say that Eurocentrism is bad [.], hence to be avoided", it can be understood as an aknowledgement of history. Of course, there is not full agreement on the topic and different perspectives on the matter have been proposed (Hobson 2004). Whatever the story is, the European case is an interesting one, both in historical and in current terms. Indeed, since the Nineteenth century Europe (and the Western World) has been undertaking a continuous growth process, achieving unprecedented levels of wealth. Such a historical path allowed the Western countries to take the lead economically and politically. Using Landes (1999) words, "we live in a world of inequality and diversity, in which there are three kinds of nations: those that spend lots of money to keep their weight down; those whose people eat to live; and those whose people don't know where the next meal is coming from". Europe and the West have been constantly in the first kind. However, richies have never been evenly distributed also within rich countries and this is true for Europe as well. In particular, European geography has been characterized by a growing dichotomy. On the one hand, some countries have been performing succesfully, maintaining levels of wealth which are top standards on a global scale. This is the case for continental countries, including Scandinavian economies and the United Kingdom. On the other hand, other countries have been falling behind and have not been able to keep in touch with the fast growing core. In this group we find the so called South of Europe, i.e. the Mediterranean countries, as well as the former sovietic Eastern economies. Of course, disparities have always been with us and this is not necessarily bad, since growth does not need to be a perfectly balanced process (Hirschman 1958). However, such an issue becomes relevant as long as national and regional disparities either do not reduce or worsen overtime. This is even more important if the diverging economies belong to the same political entity. This is precisely the case of Europe, in particular of the European Union, a political and economic construct in which policy interventions have been implemented in the last decades to foster convergence and cohesion between economies. This dissertation investigates some of the main topics in the empirical literature on economic growth. The scope is to assess empirically the validity of some theoreatical statements and policy provisions, focussing mostly on European economies because of their peculiar economic history. A broader cross-country analysis is also provided in the last section. As a first step we will test whether under some specific circumstances economies will tend to get closer and closer in terms of wealth. Theoretically, following Solow (1957), the standard neoclassical model predicts that one should find evidence of convergence, in the sense that poorer economies ar expected to grow faster than richer ones (Barro 1992, Mankiw 1990). Of course, this holds as long as economies are similar in terms of structural characteristics (as the composition of output and the distribution of labour force across sectors) and technology. Hence, the first part of this dissertation will address unconditional convergence in European regions from 1990 to 2007, a relitvely homogeneous set of economies, emphasizing the role of sectoral dynamics in shaping aggregate outcome. The analysis of the dynamics of economic output provides an insightful picture of trends in economic growth and inequality between regions, fully describing the evolution of the distribution. Even though some policy implications can be drawn, they are quite limited. Indeed, such an unconditional analysis does not allow to tell which factors are positively associated with economic performance and which are not. The second section of this dissertation explores this line of research by focusing on two domains which have become particularly relevant after the last crisis in 2008: deregulation and liberalization of the labour market, fiscal parameters. The last part of this work takes a broader perspective on economic growth and correlated phenomena, also enlarging the sample under analysis beyond the European Union. One of the emerging topic in the empirical literature concerns the investigation of the relationship between environment degradation and economic growth. If at a first glance a positive relationship may be the more obvious pattern, some theoretical arguments suggest that under specific conditions environmental degradation may start declining at higher levels of GDP. In particular, three factors may be fostering such a process: environmental friendly technological innovation, structural change towards less energy-intensive activities, change in individual preferences together with regulation. Given this set of hypothesis, starting from the Nineties a large amount of empirical studies has been investigating the relationship between various indicators of environmental degradation and GPD. The main scope is to test empirically the so called Environmental Kuznetz Curve hypothesis, which states that environmental degradation increases with income until a threshold level, after which the relationship turns negative. The main idea is that at a sufficiently high level of income the three mechanisms above will trigger the switch in the relationship. We will test this hypothesis for a large sample of countries, augmenting the standard model in order to account for convergence in environmental degradation.

This contribution addresses, from a comparative perspective, the topic of inter-ministerial coordination of European policies, adopting a polythetic classification based on a plurality of parameters, including the location of the mechanisms for coordination, as well as the establishment of a specific Ministry for European affairs. The taxonomy is explained through the use of a straight line, on which different points correspond to each "pure" model, while on the segments the author places the real systems adopted throughout the Member States. The article also tests the theories elaborated by political scientists on the evolution of coordination systems, checking their (partial) transposition into legal sources. Recalling the essential results of the stress test that occurred with the economic crisis on the performance of national administrations, with particular reference to their resilience, the text lays the foundations for an assessment of the coordination of European policies in the management of the COVID-19 pandemic. ; Il contributo affronta, in prospettiva comparata, il tema del coordinamento interministeriale delle politiche europee, adottando una classificazione politetica basata su una pluralità di parametri, tra cui la collocazione delle sedi di coordinamento e l'istituzione di un Ministero specifico per gli affari europei. La tassonomia viene spiegata attraverso l'utilizzo di una retta, su cui vengono individuati punti corrispondenti a ciascun modello "puro", mentre sui segmenti l'autrice colloca i sistemi reali adottati nei diversi Stati membri. L'articolo testa, inoltre, la tenuta delle teorie politologiche sull'evoluzione dei sistemi di coordinamento, verificando la loro (parziale) trasposizione giuridica. Riprendendo i risultati essenziali dello stress test verificatosi con la crisi economica per la performance delle amministrazioni nazionali, con particolare riferimento alla resilienza delle stesse, il testo pone le basi per una valutazione del coordinamento delle politiche europee nella gestione della crisi della pandemia da COVID-19.

This study is conducted to observe the impact of public education expenditure on economic growth in five West African countries namely: The Gambia, Ghana, Niger, Mali, and Senegal. In addition, we generated a study called ECOWAS representing West Africa. In order to advance into the study, we used econometric tools such as Augmented Dickey Fuller test (ADF), Johansson Cointegration Test, Error Correction Model (ECM) and Granger Causality Test Analysis. The target sample consist of panel data collected based on its availability for each selected West African country covering different ranges from 1968 to 2015. The result of the ADF test revealed that some of the variables are individually non-stationary at level but stationary at first difference. The Johansson cointegration test indicated a cointegration relationship between the variables for some countries and ECM coefficients revealed for all the countries indicated an evidence of convergence after short run deviation from equilibrium. The Granger Causality test result suggest a unidirectional causality that run from Government Education Expenditure (Edu) to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for ECOWAS and the reverse is true for Ghana and Mali. There is no causal direction revealed between the variables for The Gambia, Niger and Senegal. However, the study concluded that Education Expenditure has significant long run and short run impact on economic growth in West Africa.

In ragione dell'emergenza legata al Covid-19, nei diversi ordinamenti nazionali, sono state progressivamente imposte numerose limitazioni alle libertà fondamentali degli individui: la libertà personale, quella di circolazione, quella di riunione, quella di culto, quella di iniziativa economica sono soltanto alcune delle principali prerogative individuali fortemente ridimensionate - se non annullate - nella prospettiva del contrasto al diffondersi del contagio e, dunque, nella logica della preminenza del diritto alla salute (individuale e collettiva). Questi interventi limitativi sono stati percepiti come assolutamente necessari e, pertanto, accolti dai destinatari con sostanziale accondiscendenza, senza che sia emerso alcun dibattito - neppure dottrinale - intorno alla possibilità di ricorso a differenti modelli che, alla imposizione iussu principis, preferissero dinamiche volontaristiche di adesione (pure astrattamente ipotizzabili). Ora, in una fase di progressiva (ri)espansione delle prerogative individuali sopracitate, si DPER online n. 2/2020-Issn 2421-0528 Diritto Pubblico Europeo Rassegna online Fascicolo 2/2020 27 apre il dibattito su possibili interventi (parzialmente) limitativi della riservatezza, soprattutto in relazione all'utilizzo di tecnologie di contact tracing. Ebbene, rispetto a questa possibilità (che, nell'ordinamento italiano, ruota intorno all'utilizzo della cd. app Immuni), le opzioni adottate dai diversi ordinamenti si atteggiano in maniera differente, con opzioni anche antitetiche tra modelli volontaristici/obbligatori di introduzione dei sistemi di tracciamento o, ancora, in ordine alla scelta tra tutela assoluta dell'anonimato dei soggetti tracciati (propria del modelloeuropeo) ed implementazione di social credit systems e meccanismi di geolocalizzazione individuale (tipici di alcune realtà asiatiche). Eppure, limitazioni della privacy, tutto sommato risibili se paragonate a quelle subite nei mesi scorsi da libertà fondamentali cardinali, sono segnate - soprattutto nella tradizione giuridica occidentale - da un forte disvalore politico-sociale, sì da essere accompagnate un profondo dibattito a più livelli, inedito anche per questa stagione emergenziale. ; Due to the emergency linked to Covid-19, in the various national legal systems, numerous limitations have been progressively imposed on the fundamental freedoms of individuals: personal freedom, freedom of movement, freedom of assembly, that of worship, that of economic initiative are only some of the main individual prerogatives strongly reduced - if not canceled - in the perspective of contrasting the spread of the infection and, therefore, in the logic of the pre-eminence of the right to health (individual and collective)These limiting interventions have been perceived as absolutely necessary and accepted with substantial condescension, without any doctrinal debate concerning the possibility of using different models based upon voluntary dynamics. Now, in a phase of progressive (re)expansion of the individual rights and liberties, the focus is upon contact tracing technologies and their impact on the right to privacy. Antithetical options have inspired Westerns and Eastern legal systems: the former (especially european systems) based on voluntary models of tracking which guarantee the anonymity of the individuals; the latter on the implementation of social credit systems, that make extensive use of compulsory geolocation and other forms of control (such as China, South Korea). Indeed, these privacy restrictions, laughable when compared with to those suffered in recent months by fundamental freedoms, are surrounded - especially in the Western legal tradition - by political and social disvalues and are accompanied by a deep debate at several levels, surprising even during this emergency season.

This work is a preliminary empirical assessment of the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on the GDP of the Italian Regions. Our aim is to analyse the influence of structural features of local economies as well as the severity of the infection rates to explain the different economic performances of the Italian Regions. Covid-19 literature allowed us to identify a set of 21 factors, all of which indexed by a specific variable, which may be relevant in explaining the regional economy performance. These are mostly macroeconomic features traditionally linked to output which several studies found to be specifically affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. The first empirical testing consisted in the replication of the study performed on a set of European Countries by Sapir (2020) on the Italian regional context, aimed at assessing whether the 3 factors found by the author (share of tourism over GDP, quality of institutional governance and severity of Covid-19 related restrictions enacted by the governments) to be relevant in explaining the differences of output at the European level were relevant in the "within country" context of Italy as well. The second empirical testing consisted in the identification and evaluation of alternative variables which could provide a stronger explanatory power for the Italian regional context. While some of our conclusions for the Italian regional context are aligned with the findings at the European level, such as the absence of a direct relation between output and the health-related variables (infection rate, death rate, health system capacity), the main factors explaining the differences in output performance appear to be significantly between the European-level study and our regional-level study. Particularly, the 3 main variables which can explain over 40% of the whole variability of the dataset are the GDP growth rate of the previous decade (2009-2019), the share of families whose primary income source is autonomous work and the average firm dimension. In the final stage of this work, we will comment on the results of the two models and discuss the limitations of the study, mainly resulting from the constraints on official data availability.

Dottorato di ricerca in Economia e territorio ; La presente ricerca rientra nell'ambito degli studi socioeconomici di carattere territoriale e si pone lo scopo di riuscire a sviluppare una metodologia capace di arricchire la fase di studio e di analisi preliminare alla progettazione degli interventi politici ed economici che mirano al miglioramento del benessere nella popolazione. L'interesse per un simile argomento deriva dalla constatazione che in tempi recenti la parola "benessere" ha assunto un ruolo centrale nel dibattito politico ed economico. Lo schema teorico di riferimento è il modello stock e flussi (SeF), proposto da Mauro Bonaiuti, come rivisitazione del modello fondi e flussi con cui Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen ha riletto la teoria della produzione in chiave bioeconomica. Il modello SeF servendosi della teoria dei sistemi complessi, ha definito in modo più approfondito le caratteristiche dei fondi, rinominati stock, e dei flussi coinvolti nei sistemi di produzione e consumo. L'impostazione peculiare di un'analisi basata sul SeF è quella di valutare come le caratteristiche strutturali relative alla sfera ambientale, sociale ed economica (stock) riescano a trasformare entità fisiche, materia ed energia (flussi in input), in benessere e scarti (flussi di output). Il modello parte dall'ipotesi che i soli flussi di beni e servizi non siano in grado di produrre alcun benessere ma che è l'insieme di stock e flussi, e soprattutto la loro interazione, a originare il godimento della vita individuale e il benessere della collettività. Con questo lavoro, seguendo l'approccio proprio dell'economia territoriale, si è voluto procedere a una prima verifica di quanto teorizzato con il modello stock e flussi e verificare quanto le caratteristiche economiche, ambientali, sociali e valoriali di un sistema territoriale siano in grado di contribuire alla generazione di benessere per la comunità locale. Da tale approccio scaturisce il carattere fortemente multidisciplinare dell'analisi che, oltre a connotarsi come ricerca economicopolitica, si serve di contributi provenienti da discipline quali la sociologia e la psicologia. La ricerca propone una metodologia capace di individuare strumenti e procedure adatte a rilevare i diversi livelli di benessere eudaimonico prodotti da un sistema economico locale per poi metterli in relazione con le dotazioni delle differenti strutture di produzione e consumo (stock). La metodologia proposta è stata testata e validata con un'applicazione empirica che, per motivi di ordine conoscitivo ed interpretativo, è stata condotta sui sistemi locali del lavoro circoscritti dai confini amministrativi della provincia di Viterbo. I risultati dell'applicazione empirica hanno confermato la validità del modello teorico, la correttezza della metodologia e allo stesso tempo hanno offerto una serie di nuovi spunti per ulteriori ricerche future in merito alla progettazione di interventi di politica economica finalizzati al miglioramento dei livelli di benessere duraturo nelle comunità locali. ; This research enters in the socio-economic studies with a territorial perspective, and it has the objective to develop a methodology capable of enriching the study phase of preliminary design and analysis of political and economic interventions aimed at improving the welfare population. The interest in such an argument stems from the fact that in recent times the word "welfare" has assumed a central role in the political and economic debate. The theoretical frame of reference is the stock and flows model (S&F), proposed by Mauro Bonaiuti, an adaptation of the funds and flows model with which Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen has interpreted the theory of production in a bio-economic key. The S&F model, using the theory of complex systems, describes in detail the characteristics of the funds, renamed stocks, and of the flows involved in the systems of production and consumption. The unique setting of an analysis based on the S&F is to assess how the structural features related to the environmental, social and economic sphere (stock) are able to transform physical entities, matter and energy (input flows), in welfare and waste (output streams). The model assumes that the flows of goods and services are not able to produce any well, but that is the set of stocks and flows, and especially their interaction, that gives rise to the enjoyment of life and wellbeing of the individual community. The intent of this work, following the specific approach of local economy, is to conduct an initial review of the stocks and flows model in order to verify how the economic, environmental, social and value characteristics of a territorial system are able to contribute to the generation of wealth for the local community. From this approach arises the strongly multi-disciplinary feature of the analysis that, in addition to brand itself as an economic-policy research, makes use of contributions from disciplines such as sociology and psychology. The research proposes a methodology able to identify tools and procedures adapted to detect different levels of eudaimonia produced by a local economic system and then put them in connection with the allocations of the different structures of production and consumption (stock). The proposed methodology has been tested and validated with an empirical application that, for cognitive and interpretive reasons, has been carried out in the local employment systems of the province of Viterbo. The results of the empirical analysis has confirmed the validity of the theoretical model, the correctness of the methodology and at the same time offered a number of new ideas for further research on the future design of economic policy measures designed to improve long-term welfare in local communities.