The purpose of the paper is to assess the impact of the Regional Mobility and Logistic Plan (RMLP) of Tuscany on regional growth and spatial disparities between the Tuscan provinces. In order to evaluate its economic impact, we first quantify the impact in terms of changes in travel time and...

The present paper aims to test the impact of incoming Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) on local wages in the Italian manufacturing sector by using firm level data from 2002 to 2007. Results initially show the lack of wage spillovers at both horizontal and vertical level, meaning that the effects...

This paper investigates whether the firms’ productivity may be subject to spillovers from the internationalization behavior of firms within the same local production system. Using a unique dataset for a representative sample of Italian firms we find evidence that the sectorial and geographical...

This paper provides original evidence about Chinese and Indian outward direct investment (ODI) in Italy. Firm-level data have been collected through survey interviews involving the whole population of Dragon and Elephant multinationals. With a response rate of 80%, we draw a detailed profile of...

In the last nineteen years we have witnessed an explosion of research on social capital in almost all the social sciences. The question addressed by this paper is the following one: what has been achieved during these years? The first part of the discussion is devoted to a review of the most...

The project "Leve_Network of competences, education and innovation in the Province of Livorno" is a study to support the design of innovation policies. The social and economic context under consideration is the Province of Livorno (Italy). The research draws on the experience of actionresearch...

In Sicily there is an increased dependency of the economy and employment from politics due to the weakness of the market economy and to the lack of strong civic culture. This paper will explain what are the ‘productive districts’ in Sicily and what they represent. The present work focuses on...

The euro crisis, the greater European integration, the effects of globalization have affected especially the Sicilian economy. A region in which there is an increased dependency of the economy and employment from politics for the chronic weakness of the market economy and the lack of strong...