Migration and the location of MNE activities: Evidence from Italian provinces

We investigate the migration-inward foreign direct investment (FDI) nexus in narrow geographies. A novel two-stage empirical strategy allows us to investigate the role of migration as a determinant of multinational enterprises (MNEs) location choices and unpick heterogeneity in foreign investors' preferences towards the presence of migrants in the host location. This allows us to shed light on the relative importance of the underlying mechanisms linking migration and inward FDI. Relying on 1113 greenfield investments by 895 MNEs in Italian NUTS3 regions over 2003–2015, we find that immigrants from the country of origin of the investor exert a positive but highly heterogeneous effect on MNE location choices. Investors are more sensitive to the presence of migrants from their country of origin when they lack experience in the destination country (first-time investors) and when their investments concern market-access or business-services (downstream) activities. This is consistent with the view that migrants act as information brokers that bridge the fixed costs of international business activities.     

Community Pharmacies in the City Area: Evidence from an Italian Province

Pharmacy opening and pharmacy location are heavily regulated in Italy. This paper investigates how pharmacies are positioned in the city area and analyses the role of some factors relevant for gaining access to pharmacy services and competition. For this purpose, a probit regression model has been estimated. A main finding is that the spread of pharmacies all over the city area is unbalanced. The number of residents in the surroundings is not a main determinant of location. In spite of the availability of competing outlets nearby, pharmacies tend to be situated in areas attracting visitors as part of the working and travel circuits. This contributes to good access to the extent to which consumers can easily get to the pharmacy from the doctor's office as well as from work or shopping. However, while multiple outlets are available in the areas offering better business opportunities, the other parts of the municipal district are often unsupplied. As a result, accessibility within the city area is not the same for all residents. Several aspects of the overall pharmacy market regulation prove unsuited for opposing this pattern of location.     

Urban Unemployment and Migrants in Africa: Evidence from Harare 1985–1994

Unemployment is a major problem in urban centres in sub‐Saharan Africa. The impact of policies associated with structural adjustment programmes has frequently meant major formal job losses in both the public and private sectors. Although it is widely recognized that there has been a major (further) shift into the informal sector, it is also often claimed that ‘unemployment’ rates have greatly increased. When it is also assumed that net rural–urban migration has continued at a rapid pace, this is believed to be a significant contributor to the rise in unemployment. However, because ‘unemployment’ and ‘underemployment’ are hard to measure and to keep discrete when studying urban Africa, it is apparent that there is much confusion over current levels and trends in unemployment. This article discusses the problems of analysing African urban unemployment, drawing in particular on a recent ILO report, and presents evidence from long‐term research on migrants in Harare which casts doubt on the extent to which net in‐migration is a major factor contributing to unemployment in contemporary, economically adjusting sub‐Saharan Africa.     

Innovation in the Canadian Wine Industry: Evidence from Three Wine-Producing Regions

The aim of this article is to investigate if and how different regional conditions influence innovation patterns in the Canadian wine industry. The empirical analysis draws from an original survey at the firm level and compares the regions of Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec. The results show that, contrary to expectations, firms innovate very similarly in the three wine-producing regions in spite of substantial historical and territorial differences. Therefore, distinct regional characteristics do not lead to variations in innovation in the Canadian wine industry.     

Regional Externalities And Growth: Evidence From European Regions*

Abstract. This paper models externalities of production across regional economies. Under the assumption that knowledge diffuses without political or administrative barriers, we derive externalities that affect the steady state and the process of growth of each economy. The empirical counterpart of the reduced form equation summarizing the process of growth allows us to test for the presence of regional spillovers and to measure their magnitude. Our results for a sample of European regions show that spillovers are far from negligible, are robust to the consideration of variables within each region, and may cause nondecreasing returns at the spatial aggregate level. The paper also relates previous empirical evidence on spatial dependence in growth studies to the externalities modeled here.     

The Hinterland's Stake in Metropolitan Growth: Evidence from Selected Southern Regions

In this article we extend the Carlino and Mills and Boarnet models of local development to test for the presence and direction of rural area linkages to urban areas in Functional Economic Areas (FEAs). In a sample of southern FEAs, we detect a mix of spillover and backwash effects from urban core and fringe areas to their rural hinterlands. Rural-area population and employment both grew faster than average between 1980 and 1990 if in an FEA with a pattern of urban decentralization.     

Questioning Polycentric Development and its Effects. Issues of Definition and Measurement for the Italian NUTS-2 Regions

Polycentric development is a widely used term both in academic research and in the normative agenda. However, its theoretical foundations and economic implications are still unclear and the concept of polycentricity still does not have a shared definition or a shared measurement method. The aim of this study is two-fold. First, it defines and measures polycentricity at a NUTS-2 regional level, by comparing functional and morphological methods. Second, in the light of the role assigned to polycentric development in terms of policy, the study investigates the relationships between the degree of regional polycentricity and the key economic variables of performance, namely, competitiveness, social cohesion and environmental sustainability. Our main finding was that functional and morphological methods lead to similar results. In addition, we find a correlation between polycentricity and a more unequal income distribution and a higher level of productivity, especially when polycentricity was measured in functional terms. No stable correlations were found between polycentricity and measures of environmental sustainability, such as land consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.     

Institutional contradictions and attempts at innovation. Evidence from the Italian urban facility planning

Spatial planning affects the way in which cities are created and developed, as well as their economics and welfare. It does so by constructing institutional frameworks that frequently undergo states of contradiction and demands for adjustment and revision. This situation is particularly evident by looking at the way in which urban facilities have been planned during the twentieth century. The article explores the issue of urban facility planning in Italy by taking into account the adaptations of the institutional framework governing and regulating their supply. In particular, it explores the central contradictions which guided reforms and revisions of urban facility planning in Italy, starting from the post-war period until now, and the main problems left unsolved after years of attempts at innovation aiming at a more flexible and quality-oriented approach. In order to contribute to this debate, specific policy implications and devices are presented.     

From regional innovation systems to local innovation systems: Evidence from Italian industrial districts

The theoretical concepts of industrial district and regional innovation system though closely related, capture different aspects of regional economic development. Given the “nestedness” of a system in other systems, one regional innovation system can support several districts. However, in some cases, districts may be considered as local innovation systems with independent innovation patterns. In fact, the socio-economic characters of industrial districts can be so specific that the region's size and institutional framework may be inadequate in fully describing their innovation processes. In the case of the Italian region of Lombardy, this “autonomous” local innovation system model proliferates.     

The Dynamics and Volatility of Commercial and Residential Property Prices: Theory and Evidence*

Abstract. This article investigates the dynamics of property prices and their interaction with output growth in a general equilibrium model. Closed form solutions and testable hypotheses are derived from a mildly restricted version of the model. The testable hypotheses are broadly supported empirically. In particular, (1) the volatility of commercial property prices is higher than that of residential property prices, (2) each of the lagged, contemporary, and forward commercial property prices is positively correlated with residential property prices, (3) the contemporaneous covariance between the two property prices is larger than the lagged covariance, and (4) output growth is positively correlated with both property prices. These results are consistent with simulations results that are based on a more general specification of the model.     

Explaining Third‐Party Intervention in Ethnic Conflict: Theory and Evidence

Abstract. One of the most challenging developments for students of international relations is the resurgence of ethnic strife, including secessionism and irredentism. Basic questions are only beginning to be addressed in the post‐Cold War era. Why are some states more likely than others to intervene in ethnic conflicts? How can international norms about third‐party intervention in ethnic conflicts be evaded or ignored by some states but respected by others? Why are some states inclined to use force rather than mediation to resolve ethnic strife? In short, what accounts for the emergence of adventurous and belligerent foreign policies with respect to internal ethnic conflicts? These questions are of increasing importance to students of international politics, yet the dynamics and internationalisation of ethnic conflict are far from fully understood. This study focuses on the dynamics of third‐party intervention in ethnic strife and implications for peaceful resolution. The first section presents a model that identifies the general conditions under which ethnic strife is most likely to lead to intervention by third‐party states. The second uses four cases to illustrate, within the context of the model, different processes with respect to internationalisation of ethnic conflict. The third and final stage identifies implications for policy and theory, along with directions for future research.     

The Nomad as State Builder: Historical Theory and Material Evidence from Mongolia

Theory on nomadic political complexity has largely been based on twentieth century ethnography and numerous historical accounts of the military confederations of pastoral nomads. Over the past two decades, archaeologists have increasingly used material evidence to evaluate ideas about nomadic polities and have added indigenous and local-scale perspectives to an understanding of nomadic political process in many regions across the Old World. One of these is Mongolia, a major center of nomadic state and empire formation, where archaeologists have recently focused attention on an early regional polity that arose at the end of the first millennium BC and is known as the Xiongnu (also Hsiung-nu) state. This paper synthesizes the latest archaeological research on the Xiongnu state in order to evaluate historical models that explain state emergence among nomads on the far eastern steppe. The material record from Mongolia adds the detail and resolution needed to refine existing explanations for Xiongnu state emergence.      

Fashioning the Italian nation: Risorgimento and its costumeall'italiana

This article retraces the debate that emerged during the nineteenth century about the need to create a modern Italian fashion that could restrain the popular use of foreign clothing, in particular that imported from France and Austria. While we usually refer to the 1950s when we think of Made-in-Italy fashion, it was during the Risorgimento that a public discussion began to take shape on the possibility of creating a national self, vested in Italy's specific character and history. Made of black velvet and accompanied by a hat with a feather, the nineteenth-century costume all'italiana was supposed to incarnate the essence of the modern Italian, although it never turned into a commercial reality. What it did, however, was successfully to communicate a message of national unity based on the notion of national sacrifice and expressed through a visual image of blackness – a message that resonated widely in Italy's nationalist discourse throughout and beyond the nineteenth century.     

The crisis of the Italian state: then and now

Abstract

The article argues that Patrick McCarthy's Crisis of the Italian State was a book of great value by an author who was a partisan in the struggle to reform the Italian political system. The book's argument that lasting reform of Italian politics is only possible if middle class Italians begin to act as citizens, rather than as clients who regard the state as a source of potential largesse, has proved to be a far-sighted one, although at the time it seemed simplistic. Many of Italy's current troubles stem from the failure of Italy to go beyond the ‘overworked state’.