Alessandro Crociata

Output-Orientated Data Envelopment Analysis for Measuring Recycling Efficiency: An Application at Italian Regional Level.

Pro-environmental behaviours associated with reducing, reusing and recycling have become increasingly matters of public policy concern. However, the existing literature on waste management rarely considers the cultural factors associated with predictors and enablers of recycling behaviours, nor has it deeply explored the relation between cultural access and such behaviours. Mindful of the relationship between cultural participation and learning, the main objective of this paper is to examine which Italian regions are ranked among the most ‘efficient’ in recycling, taking into account the variable of cultural participation. Using a Data Envelopment Analysis method applied to Italian regions for the period 2002–2007, we provide a measure of ‘efficiency’ that considers cultural consumptions (as input) and recycling (as output). Public data are drawn from two sources: the Italian Institute of Statistics database, ‘Cultura in cifre’, and the survey ‘Noi Italia – Environment section’. The results from the empirical analysis rank efficient and non-efficient regions in terms of connection between pro-environmental behaviour and cultural participation. The results also indicate a benchmark for ‘inefficient’ regions. The findings add to the discussion of cultural considerations for designing and implementing preventative pro-environmental strategies, that seek to reduce environmental costs and public environmental expenditure by factoring in – rather than out – the importance, role and impact of cultural access and participation.

Creative Workforce and Economic Development in Precrisis Europe: Main Trends and Causality Relationships

Building on work funded by the European Spatial Planning Observatory Network 2013 Program, the article analyzes the regional development of the “creative workforce” among its active population against regional economic growth measured by changes in per capita gross domestic product over the period 2001 to 2008. The analysis establishes regional typologies in this relationship according to the “sense” and evolution of this association, allowing a critical evaluation of processes and policies that may explain the large degree of spatial variation encountered, and addresses the issue of causal relationships between these two dimensions, suggesting the need to rethink development policies based on “creative capital.”

Evaluating waste collection management: the case of macro-areas and municipalities in Italy

The purpose of the present paper is to analyse the gap among Italian macro-areas performances in terms of separate waste collection rate and density of separate waste collection. The aim is twofold: (1) to investigate if clear and effective infrastructure policies, in Southern Italy, have been realized that are able to reduce the gap in the separate waste collection process with the rest of Italy and (2) to evaluate if Southern Italian municipalities have improved their operational capacity in the separate waste collection process. In particular, we exploit data collected in 2012 by several Italian sources (ISPRA and ISTAT). We implement a recentered influence function regression technique that allows us to put two macro-areas in comparison (North vs. South and Centre vs. South). This technique, once measured the territorial gaps, allows to disentangle the gap in the two spatial units of analysis (at municipalities level and at macro-areas level). The estimates suggest that while in the North the issue of waste is managed effectively and responsibly with respect to the Southern area, the latter has exhibited an advantage with respect to the Central Italy; furthermore, Southern municipalities appear to be unable to pursue a virtuous waste management system generating the persistence of a marked territorial gap in terms of both SCR and DSC. The main policy implications are discussed.

The Cognitive Determinants of Social Capital. Does Culture Matter

This paper addresses the relationship between social capital and cultural access. In doing that we provide a conceptual framework by moving from a cultural economics standpoint and by applying a Simultaneous Equation Model (SEM). Some linkages and relationships emerge through the analysis of cultural participation as a proxy of cultural capital and the accumulation of two selected dimensions of social capital.

Similar Patterns of Cultural and Creative Industries. A Preliminary Analysis Based on Self-Organized-Map to the Italian Case

In recent years, there has been a widely belief that creativity, going hand in hand with innovation and knowledge creation, readily translates into regional competitiveness. In the same time, cultural and creative industries (CCI) industrial pattern have been attracting a growing interest from a wide range of academic research and policy interventions. The aim of this article is to establish a better understanding of relevant industry relevance (RIR) of geographic samples with a relevant similarity in terms of industrial patterns and not of industry concentration. In this sense, we move from a methodological approach, based on Self-Organizing Maps (SOM) by comparing patterns of local employment. The Italian case provides an interesting case study to analyze industrial patterns by offering new insights of occupational dynamics. We conclude that this paper represents a firs explorative attempt to extend the previous literature to seize the overall productive structure of the local creative economy.