Edoardo Di Porto

Agglomeration and workplace training: knowledge spillovers versus poaching

ABSTRACT Agglomeration and workplace training: knowledge spillovers versus poaching. Regional Studies. The paper aims at ascertaining whether and how a local agglomeration of highly educated employers affects firms’ propensity to invest in training. On a theoretical ground such agglomeration may favour two different scenarios: a knowledge spillover effect may foster larger investments, or a poaching effect may prevail inducing more competition and less training. Econometric estimates find that in the Italian environment, where small businesses are prominent, the second effect is stronger. Endogeneity issues are addressed by adopting an instrumental variables (IV) approach. Moreover, estimates show that an employer’s higher educational level is associated with a greater propensity to sponsor training.

Central command, local hazard and the race to the top

This paper explores for the first time the consequences of centrally imposed local tax limitations on the modelling and estimation of spatial auto-correlation in local fiscal policies, and compares three spatial interaction estimators: a) the conventional maximum likelihood estimator that ignores censoring; b) a spatial Tobit estimator; c) a discrete hazard estimator. Implementation of the above empirical approaches on the case of local vehicle taxation in Italy provides a reasonably coherent picture in terms of the direction and size of the spatial interaction process, and offers a plausible spatial interpretation of the race to the top in provincial vehicle taxes.

Cooperation among local governments to deliver public services: a "structural" bivariate response model with fixed effects and endogenous covariate

Cooperation among local governments has been encouraged to enable the aggregation of resources and improved public sector efficiency. However, if cooperation through the joint delivery of local public services is likely to be welfare enhancing for the agglomeration, but will lead to losses for one of the parties, it is unlikely that the losing municipality will cooperate. Using a unique panel dataset of 30,000 French municipalities for 1995-2003, we estimate the relationship between cooperation decision and the fiscal revenues raised to provide local public goods. We employ a new econometric strategy based on Lee (1978), developing a non linear method controlling for fixed effect, endogenous covariates and cluster standard error. We find evidence that a positive difference between the expected fiscal revenues of a cooperating locality and the actual revenues realized by an isolated locality significantly increases the probability of joining an inter-municipal community.

Does age influence the success of intra-tympanic steroid treatment in idiopathic sudden deafness?

Abstract Conclusions: The present study shows that AGE, DELAY, and PTA_PRE may be considered factors influencing therapeutic success in intra-tympanic steroid therapy. Objective: The aim of the study is to evaluate the relationship between the therapeutic success of intra-tympanic prednisolone therapy and age, in patients affected by idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (ISSNHL), considering the influence of factors such as delay, gender, and pure tone average (PTA) pre-therapy. Method: This retrospective study involved 402 consecutive patients, affected by unilateral ISSNHL between January 2009 and January 2014. Patients were divided into two groups based on age: group one with 94 patients aged over 65 years and group two with all 402 patients enrolled in the study, including those over 65. Results: PTA recorded before the beginning of the therapy (PTA_PRE) in group one was worse than for group two. In both groups the therapy was significantly effective in improving hearing thresholds, even if PTA_PRE was significant and negatively correlated with success rate. This effect disappeared within the population over 65. On average, each day of DELAY from the onset of hearing loss to the beginning of therapy cuts almost 2% of the possibility to recover. AGE was negative and significant when specified continuously for group two.

Employers’ Agglomeration and Innovation in a Small Business Economy: The Italian Case

This chapter analyzes the impact of agglomeration on product and process innovation in Italy. Our main goal is to gain a better understanding of the spatial dimension of innovative activities. Based on a unique firm-level source of data provided by ISFOL containing information on employers’ personal profiles, we attempt to shed more light into the black box of the local knowledge spillovers. To this end, besides standard density measures, we define and employ an original density indicator and perform a series of IV regressions. Different from the main strands of the literature on this topic, which envisages positive knowledge spillover effects stemming from agglomeration, we do not find significant evidence that agglomeration fosters innovation. In particular, when small businesses are considered, a negative and significant effect arises. Such evidence suggests that in denser areas detrimental congestion effects tend to prevail and discourage innovation. Moreover, for this subsample of firms, the employers’ personal profile prove to be a relevant boost for innovation.