Gianluigi Coppola

Regional Disparities in Europe

The results of the analysis confirm the thesis of those who contend that the European economy is a diversified reality influenced by structural phenomena concerning labour market characteristics, sectoral composition, and localization factors which make it unlikely that integration processes — although accelerated by the enlargement of markets and their greater efficiency — will give rise to the hopedfor levelling of economic development in the near future. The main reason for regional differences still seems to be the composition and structure of labour markets. To be noted in particular is the marked contrast between the Mediterranean regions, most of which belong to the Objective 1 regions, and their high rates of structural unemployment, and the regions of central-northern Europe and central-southern England characterized by more flexible labour markets and high employment rates.

The Impact of the Institutions on Regional Unemployment Disparities

The main aim of this paper is to study European regional disparities in unemployment, considering regional productive structures and some regional institutional variables. It is widely known that one most important stylized facts concerning the EU consists in regional disparities among regions. Such differences relate to both income per capita and the labour market, the latter generally measured in terms of unemployment rates. In a recent paper (Amendola, Caroleo Coppola, 2004) we have analysed the economic structure of the EU’s regions using proxies for the productive structure and the labour market. In this paper we estimate a panel data model where the dependent variable is the regional unemployment rate and the independent variables relate to the productive structure and some regional institutional aspects. The results confirm that institutional variables, such as the centralization of wage bargaining, the decentralization of public expenditure and the level of bureaucracy, have important impacts on unemployment rates.

Le cause dei divari regionali della disoccupazione in Europa

Obiettivo del presente lavoro e quello di studiare i divari territoriali del tasso di disoccupazione in Europa, tenendo conto della differente struttura produttiva e dei diversi assetti istituzionali delle regioni. In letteratura e largamente condivisa la tesi che uno dei fatti stilizzati piu importanti che caratterizza l’economia dell’Unione Europea sia la presenza di divari territoriali all’interno dei paesi che costituiscono l’Unione stessa. Tali divari concernono sia il PIL pro capite, sia gli squilibri del mercato del lavoro misurati attraverso il tasso di disoccupazione. In un precedente articolo (Amendola, Caroleo Coppola, 2004) e stata definita la struttura economico-produttiva delle regioni europee attraverso l’utilizzo di alcuni indicatori sintetici rappresentativi della struttura produttiva, e del mercato del lavoro. In questo lavoro viene studiata, attraverso stime econometriche basate su un modello di panel data, la relazione esistente tra il tasso di disoccupazione, considerato come variabile dipendente, e alcune variabili relative alle caratteristiche produttive e del mercato del lavoro delle regioni, ad alcuni aspetti istituzionali, ed alle performance economiche delle regioni stesse. I risultati confermano l’ipotesi che sui livelli del tasso di disoccupazione regionale, incidono, oltre alla struttura produttiva e il diverso grado di sviluppo economico, anche altre variabili istituzionali, quali la centralizzazione della contrattazione salariale, il decentramento della spesa pubblica attuato a livello nazionale e il livello di burocrazia presente in ciascun Paese.

Structural Funds and Regional Convergence: Some Sectoral Estimates for Italy

In this chapter, we assess the European Structural Funds’ effects on the economies of the 20 Italian administrative regions for the period 1989–2006. The principal novelties of this chapter are that the empirical analysis separately considers the effects on four sectors (agriculture, energy and manufacturing, construction, and services), and we employ a non-parametric FDH-VP to calculate Malmquist productivity indexes. This allows us to distinguish the Funds’ effects on factor accumulation from those on total productivity changes. Our evidence implies that the Funds had a weak, but significant, impact on total factor productivity change but virtually no effect on capital accumulation or employment. Different types of Structural Funds are found to have widely different influences, with the European Social Fund, arguably, having the strongest impact.

Industrial Localisation and Economic Development. A Case Study

The research described in this paper is consisting of an indepth study of an important area of the Italian Mezzogiorno: the province of Salerno. The aim of the paper is twofold. The first was to identify, by means of cluster analysis, specialization of industrial areas in this province For that, some methodological points are previously selected from the current approach to development economics, that focuses both on genesis and evolution of local systems, by emphasising, among other aspects, the role of the immaterial resources and institutions. The results depict a variegated territory comprising both areas of closed economy, where the purpose of economic activity is to satisfy basic needs (food and housing), and areas that display a certain degree of economic openness towards the outside markets. Many clusters with high indexes of manufacturing specialization are classified as areas of sub furniture or as areas born by an exogenous intervention. The second aim of the research is to measure the social conditions that should foster the growth of new industrial districts within different areas of productive specialization, just identified by the cluster analysis. The approach used was the simple correspondence analysis of a set of qualitative variables surveyed, by a questionnaire given to 462 businesses in the province of Salerno.

Key Economic Characteristics of Italian Trawl Fisheries and Management Challenges

Two key measures of economic performance are calculated and analyzed for three important Italian trawl fisheries (Northern Thyrrenian Sea, South of Sicily, Northern Adriatic Sea): the Net Economic Returns (NER), which informs on the economic performance and is considered a proxy of resource rent in fisheries and the Return on Fixed Tangible Assets (ROFTA), which is used as an approximation of the Return on Investment (ROI) and is a key financial and performance indicator for a fisherman in order to take a decision to operate in a fishery. The trend of these indicators over the last decade highlights a poor economic performance that is associated with an overall poor condition of the state of resources. The trend of economic performance indicators is put in relation, on a time-based approach, with the different types of management measures applied over the last decade. We show that trends of fishing effort and economic indicators as well as statistical analysis return a coherent interpretation of the main factors affecting the profitability levels of the selected fleets. The study reveals that management measures impacted negatively on the profitability of the sector in the short run. However, economic indicators inverted the trend in the last 3 years. An increasing biomass trend as well as the improvement in fishing mortality of some few stocks, together with the reduction of input costs could be considered as positive drivers which impacted positively on economic profitability of the fisheries concerned. The study argues that even the technical and fishery management provisions in the Mediterranean Sea may have started to reverse the trend in economic profitability of the analyzed fleets. An additional management effort needs, however, to be developed on an urgent basis in order to ensure the achievement of the management goals defined by the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).

Youth and the Crisis : Unemployment, Education and Health in Europe

In this paper we look at the relationship between health and income as mediated by “lifestyle” choices; that is, a set of behaviours which are thought to influence health and are generally considered to invoke a substantial degree of free choice. The main underlying assumption is that individuals are co-producers of their own health. We first present a theoretical model in which health affects a consumers utility through a Health Production Function in which health is the output and consumer goods are the inputs. We then estimate an empirical model of health related choices and outcomes. We find that there are substantial differences between the permanent and transitory income determinants – also in terms of the direction of the effects. Moreover, we find that income effects often differ significantly in size and sometimes sign according to whether the income change was positive or negative. This is attributed to the dependence creating nature of the consumption goods involved (smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol) and their role as anxiety reducing goods which suggests that the simple theoretical model outlined here – some form of which is usually employed to analyse these issues - is not fully adequate to deal with the type of lifestyle consumption goods considered here. We indicate the lines along which a model needs to be developed in order to take this more fully into account, based on the rational addiction approach originating with Becker.The chapters were originally papers delivered at a conference in Salerno in 2013. All the authors are economists who apply econometrics to appropriate data sets. Nearly all the authors are based at or are affiliated to Italian academic institutions, and most of the chapters are specifically about Italy. The editors introduce, but do not attempt to synthesize the book’s contents which would be difficult and probably impossible. Most chapters are about education, training or health on the one side, and labor market conditions and experiences on the other.

Smoking, Drinking, Never Thinking of Tomorrow: Income and Risky Choices Amongst Young Adults in the UK

In this paper we look at the relationship between health and income as mediated by “lifestyle” choices; that is, a set of behaviours which are thought to influence health and are generally considered to invoke a substantial degree of free choice. The main underlying assumption is that individuals are co-producers of their own health. We first present a theoretical model in which health affects a consumers utility through a Health Production Function in which health is the output and consumer goods are the inputs. We then estimate an empirical model of health related choices and outcomes. We find that there are substantial differences between the permanent and transitory income determinants – also in terms of the direction of the effects. Moreover, we find that income effects often differ significantly in size and sometimes sign according to whether the income change was positive or negative. This is attributed to the dependence creating nature of the consumption goods involved (smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol) and their role as anxiety reducing goods which suggests that the simple theoretical model outlined here – some form of which is usually employed to analyse these issues - is not fully adequate to deal with the type of lifestyle consumption goods considered here. We indicate the lines along which a model needs to be developed in order to take this more fully into account, based on the rational addiction approach originating with Becker.The chapters were originally papers delivered at a conference in Salerno in 2013. All the authors are economists who apply econometrics to appropriate data sets. Nearly all the authors are based at or are affiliated to Italian academic institutions, and most of the chapters are specifically about Italy. The editors introduce, but do not attempt to synthesize the book’s contents which would be difficult and probably impossible. Most chapters are about education, training or health on the one side, and labor market conditions and experiences on the other.

The Easterlin Paradox: An Interpretation

The paradox of happiness or the Easterlin paradox (Easterlin, 74) states there is no time-series relationship between happiness and income. The aim of this paper is to try to give a different interpretation of this paradox by resorting to the philosophical view of the ancient Greeks, and in particular to the strong conflict between the Sophists and Plato on the nature of the asset. According to the Sophists pleasure coincides with the good because, as stated Protagoras, Man is the measure of all things. Plato points out such a distinction between pleasure and the good that will set in the history of Western thought, at least until the affirmation of Utilitarianism, which will indirectly draw inspiration itself from the sophist school. Platos Gorgias contains a positive, detailed analysis of the problem. Its conclusion is that the good is different from pleasure, and who associates it with pleasure lies a state of perpetual dissatisfaction. Another Greek myth, the story of Prometheus, just tells us how men have resorted to the techne, or technology, in order to overcome its limits and to try to remove that sense of dissatisfaction. If it is true, it is dissatisfaction or unhappiness that force the man to work, to be efficient and create income; thus the causal link between happiness and income turns upside down as it is exactly dissatisfaction and unhappiness to generate income. The existing differences between the two schools of thought originate two antithetical views of the world. The first enhances individualism and techne, while the second highlights sociability, ethics and politics. The empirical evidence found by Easterlin states the inability of the economic growth and/or of the technical progress of making man happy. That is the reason why, in the technological society, it is named a paradox.

Macro Models: an APP for Macroeconomic Models. User Manual 2.0

Macro Models are a series of free Apps available in App Store, and they work with Ipads. Each App simulates a specific macroeconomic model and presents both the static and the dynamic results. The first five Apps developed and published are: the Income-Expenditure model in three versions (I, II and III), the IS-LM model and the Taylors rule (IS-MP model). The economic model of each single App and several examples on how it works are outlined in this paper.