Roberto Ganau

Productivity, Credit Constraints and the Role of Short-Run Localization Economies: Micro-Evidence from Italy

Ganau R. Productivity, credit constraints and the role of short-run localization economies: micro-evidence from Italy, Regional Studies. This paper investigates whether Italian manufacturing firms’ productivity is affected by credit constraints, and whether short-run localization economies foster productivity both directly and indirectly, moderating the negative effects of credit rationing via inter-firm credit relationships. Results suggest a negative effect of credit rationing on firms’ productivity, while a positive relationship exists between short-run localization economies and productivity. It emerges that location in an industrially concentrated area reduces firms’ investment-to-cash flow sensitivity, and that it positively moderates the negative effect of credit rationing on productivity. Moreover, the positive moderation effect seems to be increasing in the density of the local banking system.

Distance-based agglomeration externalities and neighbouring firms’ characteristics

ABSTRACT This paper tests the hypothesis that firms with different characteristics can differ in their capability to produce local externalities by investigating the relationship between firm-specific distance-based weighted agglomeration measures and firms’ short-run productivity growth in the Italian manufacturing industry. The results suggest that positive localization economies increase with distance when neighbouring firms’ characteristics are accounted for. Diversification-type forces have negative effects on productivity growth at short distances, while there are positive effects at longer distances regardless of the weighting scheme considered. Moreover, the negative effect of inter-industry externalities seems to persist over distance when neighbouring firms’ characteristics are accounted for.

Smart Specialization, diversificazione correlata e resilienza regionale: note a margine di un dibattito

Il concetto di ‘diversificazione correlata’ rappresenta un fattore di successo della Smart Specialization Strategy. Mentre l’impatto della related variety sulla performance economica regionale e d’impresa e stato ampiamente studiato, l’analisi del suo ruolo sulla capacita di una regione di adattarsi a shock esogeni - capacita di resilienza - non sembra aver attratto particolare attenzione. Questo lavoro analizza la relazione tra diversificazione correlata e resilienza regionale a livello dei 686 Sistemi Locali del Lavoro italiani. Dall’analisi emerge una relazione positiva tra related variety e resilienza: sistemi locali caratterizzati da una maggiore related variety sembrano aver mostrato una maggiore capacita di adattamento alla crisi.