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As a contribution to national strategic energy planning, recent developments in meteorological modeling and wind generation technologies have improved the representation of the spatio‐temporal features of wind. This paper describes an updated Italian Wind Atlas (Atlante EOLico ItaliANo [AEOLIAN]) released in the early 2000s. The objective of AEOLIAN is to guide future wind generation to accord with ambitious European greenhouse gas emission targets set for 2030 and 2050. AEOLIAN is the result of a collaboration effort between Ricerca sul Sistema Energetico (RSE) SpA and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), which jointly developed a novel approach combining high‐resolution numerical weather modeling with the Analog Ensemble (AnEn) statistical technique. This paper uses dynamical model runs with hourly output for 1990–2019 with 4 km horizontal grid spacing. For 2015–2019, an inner grid nest with 1.33 km horizontal grid spacing is used. The AnEn is then employed to temporally extend the 5 years of high‐resolution runs back through 1990–2014 to create a 30‐year dataset for Italy and surrounding marine areas. A thorough verification is carried out using 104 observational stations homogeneously distributed throughout the territory. Compared with other state‐of‐the‐art products, AEOLIAN provides enhanced accuracy over complex terrain thanks to higher horizontal resolution and the assimilation of observational wind data over the domain, which result in a reduction of model bias on complex terrain and a better reconstruction of the wind distributions. Finally, a new WebGIS interface (https://atlanteeolico.rse-web.it/) to explore AEOLIAN data is described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles in the issue on topics including the deliberate managerial strategy towards international business performance, transformation towards smart factory system, and place brand as an emergent property.

Introduction: Many studies have investigated patients' understandings of how to optimise mental health services. However, only a few studies in the Italian context have involved experts by experience (EbEs), who can be ex‐users, family members of ex‐users or current service collaborators. Their role is crucial in implementing collaborative service quality assessment projects. Method: The study investigated the experience of 35 EbEs, users, and family members who carried out a 9‐month fortnightly project aimed at imagining an 'ideal service'. The facilitators of the discussion groups (two EbEs) were interviewed; written reports of each meeting were produced with relevant comments, notes and specific suggestions; and content analysis was applied. Results: The most important result concerns the effectiveness of the project management method and group leadership carried out by the two EbEs. This approach allowed for complete autonomy of the work, without professional gaze or power imbalance. Also, the ideas and specific contents focused on by the two groups offer strategies to facilitate users' entry and reception in health care centres, to reduce the stigma of mental illness, to improve the centres' physical environment, to improve organisational aspects, to keep family members actively involved and to network mental health services with other territorial services. Conclusions: EbEs have proven to be key figures in ensuring equity of role in the service co‐design process. This also concerns a context, the Italian one, where their role has not yet been recognised and legalised. Their contribution and ideas to improve services could be fundamental not only in mental health centres, but also in other health facilities, and could concern the entire service delivery process rather than being limited to quality assurance, according to a virtuous circle based on active participation and transformation of the role of users. Patient or Public Contribution: This work resulted from close collaboration between the two EbEs who conducted the groups, users and family members, the university, and the psychiatrist in charge of the service. All of them contributed to the research. The EbEs, researchers and psychiatrist participated in the interpretation of the data and are the co‐authors of this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The aim of this paper is to assess small and medium‐sized enterprises' (SMEs') readiness to initiate a mature dialogue with stakeholders in the exceptional context of a strategic crisis, when information on business model sustainability has become universally material for all stakeholders. A quantitative study is carried out by developing a business model content analysis and applying it to a data sample of 109 manufacturing SMEs in Italy with annual revenues ranging from €10 to €50 million. After analyzing the literature on SMEs stakeholder communication and arguing the conflicting influences of stakeholder and legitimacy motivations in the context of a strategic crisis, three hypotheses are tested by collecting data from annual reports. Despite increased stakeholder expectations, the level of communication was limited to a minimum amount of information, demonstrating no relationship with the firms' relative size and proving a prominent influence of legitimacy motivations, with a specific relevance of legal pressures. Under the stress of the crisis, all SMEs, particularly those that were strategically and financially vulnerable, provided extremely limited information, demonstrating the tendency to conceal strategic risks and the difficulties in engaging in mature dialogue with stakeholders. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first quantitative study focusing on unlisted SMEs' sustainability communication. The paper contributes to the policymaker debate on the possibility of extending the current legal obligation on sustainability reporting and transparency to smaller businesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Regional Science Policy & Practice is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper combines theoretical sustainable business models and conflict indices in making practical sustainable (i.e., participatory decisions involving economic, social, and environmental features within weak or strong sustainability paradigms) and rational (i.e., informed and consistent decisions within substantive or instrumental rationality) decisions with respect to what, who, where, when, and how to act. The case study, focused on an offshore gas platform, identified when (i.e., the end as opposed to the beginning of extraction activities) and where (i.e., the economic, social, and environmental contexts of the Adriatic Sea in Abruzzo region, Italy). A face‐to‐face questionnaire, submitted to stakeholders, produced the relative weights required by the tested sustainable business models (Lüdeke‐Freund et al., 2018), and it reached a conclusion about how (i.e., in favor of the majority as opposed to average decisions). An application of a linear conflict index (Fasth et al., 2018) highlighted a lack of stakeholders' representativeness and knowledge and solved these issues with a 50% increase of stakeholders involved and an additional discussion with originally invited stakeholders on specific topics, respectively. In summary, the methodology suggested in this paper produced a (strong) sustainable and (substantive) rational decision about what and who based on relative weights expressed by representative and informed stakeholders being engaged at the smallest cost and with the largest support. Thus, the contribution of this paper is twofold: Theoretically, choices among alternative sustainable businesses depend on the adopted sustainability paradigm, and practically, choices among alternative sustainable businesses should be identified according to the adopted sustainability paradigm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Papers in Regional Science is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the content and quality of circular economy (CE) and environmental information (CEEI) disclosure in sustainability reports. Additionally, it provides suggestions for heightening CEEI disclosure. Using the content analysis, we analysed the changes that took place after the European Union (EU) action plan (2015) selecting a sample of sustainable reports in the cosmetic industry in Italy in 2014 and 2019 years. We applied the Climate Disclosure Standard Board (CDSB) framework focused on 12 reporting requirements designed to encourage corporate standardized disclosure of environmental information. Our analysis is performed through a frequency term analysis. Additionally, to measure the general shift of semantic over the two years towards CEEI, a semi‐supervised topic modelling approach was applied, whose topics were obtained by aggregating all terms with a significant variation from the content analysis. Findings show that the recent reports (2019) include terms related to the environment in a slightly more frequent way compared to 2014. We provide stronger evidence of the shift in the origin of the topics, being coherent with the changes introduced from the EU 2015 act, and the requirements of the CDSB framework nevertheless the CE seems still under‐reported in the area of governance, strategy, management and performance. The paper discusses the need for further Institutional (EU directives), regulatory (CDSB framework) and stakeholders' pressure (on companies. Finally, the implementation of an integrated reporting for social, economic and environmental disclosure is suggested as a way to ensure an effective CEEI disclosure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature on Covid‐19 has demonstrated that frontline workers use different coping strategies and engage in sense‐making to address negative emotions. However, we know little about the underlying process of sense‐making. Thus, this paper uses institutional logics to investigate how sense‐making of negative emotions is enabled and constrained. This analysis draws on a diary written by a nurse at an Italian hospital, which represents an account of the emotions experienced by medical staff. The analysis identifies a set of enablers and disablers of sense‐making, as well as, the patterns that alleviate and intensify frontline workers' emotions. Based on these findings and evidence of the Covid‐task force at Papa Giovanni XXIII hospital in Bergamo, Italy, this paper illustrates Critical Systems Heuristics as a means to address the disablers of sense‐making through participatory conversations that consider different institutional logics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Papers in Regional Science is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

For the first time, this paper presents to the planetary scientists' community the catalog of the meteorite collection preserved at the Italian Museum of Planetary Sciences (Museo Italiano di Scienze Planetarie, henceforth MISP) in Prato (Italy). Founded in 2005, MISP is a type specimen official repository approved by the Nomenclature Committee of the Meteoritical Society. It represents one of the few museums worldwide entirely devoted to planetary sciences. The catalog of its meteorite collection encompasses 430 meteorites for a total of 1536 specimens, including 291 thin sections, 184 thick sections, and 278 specimens that MISP has classified. Furthermore, MISP is currently classifying 57 other meteorites. Some samples were found during meteorite recovery expeditions in hot deserts, promoted by MISP in collaboration with diverse Italian universities and national research institutions. MISP also keeps an impact rocks collection comprising 257 samples. In a country like Italy, where most of the collected meteorites are housed in museums whose catalogs are not available online, the publication of the MISP meteorite collection catalog, together with the catalog of the impact rocks collection, represents not only a significant scientific primary source but also a remarkable tool for disseminating meteoritics to nonresearch audiences in educational activities and citizen science projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of reading habits on academic performances have been carefully investigated, but little is known about the effects of academic achievements on students' leisure reading. This paper investigates this issue by estimating the effects of academic achievements, proxied by the number of exams passed, on leisure reading, measured by the number of leisure books read in a year. Using an online survey submitted to the students at the University of Bologna, Italy, we adopt a two‐step control‐function technique to control for endogeneity. The empirical evidence suggests the existence of a negative relationship between students' academic achievements and the time devoted to leisure reading. This result holds for students of different fields of study and is stronger for male students. The Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition supports the existence of a gender‐specific idiosyncratic effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Introduction: Phase‐contrast imaging (PCI) is a novel technology that can visualise variations in X‐ray refraction (phase contrast) in addition to differences in X‐ray attenuation (absorption contrast). Compared to radiography using conventional methods (i.e. absorption‐based imaging), PCI techniques can potentially produce images with higher contrast‐to‐noise ratio and superior spatial resolution at the same or lower radiation doses. This has led PCI to be explored for implementation in medical imaging. While interest in this research field is increasing, the whole body of PCI research in medical imaging has been under‐investigated. This paper provides an overview of PCI literature and then focusses on evaluating its development within the scope of medical imaging. Methods: Bibliographic data between 1995 and 2018 were used to visualise collaboration networks between countries, institutions and authors. Social network analysis techniques were implemented to measure these networks in terms of centrality and cohesion. These techniques also assisted in the exploration of underlying research paradigms of clinical X‐ray PCI investigations. Results: Forty‐one countries, 592 institutions and 2073 authors contributed 796 investigations towards clinical PCI research. The most influential contributors and network collaboration characteristics were identified. Italy was the most influential country, with the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility being the most influential institution. At an author level, F. Pfeiffer was found to be the most influential researcher. Among various PCI techniques, grating interferometry was the most investigated, while computed tomography was the most frequently examined modality. Conclusions: By gaining an understanding of collaborations and trends within clinical X‐ray PCI research, the links between existing collaborators were identified, which can aid future collaborations between emerging and established collaborators. Moreover, exploring the paradigm of past investigations can shape future research – well‐researched PCI techniques may be studied to bring X‐ray PCI closer to clinical implementation, or the potential of seldom‐investigated techniques may be explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Papers in Regional Science is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Financial education represents a powerful tool for improving economic literacy of citizens. This paper presents results from an experiment providing a group of 136 workers in an Italian university (administrative staff) an online, synchronous course. Classes were organized in 5 sessions of 2h each and covered basic topics about personal finance. The effectiveness of the course is assessed through a rigorous randomized controlled trial (RCT). In addition to the analysis of improvements in financial knowledge, financial self‐efficacy and the role of prior attitudes and behaviors were explored. Participants obtained post‐test scores statistically higher than individuals in the control group, with an average effect size of 0.55 SD. The effect is particularly relevant for participants starting with low levels of financial knowledge. Moreover, two novel findings emerge: financial self‐efficacy increases (0.51 SD) after the course, and pre‐treatment individuals' financial attitudes and behaviors shed further light on the financial learning process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the evolution of consumption practices in Venice in the long eighteenth century through the combined use of post‐mortem inventories and household budgets. Although Italy experienced a period of relative decline between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, our findings suggest that Venetian households enjoyed a rich and vibrant material culture that was fully comparable with those of the most advanced European urban economies. However, although new products, practices, and fashions were adopted by Venetian society, the architecture of consumption did not undergo sudden and extreme changes; rather, consumption was gradually refined, following the path that it had begun during the Renaissance. We therefore argue that the Venetian economy did not experience a consumer revolution but, instead, consumer evolution. Moreover, this study shows that sophisticated consumption practices were not exclusive to the more dynamic economies of the continent but were widespread even in those regions that were victims of the Little Divergence. We thus suggest that the relationship between consumption development and economic development was not necessarily causal and that the diffusion of new consumption practices throughout society was a necessary, but insufficient, prerequisite for economic take‐off. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High‐temperature geothermal areas are often characterized by widespread surficial manifestations, whose location is strictly controlled by sets of faults of regional relevance. The geochemical and isotopic signature of the discharged fluids can reveal key information on the geothermal fluids pathway, shedding light on the sources and fluid‐rock interaction within the geothermal reservoirs. In this paper, a geochemical and structural data set from the Larderello geothermal area and surroundings is presented and discussed. We constrain the role of transfer and normal faults in controlling the geothermal circulation enhanced by a cooling magmatic intrusion underneath the Lago area (SW of Larderello). The structural control on the fluids circulation is highlighted by both the location of the CO2 emissions along the fault segments, where permeability is enhanced, and their degassing rates, which increase moving away from the core of the Larderello geothermal system. The main results unravel the presence of deep regional pathways along which endogenous fluids circulate before being discharged in the investigated areas. The peripheral zone emissions are affected by interaction with shallow aquifers and condensation processes whereas the CO2 emitted from the central areas, located near the core of the geothermal system, was accompanied by high amounts of steam, and suffers intense shallow fractionation processes. The latter areas emit medium‐to‐low normalized‐CO2‐degassing rates (<270 t d−1 km−2) when compared to the extremely high values occurring in the peripheral sectors (up to 1,300 t d−1 km−2) of the Larderello geothermal systems, possibly suggesting an incipient propagation of such a system, likely wider than previously thought. Plain Language Summary: High‐temperature geothermal areas are specific zones on Earth where the geothermal gradient is greater than the average global value (∼30°C km−1). This is due to the existence of cooling magma source(s) at depth, providing heat that is transmitted to fluid reservoir(s) located at intermediate levels continuously and naturally fed by recharging fluids, and sealing rock(s) at shallower levels that maintain reservoir temperature and pressure. These geothermal areas commonly show steam‐dominated manifestations at the surface, accompanied by relevant degassing of carbon dioxide likely originated from different feeding systems (biogenic, thermometamorphic, and mantellic). Defining sources, processes, and transport mechanisms governing the CO2 emissions from soils is challenging but pivotal to understand the geothermal fluid origin, dynamics, and relation with the geological structures. To unravel these processes, we combined geochemical and structural measurements performed at the Larderello‐Travale‐Radicondoli (LTR) geothermal field (Italy). Distinct geothermal sectors were investigated according to their geochemical characteristics, CO2 degassing rates, and geological‐structural features, to understand how CO2 is transported and modified during its journey from the deep geothermal reservoir(s) to the surface, exploiting the permeability of fault zones and/or fractured rocks. Results suggest that the LTR geothermal system might be wider than previously thought, indicating a higher geothermal potential. Key Points: Extensive CO2 soil degassing measurements and carbon isotopic composition in the Larderello geothermal system were carried outHydrothermalized hot‐ and cold‐degassing areas are controlled by structural settingRegional transfer zones enhance the circulation of deep‐seated geothermal fluids [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Papers in Regional Science is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper considers the pattens of international collaboration by analysing publications on COVID‐19 published in the first 6 months of the pandemic. The data set comprised articles on COVID‐19 indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection (WoS CC) downloaded four times between 1 April 2020 and 1 June 2020. The analysis of 5,827 documents revealed that 128 countries, 23,127 authors, and 6,349 institutes published on the pandemic. The data reveal that the three main publishing countries were the USA, China, and England with Italy closely following. Although publication was widely spread, most of the institutions with the highest volume of output were in China. Network analysis showed growth in international cooperation with an average degree of country/region cooperation rising to 23.06 by 1 June. There was also a clear core‐periphery structure to international collaboration. Institutional collaboration was shown to be highly regionalized. The data reveal a high and growing incidence of international collaboration on the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the impact of a tax break on incentive pay (introduced in Law n. 208/2015) on labour productivity and average wages in Italian firms. We use a unique source of firm‐level information drawn from a large representative survey of Italian firms merged with the ORBIS archive. By applying difference‐in‐differences methods, we obtain the following results. First, the tax break has a positive effect on both labour productivity and average wages, although the positive effect on average wages is not confirmed by robustness tests. Second, productivity impacts are mainly driven by family firms in northern regions, where firms benefit from the more dynamic business environment in which they operate. These results take into account unobserved heterogeneity and endogeneity issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Papers in Regional Science is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The aim of the paper is to present how the interaction between the micro behaviours of individual families and the collective macro behaviour of the city of Pavia produced a unique historical phenomenon that, on the one hand, has amazed Italy and the whole world for its striking number of towers and on the other represents a clear example of urban housing unsustainability in the Middle Ages. In the paper, using a simulation software, the micro and macro effects of the accumulation of towers in the city of Pavia are shown. The study of the behaviour of collectivities has been a very complex subject of analysis and for this reason, a fascinating and interesting one as well. To understand, explain and, to a certain extent, control collective phenomena, the Theory of Combinatory Systems was recently formalized. This theory describes, interprets and simulates the most relevant collective phenomena and their observable effects. With the aid of a simple probabilistic combinatory automaton, we have simulated the dynamics of the formation of the towered town of Pavia, Italy, which is unique in all the world, as can be observed in the historical descriptions or by a visit to this ancient Italian town. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Managing stakeholders' concerns in megaprojects with an inclusive and ethical vision is a current open challenge. To overcome company‐centered stakeholder‐management practices, an ecosystem view, (i.e., one based on the network of relationships among involved stakeholders), should be adopted by designing bottom‐up participatory stakeholder mapping processes that include the stakeholders affected by the construction of a megaproject. This paper presents an analysis of the stakeholder ecosystem of a contested megaproject in Italy (the Turin–Lyon high‐speed rail) aimed at identifying similarities and discrepancies in stakeholder identification and prioritization between the managers' perception and an ecosystem point of view. The study followed a mixed‐method approach. By coding the self‐declared statements from 21 interviews with middle and top managers of the organization in charge of the construction and visualizing the emerging network of actors through a social network analysis and the use of centrality degrees, the most relevant stakeholders are identified. Our findings reveal how the prioritization of stakeholders obtained through the centrality degrees significantly differs from what the managers declare in reference to the concept of salience, highlighting how a bottom‐up stakeholder mapping process—by including the stakeholders themselves in the mapping process—should be designed and reiterated during the whole life of a megaproject in order to adopt an inclusive stakeholder management approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores how managers and officials enable public value (PV) creation through accounting practices in higher education institutions (HEIs). Adopting a narrow perspective related to gender accounting, this paper presents a comparative case study of three HEIs based in Italy that have been implementing gender‐responsive budgeting (GRB) in the last few years. Interviews are conducted with managers and officials involved in GRB processes. The results are analyzed on the basis of Moore's strategic triangle and the strategic alignment among its dimensions. Scarce integration within HEI strategies and low involvement of internal and external stakeholders in iterative processes for strategy definition are identified. Furthermore, the GRB is a standalone gender accounting practice and has limited capability of assessing gender equality outcomes. These results are among the main factors limiting the capability of HEIs to deliver PV through GRB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intermittent water supply (IWS) of water distribution systems is a common practice caused by the imbalance between available water resources and customers' demands. Transition to the continuous water supply (CWS) is desirable to reduce quality, equity distribution, and pipe integrity issues but is often practically unachievable in the short or medium term. The World Bank funded a laboratory activity at the Water Engineering laboratory of the University of Perugia, Italy, to investigate how remedies can be introduced to mitigate the impacts of IWS and preserve pipe integrity, facilitating the transition from IWS to CWS. The results of the tests with different feeding conditions, downstream outflows, and air valve dimensions and locations are described and discussed in this paper, culminating in typical interventions that can be implemented to reduce, if not completely eliminate, the undesirable consequences. Plain Language Summary: Almost one billion people worldwide are estimated to receive water intermittently, especially in low‐ and middle‐income countries. Intermittent supply has a significant impact on the water quality, equity of water distribution among users, accuracy of the customer meters, and the structural condition of the pipes. Water distribution systems are not usually designed for such an operating approach, and interventions are required to preserve the pipe integrity, particularly in the transition to a continuous water supply. The World Bank funded a laboratory investigation to assess in a controlled environment the causes of the harmful consequences and the remedies that can be introduced to alleviate their impact. This study is of importance not only in preserving existing networks in the transition to a continuous supply situation but also in ensuring that the large sums being invested in new infrastructure will not be wasted. Key Points: Transition from intermittent to continuous water supply of water distribution systems could be unachievableA laboratory investigation of effects and remedies that can be introduced to mitigate the impacts of intermittent water supply is presentedAir release valve design and location and control of the upstream conditions are crucial and must be properly analyzed [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By relying on the number of (surviving) boys per hundred girls observed in the population censuses as a cumulative measure of differential mortality during birth, infancy, and childhood, this paper shows that average Italian child sex ratios (aged 0–4) were abnormally high between 1861 and 1921. Our estimations indicate that unexplained excess female mortality resulted in around 2–3 per cent of 'missing girls' during this period. Likewise, by constructing a new dataset on child sex ratios at the provincial level during the same period, this article shows that child sex ratios tended to be higher in Southern Italy, a geographical cleavage that became stronger as time went by. Crucially, the results reported here cannot be explained by registration issues because (1) the analysis holds if we focus on the sex ratios of older children (aged 5–9) and (2) these patterns are also clearly visible using death registers. Unexplained excess female mortality early in life disappeared from the 1920s onwards, thus suggesting that either discriminatory practices gradually vanished and/or that they no longer translated into higher mortality rates due to enhanced living standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corruption is a plague with serious economic and social consequences and has a greater impact than people perceive. The impacts on business are severe but often underestimated. The aim of this paper is to analyze the influence of public governance environment on the strategical opportunistic use of related party transactions in family firms. Considering corruption as a good indicator of conditions that boost unethical behavior, the study investigates whether high standard of public governance quality at a regional level, as well as low corruption, helps to reduce specific types of opportunistic transactions. Based on a regression analysis on European‐listed family firms in Italy, France, and Germany, we find that high public governance quality at the regional level reduces companies' opportunistic transactions. The study addresses a gap in the literature, first, because it empirically shows a link between the quality of the context and some unethical business strategies, confirming that a negative context leaves room for opportunistic behaviors and that high standards in the public governance quality discourage firms' opportunistic behaviors through specific transactions and, second, because it focuses on family firms suggesting that a strong family power that controls strategy and decision‐making process, if operate in a bad public quality context, may be involved in opportunistic behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarizes statistics on the key aspects of the distribution of earnings levels and earnings changes using administrative (social security) data from Italy between 1985 and 2016. During the time covered by our data, earnings inequality and earnings volatility increased, while earnings mobility did not change significantly. We connect these trends with some salient facts about the Italian labor market, in particular the labor market reforms of the 1990s and 2000s, which induced a substantial rise in fixed-term and part-time employment. The rise in part-time work explains much of the rise in earnings inequality, while the rise in fixed-termcontracts explains much of the rise in volatility. Both of these trends affect the earnings distribution through hours worked: part-time jobs reduce hours worked within a week, while fixed-term contracts reduce the number of weeks worked during the year as well as increase their volatility. We only find weak evidence that fixed-term contracts represent a "stepping-stone" to permanent employment. Finally, we offer suggestive evidence that the labor market reforms contributed to the slowdown in labor productivity in Italy by delaying human capital accumulation (in the form of general and firm-specific experience) of recent cohorts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the effect of ownership on sustainable development and environmental policy in Italian municipally owned corporations (MOCs) dealing with urban waste management, trying to understand if multiple ownership can generate better performance compared to single ownership and if the presence of private partners could be crucial in this. The research question is answered by analyzing 41 MOCs of the largest Italian cities operating in urban waste management. In this specific sector, public administrations have tried to improve their offer in terms of sustainable development, environmental policy, and efficiency. The paper covers the Italian case study, where urban waste production per capita is higher than the European average figure. The waste cycle management service is operated in Italy at local level through totally publicly owned companies (monoadministration or multiadministration), mixed (public–private) companies, or via a full externalization achieved by means of public tenders. Through a multinomial ordered probit panel, we show that MOCs with multiple owners perform better than those having a single owner and perform much better with the presence of a private partner, confirming those academic findings according to which collaborative arrangements can increase efficiency, do better than public sector bureaucracy, and lower the costs of service provision. The results of this paper can be used by academics, practitioners, and policy makers alike. To the best of our knowledge, this is the only study that applies this perspective to the analysis of the current international waste management scenario with relation to MOCs having multiple ownerships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Papers in Regional Science is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Incorporating systematic evidence with clinical expertise is a key element in the quest to improve quality of care and patient outcomes. The evidence supporting skin‐to‐skin contact in the first hour after birth is robust and includes significantly improved outcomes for both mother and infant. This paper compares available iterative data about newborn behaviour in the first hour after birth to further describe the observable behaviour pattern and to provide clinical insight for further research. Although the evidence for positive outcomes through skin‐to‐skin contact are robust, there is a dearth of research specifically focused on clinical practice. The methodology considers the four available data sets that used Widström's 9 stages, which consists of studies from Japan, Sweden, Italy and the United States, examining the parameters of each stage across settings from around the world. This research provides an expanded understanding of the timing of the newborn's progression through Widström's 9 observable stages. We found that newborns in all four data sets began with a birth cry and continued through the remaining stages of relaxation, awakening, activity, rest, crawling, familiarization, suckling and sleeping during the first hours after birth and consolidated the data into a Sign of the Stages chart to assist in further research. The evidence supports making a safe space and time for this important newborn behaviour. Clinical practices should encourage and protect this sensitive period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corporate short‐termism is arguably one of the main causes of economic, social, and environmental unsustainability. This paper studies the effectiveness of loyalty shares—shares granting extra dividends or voting rights to shareholders holding them for a specified period of time—in limiting short‐termism. Although there are arguments both supporting (antidote view) and opposing (poison view) loyalty shares' effectiveness, empirical evidence on the theme is scant. By employing earnings management as a proxy for corporate short‐termism and by relying on a hand‐collected database of Italian firms, we find that loyalty shares can serve as an effective antidote against short‐termism. This study contributes to academic literature on corporate governance and accounting and informs the debate among policymakers on loyalty shares' effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Papers in Regional Science is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Papers in Regional Science is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper provides empirical evidence on the effect on wages of the mobility across firms and sectors of apprentices after graduation in Italy over the period 1997–2013. We use administrative data and employ an instrumental variable approach to account for endogenous mobility due to observed and unobserved worker characteristics. Our main finding is that job switchers not in the economic sector of the training firm faced a significant gap in wages in comparison to stayers, indicating a loss of firm‐ and sector‐specific human capital. In addition, under the new apprenticeship rules introduced in 2003 by the Biagi reform, which lessened the stringency of the norms on the training content delivered by firms, both within‐ and across‐sector job switches had large negative effect on wages, suggesting a reduction in the transferability of skills for trainees relatively to the previous regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aims: INTERCheckWEB is one of the most outstanding digital technologies, that could be implemented at the hospital level, supporting the clinicians in the evaluation of the therapy appropriateness, reducing the potentially inappropriate prescriptions, for the improvement of the clinical decision‐making process. The paper aims at investigating the relationship between clinicians' behaviors towards digital decision support system in therapy appropriateness for elderly patients in polytherapy in medical departments, defining the factors that could influence clinicians to use INTERCheckWEB, for supporting drugs' prescription. Methods: A questionnaire was administered to 70 clinicians referring to Internal Medicine wards, of four Italian hospitals. The authors assessed how perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, image, and output quality, would affect INTERCheckWeb intention to use. Inferential statistics, by means of a regression analysis, were conducted to define the main aspects useful to understand the factors impacting on such digital technology adoption in clinical practice. Results: The regression analysis reported that image, perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness, as well as the moderator effect of the voluntary use between the perceived usefulness and the intention to use, are the factors that most influence the use of INTERCheckWEB (adjusted R2 = 0.870). Conclusions: Results demonstrated that clinicians would use INTERCheckWEB, when available, to identify all the information on situations that could be dangerous for the patients, thus limiting the drug–drug interactions, optimizing the overall patient's clinical pathway. Furthermore, the implementation of INTERCheckWEB could also contribute to the proper management of COVID‐19 patients, since both hospitalized and symptomatic COVID‐19 patients are frequently older, with comorbidities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This data set collects capture–mark–recapture data, biometric data, and stomach contents of seven populations of the Italian cave salamander (Speleomantes italicus), one of the strictly protected European plethodontid species endemic to mainland Italy. We monitored six subterranean populations inside caves, and one fully epigean population living in a forest, surveying a total area of >5200 m2. Data collection was performed 24 times throughout a year for each of the subterranean populations, and seven times in late winter‐early spring for the epigean population. Salamanders were individually identified using two different marking methods: subcutaneous injection of visual implant elastomers (VIE) and photographic recognition of the dorsal pattern. Overall, the data set contains information on 1283 captured salamanders, corresponding to 783 different individuals and 500 recapture events. This type of data can be used to assess the species detection probability and to estimate the size of the populations, which are fundamental parameters for the assessment of its conservation status. Captured salamanders were weighed using a digital scale and photographed next to a reference ruler to perform post hoc measurements. This allows to assess the potential variation of the body condition of individuals through the time, and the potential divergences between conspecific populations. Furthermore, repeated measurements of recaptured individuals can allow to evaluate the seasonal growth rates of Speleomantes. Before their release, the salamanders underwent stomach flushing, a non‐invasive technique that allows us to investigate the food residues in the salamanders' stomach. In 951 salamanders, we were able to recognize a total of 7077 consumed prey items belonging to 37 different prey categories (i.e., order level or lower), completing the information on the consumed prey for the entire Speleomantes genus. Data on consumed prey can be used to assess potential divergences between populations or between individuals of different ages/sexes, but also to assess the potential trophic specialization of individuals. The distinctiveness of this data set is that, by combining the capture–mark–recapture data with those on the diet of individuals, it allows to perform detailed studies on the consistency of individuals' food preference over time, an analysis that has never been performed on these salamanders. We release the data set into the public domain under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC‐BY). When you use this data in your publication, we request that you cite this data paper; if you are using the whole data set related to the entire project, please cite all the related papers. If this data set will be an important part of the data analyzed in your study, you should consider discussing a collaboration with the data set contact person. If you plan to use data from the European plethodontid salamanders trophic niche project, please contact the contact person to find out if similar analyses are already underway or if unpublished updates are available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Looking at accounting reforms in central government, the paper investigates how key actors (senior managers responsible for developing and/or implementing change) account for the related change outcomes subsequent to implementation. Using aggregated data from three countries (the UK, Italy, and Austria), and a mixed‐methods approach, the study investigates which rhetorical strategies are used to construct ex‐post legitimation or delegitimation of the changes, and how these strategies are associated with different perceived outcomes of change. Building on previous literature, possible strategies for ex‐post (de‐)legitimation and outcomes of change are identified. The study finds that radical change (leading to new accounting systems bedding down with accompanying new interpretative schemes) is associated with ex‐post legitimation based on rationalization. In contrast, incremental change (introducing new accounting tools, but not resulting in changed interpretative schemes) is often connected with narratives criticizing (or delegitimating) the change. The study contributes to the scant body of literature focusing on ex‐post legitimation of accounting change. How managers justify change in relation to its outcomes provides useful insights for the current situation when, as a consequence of crisis and austerity, new roles and relevancies for accounting and control systems continue to emerge. It is argued that for change to be substantive, it is not only essential that the actual systems and structures of accounting are adjusted, but it is critical that the way people interpret and make sense of accounting information (and consequently take decisions) is also modified. The particular challenges of achieving this in a period of crisis are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the concept of an accountability web, this paper analyzes the 2‐year long extraordinary administration of the archaeological site at Pompeii, where the Italian Prime Minister appointed a special Commissioner to deal with the alleged decay of the site in July 2008. Findings shed light on critical issues related to the appointment of "loyal experts" in terms of strong personalization, short‐term thinking, and the influence of the media in the administration of public services. Moreover, the paper introduces patronage accountability as a distinct accountability dimension that is characterized by a hierarchical and informal nature, and which cannot be accessed by those who are not part of the transaction. We add to the literature by identifying patronage accountability as a separate accountability dimension that conflicts with more common ones, and examine the implications of this practice for public administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Papers in Regional Science is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Measuring economic uncertainty is extremely important for evaluating its role in economic activity. Nevertheless, measuring uncertainty is a difficult task since we do not know when economic agents perceive uncertainty and which type of uncertainty affects them. This paper introduces the economic uncertainty related queries (EURQ) index, computed for both the USA and Italy, which measures economic, political and normative uncertainty through large‐scale searches on the internet. We show that the EURQ index captures economic agents' need for information in response to uncertainty shocks. Moreover, we show that this need for information is not just curiosity triggered by press coverage but rather captures individuals' genuine interest, particularly in specific topics subject to uncertainty. Hence the EURQ index can be exploited fruitfully to measure the level of uncertainty perceived by economic agents and to assess the role of specific types of uncertainty in economic activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protectionist policies have often relevant effects at the regional level. This paper analyzes the impact of sugar import duties on emigration in nineteenth century Italy. Both for climatic reasons and the nature of the soil, the cultivation and processing of sugar beets was geographically concentrated. Our theoretical model illustrates how a tariff that favours local producers may affect residents' incentives to migrate abroad. Using a new set historical data, the predictions of the model are tested through quasi‐experimental methods which use the exogenous variation in sugar cultivation across areas to estimate the effect of interest. Results show that protectionism reduced the relative incentive to migrate away from sugar‐producing areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Italian economy is characterised by a large number of micro‐firms and small firms and by a long‐lasting gap between North and South Italy. Therefore, global shocks – such as the Great Recession – have had a heterogeneous impact at the local level: the collapse in private demand was unequally distributed across different products, services and regions. The aim of this paper, therefore, is to evaluate the impact of the Great Recession on firm's survival for the universe of Italian firms in the light of two relevant indicators: local exposure to crisis and local demand shocks. The results suggest a strong negative impact of local demand shocks on the survival of firms, whereas the degree of exposure to the crisis generally has a weak effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy PointsPreventive measures such as the national lockdown in Italy have been effective in slowing the spread of COVID‐19. However, they also had psychological and economic impacts on people's lives, which should not be neglected as they may reduce citizens' trust and compliance with future health mandates.Engaging citizens in their own health management and in the collaboration with health care professionals and authorities via the adoption of a collaborative approach to health policy development is fundamental to fostering such measures' effectiveness.Psychosocial analysis of citizens' concerns and emotional reactions to preventive policies is important in order to plan personalized health communication campaigns. Context: Because of the COVID‐19 pandemic, between February 23 and March 8, 2020, some areas of Italy were declared "red zones," with citizens asked to stay home and avoid unnecessary interpersonal contacts. Such measures were then extended, between March 10 and May 4, 2020, to the whole country. However, compliance with such behaviors had an important impact on citizens' personal, psychological, and economic well‐being. This could result in reduced trust in authorities and lowered compliance. Keeping citizens engaged in their own health and in preventive behaviors is thus a key strategy for the success of such measures. This paper presents the results from a study conducted in Italy to monitor levels of people's health engagement, sentiment, trust in authorities, and perception of risk at two different time points. Methods: Two independent samples (n = 968 and n = 1,004), weighted to be representative of the adult Italian population, were recruited in two waves corresponding to crucial moments of the Italian COVID‐19 epidemic: between February 28 and March 4 (beginning of "phase 1," after the first regional lockdowns), and between May 12 and May 18 (beginning of "phase 2," after the national lockdown was partially dismissed). Respondents were asked to complete an online survey with a series of both validated measures and ad hoc items. A series of t‐tests, general linear models, and contingency tables were carried out to assess if and how our measures changed over time in different social groups. Findings: Although sense of self and social responsibility increased between the two waves, and trust toward authorities remained substantially the same, trust in science, consumer sentiment, and health engagement decreased. Our results showed that while both the level of general concern for the emergency and the perceived risk of infection increased between the two waves, in the second wave our participants reported being more concerned for the economic consequences of the pandemic than the health risk. Conclusions: The potentially disruptive psychological impact of lockdown may hamper citizens' compliance with, and hence the effectiveness of, behavioral preventive measures. This suggests that preventive measures should be accompanied by collaborative educational plans aimed at promoting people's health engagement by making citizens feel they are partners in the health preventive endeavor and involved in the development of health policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Regional Science Policy & Practice is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Papers in Regional Science is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The aim of this paper is to highlight the link between the development of the transport system and the trust that citizens place in institutions' initiatives. A theoretical model has been specified according to which perceived power and knowledge of the transportation system influence the perceived benefits of local policies as well as the awareness of the relative costs. Such aspects, on their turn, influence and are linked to trust both in the local transport and in the local policy, in general. Model estimation has been carried out using the results of a survey conducted in the metropolitan area of Naples (south Italy) performing a structural equation model with partial least square‐path modeling estimation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Regional Science Policy & Practice is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)