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Nowadays, there is an increasing focus on knowledge input and output measurement rather than assessing the characteristics of the knowledge itself. This phenomenon happens since knowledge becomes central into capitalistic production processes: the competitive advantage of countries is the principal engine for the production of high-value, non-ubiquitous and complex knowledge (see Dicken, 2007). In this paper, we present the reaction-diffusion equations and their application to a particular economic phenomenon: in which way knowledge complexity diffusion might affect or not affect the labour productivity across the Eastern European countries. More profoundly, the aim followed by the present research work is to provide Eastern European countries with a substitute approach: a strategy. This strategy has the objective of enabling these countries to avoid acting as knowledge predators towards other countries (i.e. those such as Sweden, Finland and Denmark, referred to as prey countries, which invest their resources in knowledge and therefore in technology). We simulate the knowledge competition and the spill-over productivity effects across the Eastern and some European countries using specific reaction-diffusion equations types: the Lotka-Volterra equations which are able to describe a complex dynamic system of the prey-predator phenomenon. Our approach is based on the two steps of analysis. In essence, the first step, we compute the Knowledge Complexity Index of patents, for quantifying the European knowledge complexity; describing the possible spatial patterns and transformation of the European knowledge. Furthermore, we use the canonical Lotka-Volterra models of patents from the European Patent Office and the labour productivity data from the Eurostat database from 2000 and 2017 for Eastern European countries and some European countries, such as Finland, Sweden, Austria and Germany. More specifically, we have identified the presence of lagged knowledge between the Eastern European countries and some Northern European, such as Finland, Sweden and Denmark. In conclusion, the implementation of specific knowledge diffusion policy strategies could be helpful for future applications. It may avoid intra-guild cannibalism phenomenon from being engaged in some Eastern European countries.

Nowadays, there are numerous initiatives in response to contemporary socio-economic challenges. One possible response could be the social innovation phenomenon defined, according to Avelino et al. (2017), as the changing of social relations and involving new way of doing things. In this context, the aim of the paper is to discuss the empowerment and the social innovations concept by developing the empowerment mechanisms under a social psychology point of view, at one side, and exploring, in an empirical way, how people are empowered through transactional linkages, the translocal network. In particular, it is necessary to identify which translocal empowerment dimension is present across the European countries via the selection and the analysis of the possible social innovation proxies. To do this, it is necessary to comprehend the social innovation determinants at the macro-economic level across the European countries. Using the Akgüҁ multivariate regression model (2019), the paper studies the role of one possible social innovation proxy: the social protection expenditure. Under a methodological point of view, this model is used since it allows the combination between the traditional macro-level variables and the innovative ones, such as cultural norms and fear of failure; and it permits the inclusion of the country-specific characteristics. It also takes into account the macro-economic circumstance, the international financial crisis of 2008 until 2017. This period of analysis permits to control if the international economic crisis in 2008 might have influenced in some way the translocal empowerment dimension and brings together a panel data of different indicators from different data sources, such as Eurostat and Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), which provides measures of the entrepreneurial behaviour within countries. As part of the robustness check, we have used social innovation measures that could include country fixed effects accounting the heterogeneities across European countries. What emerges from the present empirical study is that the translocal network could be considered as a crucial factor for the social innovation implementation, since social innovation actors might access the local resources, developing, at the same time, the ability to interface with the local institutions, present in the current socio-economic system.

Nowadays, it has been besetted with knowledge input and output measurement instead of analyze the quality of the knowledge produced. Since knowledge become central into capitalistic production processes, the competitive advantage of countries is the principal engine for the production of high-value, non-ubiquitous and complex knowledge (see Dicken, 2007). The aim of the present study is to measure the knowledge complexity of the European countries from 2004 to 2013, designing the knowledge evolution and distribution. One consequent intention is to examine in which way the spatial knowledge diffusion might be connected to complexity. To achieve these purposes, we identified the presence of the European country-tech knowledge network, used as starting point to compute the Knowledge Complexity Index, in which the technological classes are composed by the countries having an relative technological advantage in terms of patent spread. Subsequently, we used two distinct types of statistical analysis: the first, based on non-linear clustering with Self-Organizing Map (SOM hereafter) neural network, for evaluating the performance development of the European countries between 2004 and 2013, where, for example, Eat countries, located at the top of the map, show low values in almost all considered variables; and the second one, based on the Knowledge Complexity Index (KCI hereafter) of technological classes, for quantifying the European knowledge complexity; describing the possible spatial patterns and transformation of the European knowledge. What emerges from the present study is an inactive spatial state of art, in which only the Northern European countries produce the most conglomerate knowledge and technologies. In this structure, it is necessary to stress out that what affirmed previously could be considered the basis for the improvement and the achievement of the specific country’s innovation policy. However, under complex knowledge terms, the previous innovation policies might be assimilated with a useful tool for the increment of that technologies that present more complexity than the original ones.

The local source for competitiveness is vital to achieve static and dynamic economies of scale for firms; it is useful to interact with the aim of learning and innovating. The local system can create benefit by opening to international markets and it should be a good source of knowledge and technology. Nowadays, the concept of industrial district, usually characterized by the spatial proximity of the involved firms, may evolve into firms network; this may emphasize the advantages deriving from cooperation, without the need of spatial proximity. Firms networks may represent the evolution of industrial districts, where territoriality is overcome by the dissolution of borders. The importance of firms networks is increased since they intensify information exchange, continuous learning, stimulate economies of scale, allow economic development and give more market opportunities. Firms networks share different aims, resource, common interests and factors, like material and immaterial inputs and outputs. This new form of cooperation may allow to overcome physical distance and replicate knowledge and information. Firms networks may represent a success organizational forms that may give impetus to development in an economy. They are based on mutual trust between partners and are created over time to facilitate information circulation, knowledge dissemination and innovation. Trust reduces uncertainty and transaction cost and limits the opportunistic behaviour by free-rider agents. The aim of the paper is to assess the determinants for firms networks training in the Italian context using regional data. Particularly, the firms networks development needs key factors such as ICTs diffusion, high rate of social security, open capability, RxD activities. These factor constitute the basis for a new kind of capital, the so called “network capital”. It consists of collaborative practices in a network as the result of cooperation in the ICTs era. Network capital may be considered as social capital evolution in a globalized context. The entrance in the knowledge economy era, in which technological advancement runs very quickly and the pace of innovation is intensified, significantly reduces the exploitation of competitive advantages. Industrial districts, therefore, should develop, improve and change their shape in a new competitive environment, where the globalization of markets cancels the boundaries of many firms that collaborate beyond national boundaries. The paper analyzes the firms networks determinant for Italian regions and the role of network capital as pre-condition for their development. The multidimensional scaling analysis it the chosen methodology that allows us to identify the relations among Italian regions in terms of proximity/distance with respect to considered determinants, and to provide a spatial representation of them.

The international economic crisis of 2007 has had long-lasting negative effects on the financial markets and the real economy of many countries. The occurred uncertainty and the complications of the balance sheets of many banks, due to the strong international connections, particularly impacted on the ability and willingness of financial market, on granting credit to consumer households and companies. Credit, and the financial system in general, represent according to the economic literature, one of the determinants of economic development and, particularly, its efficiency determines the speed of growth and the potential level. The difficulties in the transmission of monetary policy and the structural inefficiency have worsened the negative effects of the economic crisis in many European countries, including Italy, where large differences in the socio-economic context of the various macro-areas still persist. The role of banks is to exploit tools and knowledge to the best addressing of funds, by subjects in excess to those in deficit, or towards who may exploit them for productive purposes. In addition, banks are locally a guidance to entrepreneurs and an entity aware of the local needs and potentials. In this paper we combine several variables on the credit and the quality of banking contracts, in addition to real economic and R&D variables, with reference to the Italian regions. The aim is to identify structural differences among the Italian regions in terms of financial and economic development, and in addition to observe the discrepancy between the various macro areas, even considering the effects of the international financial crisis broken out in the U.S. in 2007. We consider data over sufficiently long periods before and after the advent of the crisis and the long subsequent period of economic recession. The detail of the analysis is regional, in order to have a sufficient number of contexts that are grouped into homogeneous groups, helping to clarify and explain the dynamics of the socioeconomic differences that still exist. We use a Multidimensional scaling analysis with the aim of exploring the relationship between credit and socioeconomic development in the different Italian areas, observing in particular the structural differences that could lead to a deeper distance of the wellbeing of the poorest regions in the South compared to that of North-central.

The granting of credit, whose excessive diffusion was one of the causes of the economic and financial crisis of 2007, has suffered profound changes during the following period of economic recession. The granting of credit to households and businesses has been strongly influenced by the effects of the economic downturn, the banks’ choices and the intervention of the supervisory authorities. The credit, however, is also an instrument of monetary policy through which governments and central banks try to stimulate the economic growth. There are, nevertheless, several and complex limitations to the actions of banks and other financial intermediaries, information asymmetries and structural limits of the credit market. Should also be considered that in many Countries the economic recession had a strong influence on the choices and opportunities for all economic agents, making it difficult to lay the foundations for economic recovery. In the previous years, the lowering of standards of borrowers and the presence of low interest rates, setting the conditions for the so-called housing bubble. The subsequent reactions, the general worsening of the economy, the lack of funding and liquidity, in addition to the strict rules imposed by the supervisory authorities, have led banks to tighten securely controls on the characteristics of borrowers, being also obliged to put more attention on the composition of the balance sheet. Under these conditions, have risen subjects that do not meet the requirements to receive funding, and at the same time increased the difficulty to repay loans and interest. In this paper a multidimensional scaling analysis is used to observe the situation of credit in the Italian regions before and after the outbreak of the crisis, considering the average values for nine variables and for two different period, before and after 2007. Searching for dissimilarity between areas of the Country, is highlighted a clear separation before the crisis and remained essentially unchanged between northern and southern regions. Furthermore the analysis of time series showed that the granting of credit has declined slightly, but above all has changed destination, from productive purposes and investments, to support consumption.

The concept of development is not only referred to the level or to the growth rate of GDP of a country, but it concerns different aspects of individual and social life. Development leads to a changing of values, culture, behaviours and attitudes of people interested in it. That is to say that not only quantitative dimensions, but also qualitative ones became relevant in fostering development trajectories. Reasoning in these general terms a long and rich intellectual debate grow up in social sciences within which we focused the social capital and firm network debate. Social capital is a multidimensional determinant at base of the industrial district framework as the “network capital†represent a driver of firm’s network framework. By moving from social capital, as a local development driver, to network capital, as a global development driver, the present paper analyzes the firms’ networks determinants by identifying the conditions for some European countries. The methodology through which the results are obtained is the multidimensional scaling method which allows to define relations between countries in terms of proximity/distance with respect to the considered determinants providing a spatial representation of them.

The paper represent a theoretical attempt to investigate the role that the local government can play in improving the level of social capital for the development of industrial districts. The social capital is not, as generally suggested by the socio-economic literature, an individual attitude towards something which does not imply privately appropriable economic benefits, as it is for a pure public good (which would not imply privately appropriable benefits). Social capital should be interpreted as a public component of an investment which implies private and public benefits entangled with each other. Firms could not have sufficient incentive to increase its investment in social capital, because this investment strictly depends on the economic convenience of investing in the impure public good. Starting from this point of view, we underline the importance of investing local public resources (funds, time and effort) for the development of the local social capital.

The concept of development is not only referred to the level or to the growth rate of GDP of a country, but it concerns different aspects of individual life. Development leads to a changing of values, behaviours and attitudes of people interested in it and in the well-being of the whole society. \r\nSince the second part of the last century, more and more economists always assert that human capital is a fundamental asset to promote economic growth and development. Health and education are the two principal ingredients of human capital. There is a strong positive bidirectional relationship between education and health; in fact, it is statistically supported that the two variables move together, so healthy people are more likely to achieve an higher level of education rather than sick people and, vice-versa, more educated people are more likely to enjoy good health status. This generates a virtuous cycle that can lead to greater development. Indeed, health increases people's capabilities allowing achievement in their well-beings, since healthy people can work longer and with higher productivity than poor health people. For this reason individuals income rises allowing them major choices in terms of consumption, savings and investments. Considering the economic benefits that start from health and education, not only at microeconomic level but also for a country, it is important to pay attention to the role of this two variables in the economic development process. There are several channels through which health and education can be associated with better enhancement in economic results. They can be find in the labour market and in the participation in the labour market; worker productivity; human capital investments; saving capacity; availability of save to invest in physical and intellectual capital; fertility choices and structure of population.\r\nThe present paper analyzes the two-way linkage between education and health and their relationship with economic development identifying the conditions of some Eastern European countries. The methodology through which the results are obtained is the multidimensional scaling method which allows to define relations between countries in terms of proximity/distance with respect to the considered indicators, providing a spatial representation of them

A large part of the economic literature is unanimous in believing technological progress and openness to foreign trade are key variables to trigger the processes of stable and persistent economic growth. An in-depth analysis of these factors, thus, becomes necessary both to meet the challenges of the international market, and to strengthen the European integration process. This paper aims to provide an empirical analysis of the interaction between foreign trade and technological progress by performing a multidimensional scaling. This technique is used to produce a graphical representation of the 27 EU member states, in accordance to the degree of similarity or dissimilarity between them. The indicators used, and the indexes calculated, reflect the different degree of internationalization of each countrys economy, the regulation of trade flows, investment in specific RD and technological progress.

This paper investigates the European economic integration within the frame work of the 2000 Lisbon Council with the aim of studying the dynamics affecting the social and economic life of European Countries. Such a descriptive investigation focuses on certain significant variables of the new theories highlighting the importance of technological innovation and human capital. To this end the multivariate statistic technique of Principal Component Analysis has been applied in order to classify Countries with regard to the investigated phenomenon.

Health is one of the most important assets for human beings, since it allows people to fully use their capacity. Poor or compromised health reduces the well-being of individuals, by affecting their future incomes, wealth and consumption. For policy implic

In the increasingly knowledge-based global economy, a well-educated and highly-skilled labour force and a significant degree of openness to international trade are vital for countries to successfully meet the challenge of worldwide competition. This paper

Due to the growing concern about the labour market situation of young people in Europe, this paper analysis the effective role played by real output growth in stimulating job creation. To reach this goal, one strand of this analysis empirically investigates the real output growth effects on the youth unemployment rate (15-24) by testing the difference version of the Okun's law. The most interesting result relates to the case of the Romanian economy whose Okun's law does not fit so well. We additionally test the Okun's law on a set of Decent Work Indicators in order to verify whether a Decent Work deficit exists among young workers within the European labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]