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In line with internationally defined goals of sustainable development, European agricultural policies today have a far-sighted vision for rural areas. Using a case study approach, this paper explores how receptive rural farms in Sicily are to a long-term vision of development. The study focuses on three key factors of a long-term vision, that is, digitalisation, innovation and sustainability, to examine not only whether farms have invested in these areas but also how they perceive their role in the post-pandemic era. Empirical results provide insights into the concentration of farms in the central inland areas of Sicily without any real long-term vision of development. Nevertheless, the analysis also shows that some of them do have a positive attitude to change.

Using Italian Household Budget Survey data for the period 1997-2013, this paper estimates the life cycle profiles of consumption and cross-sectional variance in the Great Recession. The study examines age profiles for total and durable expenditure, and four subcomponents of non-durable expenditure. We document significant heterogeneity in the way the recession affects consumption and the variance within-cohorts. The crisis has entailed a fall in expenditure for the youngest cohorts, and a notable reduction of inequalities for the middle and oldest cohorts with some differences between high and low income elastic expenditure. We also found that socio-demographic factors account for a substantial heterogeneity in consumption behaviour during the recession across households and expenditure subcomponents.

The relevant fact of the severe downturn due to the Great Recession is that declining consumer spending. The extent of the cutbacks in consumption expenditures differs among regions and also the distribution pattern across households differs. This paper examines how the 2008-9 crisis affected regional disparities in household consumption behaviour by analysing the distribution of the real total expenditure. Specifically, a mixture of regression models is used to explore the heterogeneity in total expenditure across regions and households by identifying groups of families with similar consumption behaviour as a function of certain socio-demographic and economic factors. The empirical analysis, performed on Italian expenditure data, suggests that there are regional differences in the pattern of consumption behaviour in different macro-areas in Italy and that within macro-areas differences in consumption behaviour and in its determinants among the groups reflect differences in consumption reaction across regions and households.

The aim of the study is to analyse the relationship between recession, population structure and consumption behaviour over the life cycle. To this aim, we consider three clusters of non-durable expenditures such as food at home, work-related and core expenditures. The analysis has been performed on micro data on the Household Budgets for the period 1997-2013. Based on life cycle theory, two statistical models has been estimated, viz. a pre-crisis (1997-2007) and a great recession period (2008-2013) model. The study shows that the recession has entailed a reduction of the average expenditure for each category of consumption, and the intensity of the reduction is different among households and generations.

Questo contributo analizza la relazione tra cambiamento della popolazione e formazione di nuove imprese con particolare attenzione al ruolo dello spazio. Viene infatti, da un lato, analizzata l'influenza della concentrazione spaziale della popolazione rispetto la relazione di interesse, dall'altro, viene utilizzata una specificazione econometrica che tenga conto della correlazione spaziale presente nei dati. Lo studio condotto sulle province italiane per il periodo 2004/2007, mette in luce alcuni aspetti degni di nota. Tra questi, è di particolare interesse l'evidenza che nelle province con maggiore ritorno, in termini di natalità delle imprese, da un incremento della popolazione sono quelle con livelli medi di densità urbana

This paper investigates the role of urbanization in the relation between population change and new business formation. The hypothesis of research is that population change significantly influences new business formation only in regions at lower urbanization. This hypothesis is based on the idea that local demand and growing population are significant determinants of new business formation only for rural regions. Using Italian data, we find evidence in support of this hypothesis. Moreover, we find that evidence of spatial dependence in the relation between population change, new business formation and urbanization.

As a social and economic entity the family is changing continuously. Changes in family size and composition have significant effects on the family decision making process. The Italian context is an interesting subject for research as a result of the impact of demographic and economic changes in the early 2000s on new family structures and economic behaviour. Furthermore, in Italy in contrast to the past, both men and women are aiming for job security and satisfaction before marrying and starting a family. In the light of that, it is particularly interesting to investigate if consumption behaviour changes along the life cycle stages. Considering different family life stages enables us to explore at each stage of the family life cycle (FLC) whether families differ in their consumption habits, needs and financial possibilities. An analysis of consumption behaviour over FLC is highly relevant in the period of the global economic crisis and the consequent great recession (i.e. 2011-2012). During this period Italian families experienced severe liquidity constraints which strongly affected their purchasing power. This study aims to explore whether consumption behaviour differs among families and how the decision making process changes over the family life cycle. To this end, micro data on the Italian Family Budget carried out by the Italian Office of Statistics was used for the years 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2012.

Exploring the main determinants of tourism participation at national and international level, the paper investigates if there are differences in tourism consumption behavior among Italian families which reflect disparities in their standard of living. To achieve this a Heckman model has been used on a huge sample of Italian households over the period 1997-2007. Results show that participation in the tourism market is strongly affected by the personal characteristics of individuals and that tourism consumption is an income sensitive good. The analysis reveals that tourism is generally a luxury good reflecting the disparities in the standard of living among Italian families. We have found that participation in the tourism market is affected not only by economic constraints, but also by cultural and territorial factors.

Exploring the main determinants of tourism participation at national and international level, the paper investigates if there are differences in tourism consumption behavior among Italian families which reflect disparities in their standard of living. To achieve this a Heckman model has been used on a huge sample of Italian households over the period 1997-2007. Results show that participation in the tourism market is strongly affected by the personal characteristics of individuals and that tourism consumption is an income sensitive good. The analysis reveals that tourism is generally a luxury good reflecting the disparities in the standard of living among Italian families. We have found that participation in the tourism market is affected not only by economic constraints, but also by cultural and territorial factors.

Using Italian data on Income and Living Conditions for the year 2005, the paper explores empirically whether the determinants of subjective economic well-being (SEW) differ (or not) in four representative typologies of households. By means of a Partial Proportional Ordered Logit Model the subjective economic well-being – proxied by the capacity of households to make ends meet – has been explored. Results highlight the variables acting on SEW, common to each typology, are related both to economic status (specifically, the capacity to pay taxes and to afford housing, clothes and holiday expenditures) and to socio-demographic status (specifically, the work-status and the highest level of education). A more in depth analysis, by level of education, shows the economic precariousness of some specific typologies, namely families with one person, with two or more children, and those whose respondent has a very low level of education.

Il presente lavoro, utilizzando le informazioni dell’indagine EU-SILC (European Statistics on Income and Living Conditions) del 2005 su 22.032 famiglie italiane, si pone come obiettivo l’analisi e la misura del benessere multidimensionale. Nel paragrafo 2 sono riportate le ipotesi teoriche, mentre nel paragrafo 3 è riportata l’analisi dei risultati e alcune considerazioni conclusive.

For a long time social sciences scholars from different fields have devoted their attention to identifying the causes leading to commit criminal offences and recently lots of studies have included the analysis of spatial effects. Respect to the Italian crime phenomenon some stylized facts exist: high spatial and time variability and presence of 'organised crime' (e.g. Mafia and Camorra) deep-seated in some local territorial areas. Using explanatory spatial data analysis, the paper firstly explores the spatial structure and distribution of four different typologies of crimes (murders, thefts, frauds, and squeezes) in Italian provinces in two years, 1999 and 2003. ESDA allows us to detect some important geographical dimensions and to distinguish crucial macro- and micro- territorial aspects of offences. Further, on the basis of Becker-Ehrlich model, a spatial cross-sectional model including deterrence, economic and socio-demographic variables has been performed to investigate the determinants of Italian crime for 1999 and 2003 and its 'neighbouring' effects, measured in terms of geographical and relational proximity. The empirical results obtained by using different spatial weights matrices highlighted that socioeconomic variables have a relevant impact on crime activities, but their role changes enormously respect to crimes against person (murders) or against property (thefts, frauds and squeezes). It is worthy to notice that severity does not show the expected sign: its significant and positive sign should suggest that inflicting more severe punishments does not always constitute a deterrence to commit crime, but it works on the opposite direction.

The paper enrich the tourism literature by focussing on destination competitiveness and by providing a measure of competitiveness at regional level in terms of technical efficiency and total factor productivity.The main aim is to investigate whether tourist destinations operate efficiently; by using a non parametric method the paper assesses production frontiers and efficiency coefficients of alternative tourist destinations. Moreover the Malmquist productivity approach is used to measure the efficiency change of Italian regions between 1998 and 2001.

This paper presents a new analytical framework for assessing spatial disparities among regions. On the premise that the analysis of a region’s performance cannot be limited solely to either economic or social aspects, the paper attempts to combine the material (i.e. economic) and immaterial (i.e. social) aspects of welfare and well-being in an integrated logical scheme. In this scheme the economic aspects of living standards are represented by various categories of consumption expenditure, whilst the social aspects are represented by appropriate indicators of health, education, labour market conditions, etc. The framework proposed is also appealing for convergence analyses over time. From a time perspective, introducing this joint socio-economic concept into the analysis of differences among countries allows one to disentangle the notion of convergence into its economic and social dimensions. An empirical analysis is conducted on the Italian regions for the period from 1980 to 2005. The empirical results obtained by Principal Component Analysis show that, on average, a high level of economic welfare may contrast with a high level of social well-being.