The unfolding of the crisis in the Eurozone can be explained by the interaction of institutional features and policy failures, and by their interconnection with real and financial imbalances. The crisis has shown that internal divergence in the EZ is based on important structural components...

This work aims at exploring the possibilities offered by agent-base modelling techniques in evaluating the outreaching effects of innovation policy measures. This aim is accomplished by modelling and simulating the organisations’ and systems’ reactions to the introduction of...

Our purpose in this paper is to provide a different perspective on the by now widely discussed idea of innovation systems. This perspective is designed to cohere with the problems faced by innovation policy makers as they seek to pursue the challenge of creating wealth from knowledge and to...

In this paper we explore the relation between vertical disintegration and the co-localization of knowledge intensive business service (Kibs) in the metropolitan region of Milan, using micro-geographic data and nonparametric methods. Our main results are that: (i) compared to other manufacturing...

The paper analyzes the impact of localization, urbanization and competition on firm-level TFP, using a large sample of Italian firm-level data from 1999 to 2007. In particular, the paper explores the nonlinearities of such effects, accounting for the possible presence of critical masses and/or...

The present paper aims to analyse the innovation policies implemented in Italy and Spain. It adopts a multi-level perspective to investigate the effects induced by regional and national public supports and a multi-dimensional approach to disentangle the different types of additionality impacts...

This paper draws on the multi-dimensional characterization of absorptive capacity (AC) to empirically investigate the antecedents and the effects of its "potential" dimension (PAC): i.e., the firm's capacity of acquiring and assimilating external knowledge, as distinguished from its "realized"...

We integrate input output and NAMEA tables for Spain and Italy in 1995, 2000 and 2005, in order to address the hot policy issue of sustainable consumption and production. A comparison of a production and consumption perspective may have relevant policy implications. We deal with the domestic...

This paper explores methods of applying resilience theory to a case study of natural resource management and the cultural landscape of upland and alpine pasture in northern Italy. We identify that the close interaction between alpine pastures and its managers offers a strong fit with the concept...

A recent strand of the economic literature has emphasised the role of services, and in particular knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS), as a primary source of knowledge creation and diffusion. Since this transferring process often occurs through strong face-to-face interactions, the role...