0000000000268125
AUTHOR
Luca Bettarelli
It’s a matter of confidence. Institutions, government stability and economic outcomes
In this paper we analyse the effect of constitutional structures over policy outcomes. In particular, we exploit the heterogeneity in parliamentary systems deriving from the presence and the use of the confidence vote to investigate whether stable and unstable parliamentary systems behave differently in terms of the policies they implement. This finer partition of parliamentary systems allows us to identify effects that are more robust than the ones previously discussed in the literature. We show that the difference between presidential and parliamentary systems documented in previous works is driven by a difference between presidential and stable parliamentary systems. We suggest that poss…
Voters’ preferences and electoral systems: the EuroVotePlus experiment in Italy
Motivated by the need to understand voting behaviour under different electoral rules, Laslier et al. (Eur Union Polit, 16(4):601–615, 2015) have conducted an online experiment, the EuroVotePlus experiment, focusing on the effects of the different rules adopted to elect members of the European parliament on voters’ behaviour. The experiment took place in several European countries in the 3 weeks before the 2014 elections for the European Parliament. This paper focuses on the Italian data. Firstly, we show that the behaviour of Italian respondents is consistent with the empirical findings at the European level. Then, we exploit the change from open list to closed list elections implemented in…
The determinants of FDI: a new network-based approach
This article investigates the determinants of FDI at sub-national level. It recognizes that MNEsModified Letter Turned Comma foreign activities are organized in networks of strongly interconnected, but geographically dispersed affiliates. This implies a different approach to the analysis of the determinants of FDI, which should focus on contextual factors able to stimulate economic relations at distance. Methodologically, we use a gravity-type model and different regression techniques with a new dataset on networks of FDI involving German and Italian regions. We find evidence that technologically proximate regions sharing the same industry profile are more likely to experience positive and …
From Revolution to Elections. A Comparative Analysis of Tunisia and Egypt
AbstractPolitical participation is far from being a trivial issue. The focus of this paper will be on two dissimilar acts of political participation in the context of the Arab Spring: revolution and elections. In detail, I will first describe participants in revolution and elections – who they are and why they do participate – to then analyse the link (if any) between revolution and electoral participation. This study will develop a comparison between the cases of Tunisia and Egypt. The findings will illustrate that Tunisian insurgents are more likely to vote in post-revolution elections when compared to their Egyptian fellows, and that this is consistent with the events in the aftermath of…
Regional inequalities as drivers of affective polarization
This paper investigates divergences in levels of affective polarization across Belgian regions around the 2019 elections. Elaborating on the relative deprivation theory, we analyse the role of current and long-term socio-economic regional inequalities and of geographical distance separating regions. Empirically, we aggregate individual-level measures of affective polarization at the Belgian NUTS-3 level and use a gravity approach to explore the determinants of regional divergences. Our results show that regional variations in affective polarization are best explained by a current rural–urban divide and by how regions have performed economically in the last years. We also show that geographi…
Regional heterogeneity in the business environment: the case of Italy
How do we evaluate the business environment of regional economies? This paper makes use of primary data from the World Bank’s Subnational Doing Business studies to analyze the capacity of Italian regions to facilitate entrepre- neurs in setting up and operating new businesses. By comparing data across locations and over time, we are able to identify best practices that may help policy makers in the implementation of reforms aiming at improving the business environ- ment of Italian regions and, as a result, of the country.