Un profilo generale del campione

Model selection procedure for mixture hidden Markov models

This paper proposes a model selection procedure to identify the number of clusters and hidden states in discrete Mixture Hidden Markov models (MHMMs). The model selection is based on a step-wise approach that uses, as score, information criteria and an entropy criterion. By means of a simulation study, we show that our procedure performs better than classical model selection methods in identifying the correct number of clusters and hidden states or an approximation of them

Effetti territoriali e decisioni di spesa turistica: alcune evidenze sulle famiglie italiane

Economic convergence vs. socio-economic convergence in space

This paper aims to present a new analysis framework for assessing disparities among regions (or countries). It combines both economic and social variables, where the economic attributes refer in particular to marked differences in consumption variables. This analysis is also appealing for spatial convergence analyses over time. In our paper, both economic and social variables are included as the basis of a logical operational scheme that is suitable for comparative research. In this scheme the economic aspects of living standards are represented by different categories of consumption expenditures, while the social aspects are represented by indicators of health, education, labour market con…

Geographical distribution of unemployment in Italy. An Analysis of provincial differences in Italy

Unemployment rates appear to vary widely at a subregional (e.g., local or provincial) level. Using spatial econometric models for spatial autocorrelation, this paper focuses attention on the spatial structure of regional unemployment disparities of Italian provinces. On the basis of findings from the economic literature and of the available socio-economic data, various model specifications, including different explanatory variables, are tested to investigate the geographical distribution of unemployment in the 103 provinces of Italy for the years 1998 and 2003. The results suggest that there is a clear explanation of unemployment differentials in terms of spatial equilibrium and disequilibr…

Capitale umano e Capitale sociale: una relazione significativa

Composition of families and subjective economic well-being: an application to Italian context

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 educa…

A New Spatial Shift‐Share Decomposition: An Application to Tourism Competitiveness in Italian Regions

The paper proposes a new version of spatial shift-share decomposition to improve on the various approaches to conventional shift-share analysis found in the literature. The novelty of our proposal is that it enables researchers to assess spatial competitiveness effects controlling for the influence of industrial specialization at both regional and neighborhood level. This new version is applied to inbound tourism in Italian regions and enables us to identify the best and worst performers. Our empirical results identify favorable scenarios in some areas of the country, such as Sardinia as well as regional advantage in a sizeable number of well-known destinations.

Family Structure and Subjective Economic Well-Being: Some New Evidence

The paper investigates the main socio-demographic and economic determinants of subjective economic well-being in different typologies of households. Previous studies have used dummy variables to explore the effect of family structure. In this paper, however four different models—one for each family typology—have been estimated to test if each selected explanatory variable is significant and how it acts in determining the level of subjective economic well-being. To achieve this, we apply an under-used logit model—the partial proportional ordered model. Our analysis, based on data from the 2005 Italian Survey on Income and Living Conditions highlights the main variables affecting the subjecti…

Efficiency and Productivity of Italian Touris Destinations: A Quantitative Estimation Based on Data Envelopment Analysis and the Malmquist Method

This paper aims to provide a statistical analysis of the relative economic performance of Italian tourist areas. It uses two modelling approaches to estimate the competitiveness of these regions, viz. data envelopment analysis (DEA) and the Malmquist method. Our results show that the competitiveness position of several Italian regions has not improved over the years under consideration.

EFFICIENCY AND PRODUCTIVITY OF ITALIAN TOURIST DESTINATIONS: A QUANTITATIVE ESTIMATION BASED ON DATA ENVELOPMENT ANALYSIS (DEA) AND THE MALMQUIST INDEX

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.

A Hierarchical Model for Analysing Consumption Patterns in Italy Before and During the Great Recession

The paper aims to explore how the Great Recession of the twenty-first century has impacted on the consumption behaviour of Italian households. Following a hierarchical approach, the study investigates differences in consumption behaviour at both household and regional levels. Using micro data on Italian Household Expenditure for the years 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2012, multilevel and two-step regression models have been estimated. The analysis has been performed for four different consumption categories: food, housing, work-related and leisure. The analysis reveals that the economic crisis led to increasing income elasticity for each category of consumption, especially for food, the most essent…

Analysis of Spatial Disparities by a Structural Equations Model

This paper presents a new analytical framework for assessing spatial disparities among countries. It takes for granted that the analysis of a country’s performance cannot be limited solely to either economic or social factors. The aim of the paper is to combine relevant economic and non-economic (mainly social) aspects of a country’s performance in an integrated logical framework. Based on this idea, a structural simultaneous equation model will be presented and estimated in order to explore the direction of the causal relationship between the economic and the non-economic aspects of a country’s performance. Furthermore, an exploration of the trajectory that each country has registered over…

The atractiveness and competitiveness of tourist destinations: A study on Southern Italian regions

The present paper aims to assess the relative attractiveness of competing tourist destinations on the basis of individual visitors' perceptions regarding a holiday destination. Using the feeling of tourist well-being achieved by individual tourists we evaluate indirectly the competitive ability of the tourist area to offer a compound tourist site attractiveness. The methodology employed here uses individual survey questionnaires on the tourists' evaluation of the quality of tourist facilities and attributes in a given area (the 'regional tourist profile') as the basis for constructing an aggregate expression for the relative attractiveness of that area. Using various multidimensional statis…

The Diversification of Sicilian Farms: A Way to Sustainable Rural Development

Rural areas still suffer from a lack of sustainable development, and the diversification of farms may be a step in the right direction. The paper provides a detailed picture of the diversification of Sicilian farms into tourism services. Specifically, we propose a simple indicator of localization intensity of agritourism farms and explore their spatial distribution at municipality level. Our study highlights that Sicilian farms rarely diversify into tourism services, despite being situated in attractive areas. That said, some significant spatial clusters of municipalities where agritourism farms are highly concentrated do emerge from the study.

Geographical distribution of crime in Italian provinces: a spatial econometric analysis

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 som…

A spatial analysis of Italian unemployment differences

Using spatial econometric models, this paper focuses attention on the spatial structure of provincial unemployment disparities of Italian provinces for the year 2003. On the basis of findings from the economic literature and of the available socio-economic data, various model specifications including supply- and demand-side variables are tested. Further we use ESDA analysis as equivalent to integration analysis on time series; therefore it is applied on each variable, dependent and independent, involved in the statistical model. The suggestions of ESDA lead us to the most adequate statistical model, which estimates indicate that there is a significant degree of neighbouring effect (i.e. pos…

Assessment of Tourist Competitiveness by Analysing Destination Efficiency

Recently the notion and the measurement of destination competitiveness have received increasing attention in the economics literature on tourism. The reason for this interest emerges from both the increasing economic importance of the tourist sector and the increasing competition on the tourist market as a consequence of the transition from mass tourism to a new age of tourism that calls for a tailor-made approach to the specific attitudes and needs of tourists. The central subject of this paper - inspired by the conceptual competitiveness model developed earlier by Crouch and Ritchie - concerns the efficiency of tourist site destinations. Using a dataset of 103 Italian regions for the year…

Does Tourism Consumption Behaviour Mirror Differences in Living Standards?

Based on the theoretical foundation of well-being measurement, the study explores differences in living standards by analysing the distribution of tourism expenditure. A mixture of regression models is used to explore the heterogeneity in tourism consumption by identifying groups of families with similar tourism consumption behaviour as a function of certain socio-demographic and economic factors. The empirical analysis, performed on Italian expenditure data, suggests that there are three different patterns of consumption behaviour conditional to the socio-demographic and economic covariates in the tourism market and that differences in tourism consumption between groups of households mirro…

Le condizioni di genere

PLACE-BASED ATTRIBUTES AND SPATIAL EXPENDITURE BEHAVIOR IN TOURISM

In recent discussions on local sustainable development, notions like “local for local” and “home bias” have often played a role. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether preferences for specific place-based attributes might constrain or support tourism participation and tourism destination choice of distinct socioeconomic groups of visitors. To test this proposition, a large data set from the Italian Households Budget Survey for the period 1997–2007 has been used and, by means of the double-hurdle model, tourism participation and expenditure are modeled over the life-cycle of tourists. These data are next merged with location-specific attributes including natural amenities and in…

Effetti spaziali sulla disoccupazione delle province italiane (1993-2002)

Consumption Patterns and Family Life-Cycle. Some Evidence from Italy

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 exp…

La dimensione spaziale nella relazione tra cambiamento della popolazione e demografia di impresa

Measuring the performance of Italian Regions on social and economic dimensions

Sustainable tourist development in Italian holiday destinations

This paper argues that tourism, will become a major activity in a modern welfare state, which will have serious consequences for environmental sustainability. This issue calls for an assessment of the pros and cons of the ecological efficiency of tourism. We propose an overall efficiency indicator that comprises both a sustainable tourism index and an economic efficiency index. Based on a data set for Italian provinces and using Activity Analysis, a quantitative assessment of the relative position of Italian tourist destination areas is made from the perspective of sustainable tourism. Copyright © 2008 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Tourism sustainability and economic efficiency: a statistical analysis of Italian provinces

Demographic change, new business formation and spatial concentration of population

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.

Assessment of Sustainable Well-being in the Italian Regions: An Activity Analysis Model

Applying the theoretical framework of productive analysis, the paper proposes an evaluation of regional sustainable well-being (SWB) in terms of efficiency. By means of an Activity Analysis Model (AA) (Fare et al., 1996), desirable and undesirable outcomes of development have been simultaneously used to evaluate the sustainable well-being of Italian regions. Data on equal and sustainable well-being provided by the Italian Statistical Office for the year 2010 has been used. The analysis reveals that only four regions achieve sustainable well-being, balancing socio-economic and environmental outcomes and resources. Finally, the study points out the advantages of AA for policy purposes by comp…

Dimensioni di benessere tra le famiglie italiane. Un’analisi sui dati EU-SILC 2005

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.

Demographic change, tourism expenditure and life cycle behavior

Abstract The paper explores how demographic changes in human populations may impact on tourism decision-making of households over their life cycle. By means of hurdle models, the study focuses respectively on the decision to travel domestically or abroad and investigates if statistically significant differences exist as to the impact of age and cohort on the decision to travel and tourism expenditure. Using a vast dataset on Italian Household Expenditures over the period 1997–2007 the empirical results show that demographic aspects do have a strong effect on the tourism behaviour of families and that cohort and age effects act differently on the decision of households to make a trip and on …

The determinants of subjective economic well-being: an analysis on Italian-Silc data

Using Italian data on Income and living conditions for the year 2005, the paper investigates the main determinants of households’ subjective economic well-being by means of a Partial Proportional Ordered Logit Model. According to a joint subjective and objective perspective of analysis, we use as dependent variable the perceived ability of households to make ends meet. Whereas, we use as explanatory variables some objective aspects of living conditions relating to housing, financial equilibrium, possession of durables and quality of residence place and some socio-demographic characteristics. The empirical results show that the financial strain is the most relevant dimension of living condit…

Regional Disparities in Consumption Behaviour: Italian Households in Time of Crisis

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 analysi…

Firm Demography in the Accommodation Industry. Evidence from Italian Insular Regions

The purpose of this study is to analyse the spatial pattern and the post-entry performance of tourism businesses in the Italian insular regions of Sardinia and Sicily. Using geo-referenced micro-data for the period 2011-2014, we explore the spatial distribution of ac-commodation firms in the two insular regions, and then compare the coastal and inland areas of the two regions. We observe a higher dispersion of firms in Sardinia than in Sicily; the latter, however having a higher concentration of firms in coastal and urban areas. We do not find significant differences in survival probability across the two insular regions but we do detect significant differences be-tween coastal and inland a…

Life Cycle Consumption and the Great Recession

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 substan…

Geographical Distribution of Crime: A Spatial Econometric Analysis

Since long time social sciences have focused their attention on the causes of crime activities and this attention evolved over time. The sociological school emphasised the role of neighbourhood in delinquency activities, their stability over time and the existence of a negative relation between crimes and business centres (Shaw and McKay, 1942). This perspective stimulated the analysis of the existing nexus between crime activities and their geographical proximity. The economics approach moved differently. Since late 60s the economic analyses devoted their attention to the detection of mechanisms affecting the choice and behaviour of criminals (Becker, 1968; Stigler, 1970; Ehrlich, 1973). B…

Assessment of tourism competitiveness by analysing destination efficiency

SUSTAINABLE TOURIST DEVELOPMENT IN ITALIAN DESTINATIONS

La dimensione spaziale nella relazione tra cambiamento della popolazione e formazione di nuove imprese

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 quell…

Exploring User Behavior in Destination Websites: An Application of Web Mining Techniques

The development of the Internet has so strongly affected the way a tourist destination can be promoted that portals now play an important role in defining the marketing strategies of tourist destinations. Hence, investigating website surfing behavior has become crucial to understanding the needs of potential tourists. Using Web Mining techniques, our study explores the information-seeking behavior of those who log on to a website promoting the island of Sicily, a well known tourist destination in the South of Italy. The study explores whether a tourist’s country of origin affects their information needs and surfing behavior. Actually, our results do show differences in behavior between user…

The effect of agglomeration economies and geography on the survival of accommodation businesses in Sicily

The study explores the geographical pattern of the accommodation industry in the Italian insular region of Sicily, focusing on the determinants of the risk of market exit. We adopt a standard framework of business survival analysis where agglomeration economies play an important role. We then extend the analysis by considering the role of geography to explore whether the risk of market exit depends on nearness to desirable amenities. The geography is here measured by the distance from the coast and the altitude of the place where the firm is located. When we look at the entire population of accommodation firms that started between 2010 and 2014, we find evidence that the risk of failure inc…

Analysis of clickstream data with mixture hidden markov models

clickstream data sono un’importante fonte di informazioni per l’ecommerce, sebbene non siano semplici da gestire e convertire queste informazioni in un reale vantaggio competitivo non e un compito banale. In questo articolo, consid- ` eriamo l’applicazione dei mixture hidden Markov model a dati relativi al flusso di clickstream estratti dal portale e-commerce di un’azienda di servizi turistici. Sono stati individuati cluster relativi al comportamento di navigazione degli utenti e alla loro posizione geografica che forniscono indicazioni importanti per lo sviluppo di nuove strategie di business. Clickstream data is an important source of information for businesses, however it is not easy to …

Inequalities in Consumption Patterns over the Life Cycle and during the Great Recession

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 an…

Exploring wider well-being in the EU-15 countries: an empirical application of the Stiglitz Report

We draw on the recommendations of the Stiglitz Report to select a set of economic and social variables that can be used to make cross-country comparisons of wider well-being. Using data for the EU-15 countries for 1999 and 2005, we show how three-way analysis can be used to extract synthetic information from a large data set to determine the main latent explanatory factors. In our case, we identify one dominant factor that we term the development profile, which is positively associated with the level of education outputs, technological progress and female labour market participation and negatively associated with the level of pollution. We rank the countries according to this factor and com…

The measurement of economic, social and environmental performance of countries: a novel approach

This paper presents a new analytical framework for assessing spatial disparities among countries. It takes for granted that the analysis of a country's performance cannot be limited solely to either economic or social factors. The aim of the paper is to combine relevant economic and 'non-economic' (mainly social) aspects of a country's performance in an integrated logical framework. Based on this idea, a structural simultaneous equation model will be presented and estimated in order to explore the direction of the causal relationship between economic and non-economic aspects of a country's performance. Furthermore, an exploration of the trajectory that each country has registered over time …

L'EFFICIENZA E L'EFFICACIA COMPETITIVA DEI SITI TURISTICI. UN'ANALISI DELLE DESTINAZIONI TURISTICHE ITALIANE

Sustainable tourism: Measures, evidence and future prospects.

The Chapter aims to provide a critical review of the quantitative approaches so far introduced in literature to measure the sustainable tourism. We focus on both variables and methods employed to obtain synthetic indicators of sustainable tourism and aim to provide some critical insights on potential new challenges caused by the current pandemic. For example, some dimensions of tourism sustainability may become more relevant in future due to the increasing attention by people on health and safety. Finally, a focus on the studies on measurement of sustainable tourism in the Mediterranean area will be provided.

ASSESSMENT OF TOURISM COMPETITIVENESS BY ANALYSING DESTINATION EFFICIENCY

The notion and measurement of destination competitiveness have received increasing attention in the economics literature on tourism. The reason for this emerges from both the growing economic importance of the tourist sector and the increasing competition in the tourist market resulting from the transition from mass tourism to a new age of tourism that calls for a tailor-made approach to the specific attitudes and needs of tourists. The central subject of this paper – inspired by the conceptual competitiveness model developed by Crouch and Ritchie – concerns the efficiency of tourist site destinations. Using a data set of 103 Italian regions for 2001, an economic efficiency analysis is car…

Geographical Distribution of Unemployment: An Analysis of Provincial Differences in Italy

Unemployment rates appear to vary widely at a subregional (e.g., local or provincial) level. Using spatial econometric models for spatial autocorrelation, this paper focuses attention on the spatial structure of regional unemployment disparities of Italian provinces. On the basis of findings from the economic literature and of the available socio-economic data, various model specifications including different explanatory variables are tested to investigate the geographical distribution of unemployment in the 103 provinces of Italy for the years 1998 and 2003. The results suggest that there is a clear explanation of unemployment differentials in terms of spatial equilibrium and disequilibriu…

Assessment of subjective economic well-being in Italy

Using the European Survey on Income and Living Conditions for the year 2005, we analyze the subjective economic well-being and its determinants relating to some sub-groups of Italian households by means of an Ordered Logit Model (OLM), whose dependent variable is represented by a perception variable, that is the ability of households to make ends meet. The empirical results highlight that the main determinants of subjective economic well-being are the same for the four typologies of households. The subjective economic well-being is not only related to the economic status, but it is mostly influenced by socio-demographic variables, as work and education conditions. Furthermore, the level of …

Tourist performance evaluation: a novel approach

Geographical Distribution of Crime in Italian Provinces: A Spatial Econometric Analysis

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 som…

Micro and Macro Resilience Measures of an Economic Crisis

Using Italian Households Budget Survey data over the period 1997-2013, a Cragg model in a life-cycle context is specified to compare the consumption behaviour in the pre- and post-crisis time and develop different micro and macro measures of resilience against crisis shocks. Cohort profiles for participation in and for consumption of tourism services in the pre- and post-crisis time are determined so as to explore the households’ resilience by generations. Next, the households’ resilience according to socio-demographic characteristics is addressed. As for the macro-resilience, combining individual expenditure elasticity, we examine whether and how Italian regions have responded to the recen…

COMPETION AMONG TOURIST DESTINATIONS. AN APPLICATION OF DATA ENVELOPMENT ANALYSIS TO ITALIAN PROVINCES

A spatial origin‐destination approach for the analysis of local tourism demand in Italy

The article assesses the competitiveness of tourist destinations, while accounting for spatial features of tourism and information on both the origin and the destination of tourists. Using a dynamic spatial panel data model with common factors within the origin-destination framework, it explores unilateral inbound tourism flows in 110 Italian regions from 23 European origin countries over the period 2004-2017. The estimation and test results confirm the need to consider this advanced spatial econometric model. In an empirical application measuring tourism resilience of regions based on this model, the results demonstrate the importance of promoting coordinated actions between neighbouring d…

Is Participation in Tourism Market an Opportunity for Everyone? Some Evidence from Italy

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 tha…

A spatial analysis of new business formation: Replicative vs innovative behaviour

Abstract Using spatial econometric tools, the paper examines the spatial structure of new business formation of Italian regions during the period 2004–2007. In particular, the study empirically investigates whether new business formation in a given geographical area may be explained in terms of replicative and/or innovative entrepreneurial behaviour in each area as well as in the neighbouring areas. Additionally, the analysis focuses on the influence of urbanization on the birth of new firms. From the estimation of a Spatial Durbin Model, we find a significant degree of spatial dependence among Italian regions not only in new business formation but also in some of its determinants. We also …

Efficiency and Productivity of Italian Tourist Destinations: A Quantitative Estimation Based on Data Envelopment Analysis and the Malmquidt Method

This paper aims to provide a statistical analysis of the relative economic performance of Italian tourist areas. It uses two modelling approaches to estimate the competitiveness of these regions, viz. data envelopment analysis (DEA) and the Malmquist method. Our results show that the competitiveness position of several Italian regions has not improved over the years under consideration.

Is participation in the tourism market an opportunity for everyone? Some evidence from Italy

This paper investigates whether there are differences in tourism consumption behaviour among families by analysing the main determinants of tourism participation at national and international levels. In particular, it explores whether tourism is becoming part of the lifestyle of Italians or whether it is still a luxury good only for the privileged. A Heckman model was used on micro-data on Italian family expenditure over the period 1997–2007, and an income elasticity analysis for different personal and household characteristics was carried out. The results show that participation in the tourism market is strongly affected by the personal characteristics of individuals and that tourism cons…