The Rise in Inequality after Pandemics: Can Fiscal Support Play a Mitigating Role?

Abstract Major epidemics of the last two decades (SARS, H1N1, MERS, Ebola, and Zika) have been followed by increases in inequality [Furceri et al. (2020), COVID Economics, 12, 138–157]. In this article, we show that the extent of fiscal consolidation in the years following the onset of these pandemics has played an important role in determining the extent of the increase in inequality. Episodes marked by extreme austerity—measured using either the government’s fiscal balance, health expenditures, or redistribution—have been associated with an increase in the Gini measure of inequality three times as large as in episodes where fiscal policy has been more supportive. We survey the evidence th…

Dai workshop alla TRASHARTE, in .Eco, l'educazione sostenibile, n. 9 – dicembre 2008, anno XX/154, ISSN 1972-9995.

La tutela della biodiversità

Linee guida per la tutela e la protezione del sistema biotico delle isole Eolie

Visioni teoriche ed applicazioni territoriali della scienza della sostenibilità: design e formazione in un progetto pilota per le aree protette della Sicilia

Attualmente sia nella letteratura scientifica sulla sostenibilità che nell'orizzonte delle politiche d'azione territoriale si registra un ricco panorama di visioni teoriche e di strategie d'azione volte allo sostenibilità. La sostanziale distinzione in due macro filoni di pensiero e di azione, weak/strong sustainibility (Angelini, Pizzuto, 2007), comporta strategie d'azione differenti che scaturiscano da presupposti teorici distinti. L'azione progettuale su formazione, design e sostenibilità potrebbe aprire spiragli e soluzioni creative ed innovative per la crisi. La progettazione di percorsi di formazione orientati alla costituzione di microimprese sostenibili operanti nel campo della valo…

Will COVID-19 Have Long-Lasting Effects on Inequality? Evidence from Past Pandemics

This paper provides evidence on the impact of major epidemics from the past two decades on income distribution. The pandemics in our sample, even though much smaller in scale than COVID-19, have led to increases in the Gini coefficient, raised the income share of higher-income deciles, and lowered the employment-to-population ratio for those with basic education compared to those with higher education. We provide some evidence that the distributional consequences from the current pandemic may be larger than those flowing from the historical pandemics in our sample, and larger than those following typical recessions and financial crises.The online version contains supplementary material avai…

Regional inequalities, economic crises and policies: an international panel analysis

This paper examines the effects of economic downturns on regional inequalities. In a sample of 25 OECD countries for 1990–2014 period, we show that economic downturns are associated with a significant and long-lasting reduction in regional inequalities. Expansionary fiscal policy as well as higher share of the European development (cohesion) funds facilitate the response of lagging regions to negative nation-wide shocks, contributing to further stimulate the reduction in regional disparities. Additional evidence suggests that the effect of downturns tends to be larger in economies with a higher initial level of regional disparities in unemployment and human capital endowment.

Exploring the tourism markets’ convergence hypothesis in Italy

This article aims at investigating the tourism markets’ convergence hypothesis across Italy’s 20 major source markets. To reach our goal, we use monthly data of tourist arrivals and overnights over the period 2008–2018 and the time-varying factor model developed by Phillips and Sul (2007, 2009). Our findings suggest the absence of full (absolute) convergence, leading us to accept the hypothesis of club convergence. We show that the traditionally more important source markets have a tendency to persist, while Asian countries show heterogeneous behaviour. Furthermore, the relative decline in the contribution to total arrivals and overnights of several international source markets calls for a…

Cooperative sociali, Ambiente e beni confiscati alla mafia

Nel vasto ed articolato panorama degli organismi non profit impegnati nel settore ambientale suscita particolare interesse l’esperienza portata avanti tramite il progetto Libera Terra1 poiché fa fronte Nel vasto ed articolato panorama degli organismi nonprofit impegnati nel settore ambientale suscita particolare interesse l’esperienza portata avanti tramite il progetto Libera Terra1 poiché fa fronte contemporaneamente ad istanze sociali ed ambientali riuscendoal contempo a coniugarle con l’impegno per la legalità. Promosso dall’Associazione Libera e dalla Prefettura di Palermo, ha condotto all’avviamento di numerose attività connesse all’uso dei terreni confiscati alle organizzazioni mafios…

Eolie sostenibili, sviluppo e sostenibilità per il sito Unesco "Isole Eolie" attraverso il rinnovamento dell'offerta turistica, la partecipazione e il coordinamento della governance.

Eolie sostenibili Abstract di Pietro Pizzuto Le Eolie rappresentano un esempio straordinario di diversità ecologica, paesaggistica e naturalistica. La loro origine vulcanica ha fortemente condizionato la struttura del paesaggio vegetale e delle comunità biologiche. Anche la presenza dell’uomo, insediatosi nelle isole intorno alla fine del V millennio a.C., ha profondamente influenzato l’assetto del territorio. I popolamenti vegetali e animali che le Eolie ospitano sono il risultato di processi di colonizzazione (attiva o passiva) delle isole, cui, durante gli ultimi 7000 anni, ha concorso anche l'uomo, introducendo volontariamente o meno numerose specie. Il Piano di Gestione del sito Unesco…

TERRA IN EQUILIBRIO, la natura per il sociale

Regional effects of monetary policy in the U.S.: An empirical re-assessment

Abstract This paper provides an empirical re-assessment of the regional effects of monetary policy in the U.S. We use the narrative series of Romer and Romer (2004) as a measure of monetary policy shocks and impulse response functions estimated directly from a single equation spatial model. We find that monetary policy tightening leads to a persistent decrease in regional real personal income and employment, with asymmetric effects across regions that are magnified by spatial spillovers. The magnitude of the effects depends on the period under analysis and on the direction of the monetary policy shock. We also provide evidence of the existence of the interest rate and the housing market cha…

Sintesi dello stato di fatto del sito. Analisi Swot.

Will the Economic Impact of COVID-19 Persist? Prognosis from 21st Century Pandemics

COVID-19 has had a disruptive economic impact in 2020, but how long its impact will persist remains unclear. We offer a prognosis based on an analysis of the effects of five previous major epidemics in this century. We find that these pandemics led to significant and persistent reductions in disposable income, along with increases in unemployment, income inequality and public debt-to-GDP ratios. Energy use and CO2 emissions dropped, but mostly because of the persistent decline in the level of economic activity rather than structural changes in the energy sector. Applying our empirical estimates to project the impact of COVID-19, we foresee significant scarring in economic performance and in…

dagli impatti socioambientali del turismo di massa al turismo sostenibile

Formazione e sostenibilità: didattica partecipata e aree protette, arte dell'intreccio e ecodesign

La governance dei rifiuti: realtà urbane a confronto. Una prima fase di ricerca

Abstract La governance dei rifiuti: realtà urbane a confronto C. Cardella, P. Pizzuto L’Unione Europea ha promosso una gestione sostenibile dei rifiuti attraverso azioni di politica integrata, basata sulla riduzione della produzione di rifiuti, con conseguente abbassamento dei costi energetici, sul riciclo, che consiste nel trasformare il rifiuto in risorsa, sul riuso, che prevede la capacità di ricollocare sul mercato beni che sono ancora utilizzabili. In base a tale modello di gestione, lo smaltimento costituisce la fase finale dell’intero ciclo dei rifiuti, mentre la razionalizzazione del settore si realizza con il conseguimento di obiettivi di qualità ambientale, efficacia economica e p…

Moving closer? Comparing regional adjustments to shocks in EMU and the United States

Highlights • Interstate migration is the main adjustment channel to labor demand shocks for the US. • EMU countries adjust through changes in labor force participation and unemployment. • Price flexibility is more important as a shock absorber for EMU. • Risk-sharing mechanisms have been more effective in the US than in the EMU. • The strength of these channels has increased for EMU ad declined for the United States.

DESIGN ZINGARO. Un'esperienza di progettazione e didattica partecipata presso la Riserva Naturale Orientata “Zingaro”. Creazioni di Land Art e Design con materiali vegetali.

Lo stato della diversità biologica delle isole eolie

The Well-Being Gap during the Great Recession: The Role of Growth and Institutions

The purpose of this paper is to examine the well-being dynamics across European countries during the Great Recession and to investigate the potential role of the quality of formal institutions in mitigating the negative effect of the economic downturn. This study uses the club convergence methodology by Phillips and Sul (2007; 2009) to group EU-28 countries that present similar features in terms of well-being during the period 2005-2017. The study also applies probit models to investigate the potential role of several social and institutional characteristics that are supposed to affect subjective well-being levels. The results show the existence of a “well-being gap” among European countrie…

Resilience and Convergence: Short vs.Long-Run Regional Effects of Economic Crises and Macroeconomic Policies

Before the outbreak of the Great Recession, considerable attention was devoted to what makes a region successful, and why some regions grow faster than others, but researchers often overlooked how regions react to shocks and why this happens in a heterogeneous way. Furthermore, the classic literature on regional inequalities has mainly focused on the longterm relationship between economic growth and regional disparities and on the role of labor mobility, sometimes also as a mechanism of adjustment to labor demand idiosyncratic shocks. This literature trend has reversed since 2008, when investigation of the heterogeneous impact of shocks across areas became prominent in regional studies beca…

Three essays on economic resilience and regional disparities

Tourism and territorial growth determinants in insular regions: A comparison with mainland regions for some European countries (2008–2019)

The article investigates the different growth patterns of islands and mainland regions by looking at their tourism and territorial characteristics differences. We considered per capita income and employment growth patterns in a panel data model focused on 74 regions in seven European coun- tries from 2008 to 2019. The results show how the impor- tance of some growth factors, especially those related to tourism and environmental sustainability, varies between islands and mainland regions. The article suggests specific policy implications for island regions in line with the European Union guidelines. Our findings support the need to pursue different approaches to sustain growth in islands and…

La valutazione di efficacia di gestione delle aree protette. Quale metodologia per la Sicilia?

VII Convegno Nazionale di Sociologia dell'ambiente Abstract di Pietro Pizzuto La valutazione di efficacia di gestione delle aree protette. Quale metodologia per la Sicilia? Un presupposto fondamentale per le aree protette consiste nel mantenimento a lungo termine del patrimonio naturalistico e culturale che custodiscono. Ciò nonostante, aumentano i segni di cedimento nei sistemi di aree protette al punto che in molti casi si assiste a fenomeni di degrado. Riconoscere l’ampia gamma di problemi che le aree protette devono affrontare ha condotto alla rivalutazione dei loro piani di gestione. Oggi vi è la necessità di una migliore conoscenza delle condizioni in cui versano le aree protette e de…

The role of tourism in island economic growth and resilience: A panel analysis for the European Mediterranean countries (2000–2015)

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to verifying the economic resilience of islands and, in particular, the role of the tourism sector in the reaction to the most recent economic crisis. The analysis concerns insular contexts, such as the greater island regions in the Mediterranean basin. Design/methodology/approach Static and dynamic panel data techniques are used for a sample of 13 island economies over a period of 16 years. Findings Results show that the growth factors for regional islands are similar to the ones usually considered for other regions, but the tourism-led growth hypothesis is highly supported. Tourism demand more than supply plays a role together with accessibility. The …

Supplemental Material, Appendix - Exploring the tourism markets’ convergence hypothesis in Italy

Supplemental Material, Appendix for Exploring the tourism markets’ convergence hypothesis in Italy by Pietro Pizzuto and Caterina Sciortino in Tourism Economics

Scuola Regionale di Interpretazione Ambientale

Great Recession and club convergence in Europe: A cross‐country, cross‐region panel analysis (2000–2015)

The paper aims at investigating the impact of the Great Recession on per capita GDP convergence process across European regions and countries. Using the time-varying factor model developed by Phillips and Sul for the period 2000–2015 and two different merging procedures to identify clubs, we provide evidence of the diverging impact of the Great Recession “between” the higher and the lower convergence clubs at both regional and country levels as well as of the strengthening of the convergence process “within” most clubs. In addition, we add further evidence to the common belief of a “multi-speed” Europe by contrasting Eastern European countries' and regions' behavior vis-à-vis original Europ…

VERSO MODELLI ECOLOGICI DI TRASMISSIONE DELLA CONOSCENZA

Trends and cycles in CO2 emissions and incomes: Cross-country evidence on decoupling

This paper provides cross-country evidence on the relationship between growth in CO2 emissions and real GDP growth from 1960 to 2018. The focus is on distinguishing longer-run trends in this relationship from short-run cyclical fluctuations, and on documenting changes in these relationships over time. Using two filtering techniques for separating trend and cycle, we find that long-run trends show evidence of decoupling in richer nations—particularly in European countries—but not yet in developing economies, and that there is stronger evidence of decoupling over the 1990 to 2018 sub-period than over the earlier 1960 to 1989 sub-period. There is also a strong cyclical relationship between emi…

L’interpretazione Ambientale Delle Aree Protette

L'analisi dei rischi che minacciano il patrimonio biotico

The role of regional competitiveness in shaping the heterogeneous impact of the Great Recession

This paper assesses the employment resilience of 202 European regions to the Great Recession by investigating the role of regional competitiveness. By using the regional shift component derived from a multiple bases shift–share analysis of employment change as a measure of regional endogenous employment growth, we show that pre‐crisis regional competitiveness determinants are associated with positive performances during the crisis period. However, the variables considered explain well the different vulnerability of the economies, but less convincingly the ability to recover. Taking into account the spatial interactions among regions, results are confirmed and allow us to identify spillover …

Per una cultura della sostenibilità

Uno sguardo sistemico alle disuguaglianze globali: verso un'economia ecologica

Financial Globalization, Fiscal Policies and the Distribution of Income

This paper provides evidence that financial globalization—liberalization of the capital account—makes income distribution more uneven by raising the share of income that goes to the richest income deciles. We also offer evidence that changes in domestic fiscal policies in the aftermath of financial globalization are one channel through which these distributional effects could occur. Specifically, we show that episodes of capital account liberalization are followed by greater fiscal consolidation and reduced fiscal redistribution, both of which lead to increased inequality.

La rivista scientifica internazionale "Culture della sostenibilità" avvia con il suo settimo numero una nuova fase editoriale all'insegna dei nessi tra educazione e politica

The Regional Economic Impact of Modern Pandemics and Epidemics.

The current COVID-19 pandemic had, and is still having, damaging effects on economic activities. However, similarly to past pandemic and epidemic episodes, its impact risks to be geographically uneven. Based on pandemic and epidemic episodes of the latest two decades, in this paper we try to conjecture the possible future impact that the current pandemic may have on several regional outcomes such as per capita gross domestic product (GDP) and employment. Specifically, we investigate how this impact differs across regions, evaluating some of the different channels through which the heterogeneous effect of health crises may be transmitted to regional economies.

L'EDUCAZIONE ALLO SVILUPPO SOSTENIBILE PER LA RICONVERSIONE ECOLOGICA: APPROCCI E PARADIGMI TRA CONSERVAZIONE ED INNOVAZIONE

“LA FRUIZIONE SOSTENIBILE DEI BENI AMBIENTALI: DALLE POLITICHE DI GESTIONE ALLA PERCEZIONE SOCIALE IL CASO STUDIO DELLA RISERVA NATURALE ORIENTATA DI CAPO GALLO”

Il lavoro di ricerca mira a presentare il quadro legislativo di tutela e gli strumenti di pianificazione relativi alla fruizione della Riserva Naturale Orientata di Capo Gallo, e indaga sulla percezione sociale che i visitatori hanno sviluppato in merito a politiche di gestione e servizi per a fruizione . La prima parte è basata sulla letteratura che verte sul tema della Riserva Naturale Orientata di Capo Gallo, mentre la seconda parte applica strumenti di indagine di campo propri della sociologia dell'ambiente. Lo strumento principale del questionario viene in questo secondo contesto di studio affiancato da strumenti di indagine qualitativi come l'osservazione diretta e le interviste orien…

STORIA DI UNA FRATELLANZA CULTURALE SORTA DALLE MACERIE DEL TERREMOTO DI MESSINA

All'alba del 28 dicembre del 1908 una violenta scossa tellurica in soli trenta secondi squassò la zona dello Stretto e distrusse completamente Messina. Il tremendo terremoto di Messina, le storie di solidarietà e coraggio, di fronte alla violenza del moto sismico (decimo grado della scala Mercalli) si aggiunse quella del maremoto che circa dieci minuti dopo la scossa riversò diverse ondate sulla città. Tutto ciò avvenne in un ora in cui non era molto facile trovare scampo ed in un luogo ove la gente viveva ammassata in costruzioni che non poggiavano su solide basi. La stima approssimativa fu di 60.000 vittime.

Keeping Public Debt Sustainable in an Equitable Way

The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed over 5 million lives thus far. This grim figure would have been higher still without the strong and timely fiscal support provided by governments around the globe, including support for health sector and the development and deployment of vaccines. The IMF has noted that “in 2020, fiscal policy proved its worth. The increasing public debt in 2020 was fully justified by the need to respond to COVID 19 and its economic, social, and financial consequences” (Gaspar, 2021). How to keep debt sustainable is becoming a policy imperative, made all the more challenging by the lingering effects of the pandemic, particularly on low-income groups. In this article we summ…

Manuale di ecologia, sostenibilità ed educazione ambientale

I cambiamenti climatici pongono con urgenza un profondo ripensamento della società, dell’economia e degli stili di vita, insomma un cambio di rotta. Attraverso la Teoria Generale dei Sistemi, si descrive l’impatto esercitato dalle attività umane sugli ecosistemi e sulla qualità della vita. La crisi ecologica e i rischi globali evidenziano la necessità di costruire un futuro più sicuro, più equo e più responsabile che poggia su tre grandi questioni: la conservazione dell’ambiente e delle sue risorse in condizioni di stabilità climatica, lo sviluppo sostenibile basato sulla carring capacity e l’educazione ambientale.

L’EDUCAZIONE ECOLOGICA E LO SVILUPPO SOSTENIBILE. Dalla cultura che separa alla cultura che connette

The Regional Effects of Public Spending on Active Labor Market Policies: Evidence from Advanced Economies

This paper examines the regional effects of public spending on Active Labor Market polices (ALMPs). Using an unbalanced sample of 308 regions belonging to 29 OECD Economies for the period 1995-2011, we show that discretionary increases in public spending on active labor market policies at the national level have statistically significant short- and medium-term effect in reducing regional unemployment rate, while raising regional output. These effects tend to be larger during periods of low GDP growth, and when complemented by a larger share of cohesion fund expenditures.

Cambio di rotta. La cultura sistemica per cambiare rotta: una nuova etica per la sostenibilità

ConvergenceClubs: A Package for Performing the Phillips and Sul's Club Convergence Clustering Procedure

This paper introduces package ConvergenceClubs, which implements functions to perform the Phillips and Sul (2007, 2009) club convergence clustering procedure in a simple and reproducible manner. The approach proposed by Phillips and Sul to analyse the convergence patterns of groups of economies is formulated as a nonlinear time varying factor model that allows for different time paths as well as individual heterogeneity. Unlike other approaches in which economies are grouped a priori, it also allows the endogenous determination of convergence clubs. The algorithm, usage, and implementation details are discussed.

Will COVID-19 Have Long-Lasting Effects on Inequality? Evidence from Past Pandemics

This paper provides evidence on the impact of major epidemics from the past two decades on income distribution. The pandemics in our sample, even though much smaller in scale than COVID-19, have led to increases in the Gini coefficient, raised the income share of higher-income deciles, and lowered the employment-to-population ratio for those with basic education compared to those with higher education. We provide some evidence that the distributional consequences from the current pandemic may be larger than those flowing from the historical pandemics in our sample, and larger than those following typical recessions and financial crises.

COVID‐19 and tourism: What can we learn from the past?

Abstract The impact of the COVID‐19 crisis on tourism flows is without precedent in terms of speed and severity. In this paper, we try to infer a possible future scenario for the tourism sector, evaluating the medium‐term effects of past pandemics on tourist arrivals. We find that pandemics lead to a persistent decline in tourist arrivals, with the effects being larger in developing and emerging countries. Interestingly, the effects are heterogeneous across countries and episodes, and depend on several economic conditions such as the overall health system performance, the severity of the shock, and the uncertainty induced by the pandemic event.

Asymmetric effects of monetary policy shocks across US states

This paper provides new empirical evidence of the asymmetric effects of monetary policy shocks across regions. Using a measure of unanticipated changes in the Fed's policy rates over the period 1969Q3–2008Q4 and a local projection method extended to account for spatial effects, we find that monetary policy tightening leads to a long-lasting decrease in states' real personal income, with asymmetric effects across states that are amplified by spatial spillovers. The paper then investigates the role played by several transmission channels finding larger contractionary effects of monetary policy tightening in states with higher manufacturing share, smaller firms, smaller banks and higher house …

INTERPRETAZIONE AMBIENTALE, IL CASO SICILIANO

Uno strumento olistico per la gestione sostenibile delle aree protette e per l'alfabetizzazione ecologica. La Sicilia si dota degli strumenti di pianificazione per la fruzione delle aree protette

DAGLI IMPATTI SOCIO AMBIENTALI DEL TURISMO DI MASSA AL TURISMO SOSTENIBILE, ECOTURISMO ED AREE PROTETTE

Life satisfaction and tax morale: The role of trust in government and cultural orientation

Taxes are essential for a government to function correctly, because they fund public services and promote long-term growth in a country. Tax morale is a positive attitude toward taxation shaped by extrinsic and intrinsic motivations, including numerous psychological factors. However, these factors are far from completely clear and a better understanding of what drives tax morale can greatly help governments in the design of tax policies and their administration. In this paper we test the novel hypothesis that life satisfaction is one of the psychological aspects affecting tax morale. Using longitudinal data from the World Value Survey, we show that people more satisfied with their own life …

La visione sistemica per cambiare insieme verso una gestione sostenibile dei rifiuti

ORIGINI DELLE DISUGUAGLIANZE GLOBALI:UNA PROSPETTIVA ECOLOGICA PER L'ANALISI DELLE CAUSE DEI MOVIMENTI MIGRATORI

Schede didattiche per Docenti, “Conoscere per conservare la biodiversità”, Diversità dal cielo scheda 10

Si tratta di una scheda didattica per docenti sul tema dell'educazione ambientale applicata all'insegnamento dell'astronomia di base. Il percorso didattico prevede osservazioni dirette, uso di strumenti astronomici come lo gnomone durante il corso delle stagioni, nonché attività artistiche ed espressive. La pubblicazione è stata realizzata all'interno del progetto Junior Ranger per la Natura della Sicilia, realizzato da Europarc Federation su commissione di ARPA Sicilia.