ARE THE REGIONS WITH MORE GENDER EQUALITY THE MORE RESILIENT ONES? AN ANALYSIS OF THE ITALIAN REGIONS

Barbara MARTINI

Researcher of Policy Economics, University of Rome Tor Vergata (Italy)

barbara.martini@uniroma2.it

Marco PLATANIA

Researcher of Applied Economics, University of Catania (IT), Visiting Research Fellowship, University of Winchester (UK)

 marco.platania@unict.it

Abstract

The paper aims to investigate the relationship between gender equality and regional resilience. Literature, primarily regional literature, has shown limited interest in gender. Nevertheless, females and males are employed in different industries, so when a shock hits, it can have a different employment impact in terms of gender and, consequently, in terms of resilience. Regions are specialized in some industries. Regional specialization results from historical, cultural, natural endowments, and social elements. Also, the uneven distribution between females and males within industries involves social, cultural, and economic components. As a result, regional specialization determines an employment distribution that can be unequal regarding gender. This employment distribution is captured by the Dissimilarity Index, which measures the sum of the absolute difference in females’ and males’ distribution over occupations. Therefore, the dissimilarity index emerges as a consequence of regional specialization. This dissimilarity, in turn, could have an impact on resilience. Our results put several significant results forwards. First, there is a relationship between gender segregation and regional specialization. The higher the regional specialization in sectors where the females’ share is low, the higher the dissimilarity. Second, there was a positive relationship between resilience and gender equality from 2008 to 2013. The more gender equality regions are also the more resilient ones. Taking a sectoral occupation is not easy, including social values, cultural components, welfare, education, and soft skill. Policies should also address their efforts to enhance the welfare and social dimensions and break gender stereotypes.

Keywords: Gender, Regional specialization, Dissimilarity, Resilience, Italy

JEL classification: R10, R11, R19, O18

 pp. 71-94

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DRAWING AN INDICATOR OF TOURISM COMPETITIVENESS AND EXAMINING ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH TOURISM SEASONALITY FOR THE GREEK PREFECTURES

Thomas KRABOKOUKIS

Researcher, Department of Planning and Regional Development, University of Thessaly, Pedion Areos, Volos, 38334, Greece

tkrabokoukis@uth.gr

Serafeim POLYZOS

Professor, Department of Planning and Regional Development, University of Thessaly, Pedion Areos, Volos, 38334, Greece

spolyzos@uth.gr

Abstract

Within the context that tourism competitiveness is a complex concept, this article proposes a conceptual framework and uses Pena’s P2 distance synthetic index (DP2) to classify the Greek prefectures according to their competitiveness. This paper aims to define the potentials of Greek prefectures through the tourism competitiveness index. Additionally, examines the relationship between tourism competitiveness and tourism seasonality which is a significant phenomenon that affects tourism every destination globally. The study utilizes a total of 66 variables, and the data were processed using the Package ‘p2distance’ in R Studio. The analysis reveals four groups according to their values in the tourism competitiveness index (DP2) and tourism seasonality (RSI). In these four groups, tourism carrying capacity and tourism saturation indexes from previous studies are also presented in the last section. Overall, the analysis supports multidisciplinary and synthetic research in the modeling of tourism research and promotes the DP2 synthetic index in the study of tourism competitiveness. The overall analysis can propose a tool for tourism management and regional policy, as these are complex concepts. The proposed approach advances the DP2 index as a quantitative measure for tourism competitiveness and compares the results with tourism seasonality

Keywords: tourism competitiveness, tourism attractiveness, tourism seasonality, regional and tourism development, DP2 synthetic index

JEL classification: R10, R11, R58, C43, Z32

 pp. 55-70

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EMPLOYMENT IMPACT OF FIRMS’ INNOVATION: WHAT IS THE ROLE OF REGIONAL INSTITUTIONS? EVIDENCE FROM ITALY

Luca VOTA

Ph.D student, Department of Economics and Statistics (DISES) of the University of Salerno, Italy

lvota@unisa.it

Abstract

Employment effect of firms’ innovation is a widely studied topic at both cross-country and national level, while still few contributions deals with the local dimension. Moreover, the role of the institutional factors is still unexplored. In this manuscript, the author estimates the impact of private firms’ R&D spending, institutional quality and their interaction on the employment rate of the Italian regions. To accomplish his task, the author proposes two dynamic panel models and computes them through the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), Fixed effects (FE) and System Generalized Method of Moments (GMM-SYS) regression tecniques. The obtained results suggest that the employment impact of firms’ innovation is negative, while the ability of the regional institutions to attract, support and cooperate with the innovative companies and the R&D investment programs jointly financed by regional governments and private firms positively affect the employment rate. The author has deduced appropriate policy implications from the provided evidence.

Keywords: Employment impact of firms’ innovation, R&D activity, Regional Economics

JEL classification: O30,R10, R11

 pp. 11-24

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