L’offerta di servizi di microcredito da parte di istituzioni di microfinanza contribuisce ad aumentare l’accesso al credito di una clientela rurale ed accrescere l’efficienza dei mercati locali del credito? Questo studio prova a rispondere alla precedente domanda attraverso lo sviluppo di un modello teorico e l’analisi empirica sulla base di dati raccolti in un villaggio dell’Etiopia. In un mercato finanziario duale (formale/informale), il modello teorico indica che, nonostante non tutti i membri dell’ accordo informale ottengano un microcredito dall’intermediario formale, ogni membro dell’istituzione informale ne beneficia. Infatti, i membri che si trovano in condizione di deficit finanziario beneficiano direttamente di maggiori risorse derivanti dal prestito mentre gli altri membri godono di vincoli di partecipazione meno stringenti. Inoltre, quando il tasso di interesse sui prestiti formali si riduce, aumenta sia l’utilità dei prenditori di fondi che quella di tutti gli altri membri dell’istituzione informale. Gli intermediari formali sottraggono mercato alle istituzioni informali in una misura che dipende dall’ammontare del microcredito e dal tasso di interesse. I dati raccolti nel villaggio rurale etiope confermano solo parzialmente le considerazioni teoriche. In primo luogo, a causa di un diverso ammontare e di una diversa scadenza dei prestiti formali rispetto a quelli informali, nel villaggio i due mercati sembrano complementari. In secondo luogo, l’approccio del prestito di gruppo sembra replicare gli stessi processi di monitoraggio e selezione delle istituzioni informali e pertanto le famiglie a basso reddito rimangono vincolate nell’accesso al credito. In conclusione, se le istituzioni di microfinanza volessero operare con successo nelle aree rurali, dovrebbero, per prima cosa, studiare i processi di selezione dei membri all’interno delle istituzioni informali e, per seconda cosa, offrire una più ampia gamma di prodotti finanziari oltre al credito, come ad esempio prodotti di risparmio e prodotti assicurativi. / Does the provision of formal microcredit increase access to credit of rural clients and efficiency of credit markets? This study tackles this question through the development of a theoretical model and an empirical analysis in an Ethiopian village. In a dual (formal/informal) financial market, the theoretical model suggests that when some members of the informal arrangement get a formal loan, all members benefit from it. The agents who have a current deficit have greater financial resources whereas the agents who have an expected future deficit enjoy looser participation constraints. Furthermore, when the interest rate charged on formal loans decreases, the utility of not only borrowing members but all members in the arrangement increases. Besides, the formal market crowds out the informal market to some extent as long as the formal loan size increases or the interest rate decreases. Evidence from the rural village in southern Ethiopia only weakly confirms the theoretical results because of two reasons. First, due to different size and maturity of loans, the formal microcredit services and the informal risk sharing arrangements appear to be complements in the local market. Second, the group lending approach seems to replicate the same selection and monitoring processes of the informal arrangements and the low-income households remain constrained in their access to credit. Therefore, MFIs that want to operate successfully in rural areas should, first, make an assessment of self-selection processes in the informal arrangements and, second, provide a wider range of financial products besides credit, such as savings and insurance products.

Life is full of uncertainties. Legal rules should have a clear intention, motivation and purpose in order to diminish daily uncertainties. However, practice shows that their consequences are complex and hard to predict. For instance, tort law has the general objectives of deterring future negligent behavior and compensating the victims of someone else's negligence. Achieving these goals are particularly difficult in medical malpractice cases. To start with, when patients search for medical care they are typically sick in the first place. In case harm materializes during the treatment, it might be very hard to assess if it was due to substandard medical care or to the patient's poor health conditions. Moreover, the practice of medicine has a positive externality on the society, meaning that the design of legal rules is crucial: for instance, it should not result in physicians avoiding practicing their activity just because they are afraid of being sued even when they acted according to the standard level of care. The empirical literature on medical malpractice has been developing substantially in the past two decades, with the American case being the most studied one. Evidence from civil law tradition countries is more difficult to find. The aim of this thesis is to contribute to the empirical literature on medical malpractice, using two civil law countries as a case-study: Spain and Italy. The goal of this thesis is to investigate, in the first place, some of the consequences of having two separate sub-systems (administrative and civil) coexisting within the same legal system, which is common in civil law tradition countries with a public national health system (such as Spain, France and Portugal). When this holds, different procedures might apply depending on the type of hospital where the injury took place (essentially whether it is a public hospital or a private hospital). Therefore, a patient injured in a public hospital should file a claim in administrative courts while a patient suffering an identical medical accident should file a claim in civil courts. A natural question that the reader might pose is why should both administrative and civil courts decide medical malpractice cases? Moreover, can this specialization of courts influence how judges decide medical malpractice cases? In the past few years, there was a general concern with patient safety, which is currently on the agenda of several national governments. Some initiatives have been taken at the international level, with the aim of preventing harm to patients during treatment and care. A negligently injured patient might present a claim against the health care provider with the aim of being compensated for the economic loss and for pain and suffering. In several European countries, health care is mainly provided by a public national health system, which means that if a patient harmed in a public hospital succeeds in a claim against the hospital, public expenditures increase because the State takes part in the litigation process. This poses a problem in a context of increasing national health expenditures and public debt. In Italy, with the aim of increasing patient safety, some regions implemented a monitoring system on medical malpractice claims. However, if properly implemented, this reform shall also allow for a reduction in medical malpractice insurance costs. This thesis is organized as follows. Chapter 1 provides a review of the empirical literature on medical malpractice, where studies on outcomes and merit of claims, costs and defensive medicine are presented. Chapter 2 presents an empirical analysis of medical malpractice claims arriving to the Spanish Supreme Court. The focus is on reversal rates for civil and administrative decisions. Administrative decisions appealed by the plaintiff have the highest reversal rates. The results show a bias in lower administrative courts, which tend to focus on the State side. We provide a detailed explanation for these results, which can rely on the organization of administrative judges career. Chapter 3 assesses predictors of compensation in medical malpractice cases appealed to the Spanish Supreme Court and investigates the amount of damages attributed to patients. The results show horizontal equity between administrative and civil decisions (controlling for observable case characteristics) and vertical inequity (patients suffering more severe injuries tend to receive higher payouts). In order to execute these analyses, a database of medical malpractice decisions appealed to the Administrative and Civil Chambers of the Spanish Supreme Court from 2006 until 2009 (designated by the Spanish Supreme Court Medical Malpractice Dataset (SSCMMD)) has been created. A description of how the SSCMMD was built and of the Spanish legal system is presented as well. Chapter 4 includes an empirical investigation of the effect of a monitoring system for medical malpractice claims on insurance premiums. In Italy, some regions adopted this policy in different years, while others did not. The study uses data on insurance premiums from Italian public hospitals for the years 2001-2008. This is a significant difference as most of the studies use the insurance company as unit of analysis. Although insurance premiums have risen from 2001 to 2008, the increase was lower for regions adopting a monitoring system for medical claims. Possible implications of this system are also provided. Finally, Chapter 5 discusses the main findings, describes possible future research and concludes.

Questa tesi e’ composta da cinque articoli sui temi dell’innovazione, diffusione e adozione di tecnologie energetiche efficienti. Il primo capitolo presenta una rassegna della letteratura empirica sulle dinamiche del cambiamento tecnologico in campo ambientale. Il secondo capitolo studia le piu’ importanti determinanti del flusso di conoscenza. Il terzo capitolo identifica le maggiori determinanti di domanda e offerta dell’innovazione, con particolare attenzione al ruolo della conoscenza internazionale. I risultati presentati mostrano come gli spillover di conoscenza favoriscano ulteriori innovazioni. I capitoli quarto e quinto studiano il settore di produzione dell’energia elettrica. Il capitolo quarto presenta un database di brevetti in technologie energetiche efficienti. Il capitolo quinto studia le determinanti dell’efficienza energetica nella produzione di energia elettrica da fonti fossili, con particolare attenzione al ruolo della tecnologia. / This dissertation is a collection of essays on innovation, diffusion and adoption of energy technologies. Chapter 1 presents a state-of-the art review of empirical contributions on TC dynamics as applied to eco-innovation. Chapter 2 explores the main determinants of knowledge flows and how they favor or hinder the flow of knowledge across border. Both geographical and technological distance hinder the flow of eco-knowledge. Chapter 3 identifies the main demand and supply-side determinants of innovation, with particular attention to the role of foreign knowledge. I point to the importance of knowledge spillovers in fostering further eco-innovation, especially in countries with medium to low innovative abilities. Chapters 4 and 5 focus on TC in the electricity sector, a main contributor to GHG emissions. In Chapter 4 presents the data selection process used to identify patents in efficient fossil electricity technologies and provides a worldwide analysis of innovation trends in these technologies. Chapter 5 studies the evolution of energy efficiency in fossil-fuel based electricity production, devoting particular attention to the contribution of knowledge to production efficiency.

Ampia discussione è in corso riguardo ai Fondi Strutturali Europei, uno strumento creato dall’Unione Europea per ridurre le differenze economiche tra le sue regioni. Durante il CSF 2000-06 essi hanno rappresentato 1/3 del budget comunitario. Nonostante tale sforzo, parte della letteratura trova scarsi effetti e persistenza nei differenziali di PIL che i fondi dovrebbero ridurre. In questo lavoro si affronterà la questione osservando le regioni dell’EU-15, nel periodo 2000-07. L’effetto dei fondi è stato dapprima stimato con modelli di convergenza assoluta e considerando problemi come l’autocorrelazione spaziale e l’eterogeneità delle regioni. L’attenzione si è quindi diretta alla costruzione di un dataset contenente cifre dettagliate dei fondi pagati annualmente a ciascuna regione, tramite combinazione di informazioni da fonti ufficiali e tramite stime per coprire le cifre per cui tali informazioni erano mancanti. Con questo dataset sono quindi stati stimati modelli che considerassero effetti di spill-over e la possibilità di cluster convergence. È risultato che i fondi strutturali hanno effetti tutto sommato positivi. L’utilizzo di modelli più complessi e realistici ha però mostrato una debole convergenza, lasciando quindi dubbi sull’effettiva efficacia dei fondi. / A vast discussion is underway regarding European structural funds, an instrument the European Union created in order to reduce the economic differentials among its regions. During the 2000-2006 CSF they represented 1/ 3 of EU budget. Despite these efforts, part of the literature finds small effects and persistence in those differences in GDP which these funds should reduce. In this work the issue will be addressed by looking at regions within EU-15, in the period 2000-2007. Proof of the positive effect of funds was first searched using models of absolute beta convergence and addressing issues like spatial autocorrelation and heterogeneity between regions. The attention moved then to the task of constructing a dataset which could provide detailed figures on funding paid to each region each year, by combining information available from official sources and through the estimation of those figures for which information was missing. On the base of this dataset new models were estimated, taking into account the spill-over effects and the possibility of cluster convergence. The result was that structural funds have, overall, a positive impact. Once we move to more complex and realistic models, convergence becomes weaker, casting some doubts on the effectiveness of these funds.

- / The PhD thesis is about measurement and effects of environmental policy in the context of the Porter Hypothesis (PH). The first chapter offers a critical review of the large empirical literature on the Porter Hypothesis. The second chapter presents an empirical investigation of the Porter Hypothesis focusing on the manufacturing sectors of European countries between 1997 and 2009. We look at overall innovation and productivity impact that are the most relevant indicators for the “strong” PH. This approach allows us to account for potential opportunity costs of induced innovations. As a proxy of environmental policy stringency we use pollution abatement and control expenditures (PACE), which represent one of the few indicators available at the sectoral level. We remedy upon its main drawback, that of potential endogeneity of PACE, by adopting an instrumental variable estimation approach. The third chapter represents a novel approach, inspired by the literature on multilevel latent models and Item Response Theory, to assessing countries’ environmental and energy policy performance. We use data on energy efficiency policy targeting industrial sectors in 27 EU countries between 2004 and 2009 and rank countries with respect to their ability to implement policy over time. Unlike previous contributions in this respect, our model accounts for the inherent difficulty of a given policy instrument mix. Moreover, the model is extended to deal with the longitudinal data and to adjust the country ranking as a result of economic and institutional observables, which are likely to affect policy design and implementation.

La seguente Tesi di Dottorato si articola in cinque saggi che esaminano alcuni importanti aspetti legati all'energia in Africa subsahariana, e in particolare all'interazione tra lo sviluppo socio-economico e le sue implicazioni per l'ambiente a livello regionale e globale. I saggi sono introdotti da un capitolo di avvicinamento generale ai temi trattati. Questo capitolo prepara il lettore offrendo un riassunto delle principali sfide legate all'energia nel contesto subsariano e formulando le domande di ricerca e gli strumenti sui quali si basa la tesi stessa. Le principali implicazioni di ciascuno dei saggi, sia per la ricerca che per i decisori politici, vengono poi presentate in un capitolo di discussione finale. Il primo saggio esamina la problematica dell’accesso all'energia, e in particolare all'elettricità. Viene illustrato il ruolo dei dati satellitari e dell'analisi statistica dei dati geospaziali nel migliorare la comprensione della situazione dell'accesso all'elettricità in Africa subsahariana. Il saggio include un'analisi delle disuguaglianze che caratterizzano la qualità dell'accesso all'elettricità nella regione. Il risultato principale è che, dopo decenni, la disuguaglianza nell'accesso all'energia sta iniziando a diminuire. Essa rimane però prominente, in particolare per quanto riguarda la quantità di energia consumata. Viene stimato che gli sforzi di elettrificazione tra il 2020 e il 2030 debbano triplicare il loro passo per raggiungere l'obiettivo di sviluppo sostenibile SDG 7.1.1. Il secondo saggio consiste di una piattaforma di valutazione della domanda energetica bottom-up spazialmente esplicita per stimare il fabbisogno energetico tra le comunità in cui l'accesso all'elettricità è attualmente carente, come identificato con la metodologia introdotta nel primo saggio. La valutazione non si limita al fabbisogno energetico residenziale, ma include un resoconto dettagliato, basato sugli usi finali, del fabbisogno energetico di scuole, strutture sanitarie, pompaggio dell'acqua per l'irrigazione, lavorazione delle colture e microimprese, i principali motori dello sviluppo rurale. Viene condotto uno studio nazionale per il Kenya per dimostrare l'importanza di considerare molteplici fonti di domanda oltre al residenziale quando l'obiettivo è sviluppare una strategia di elettrificazione che supperisca veramente alla povertà energetica. Si dimostra poi che esiste un notevole potenziale di crescita della produttività e della redditività rurale grazie all'apporto di energia elettrica. In molte aree, questi profitti locali potrebbero ripagare gli investimenti nelle infrastrutture di elettrificazione in pochi anni. Il terzo saggio analizza un aspetto specifico dell'interazione tra pianificazione dell'accesso all'elettricità, domanda di energia residenziale e adattamento ai cambiamenti climatici. Vengono combinati dati e scenari climatici, satellitari e demografici per produrre una stima globale spazialmente esplicita della domanda di circolazione e condizionamento dell’aria non soddisfatta a causa della mancanza di accesso all'elettricità. Sulla base di modelli integrati di elettrificazione climatica-energetica e geospaziale, risulta che in Africa sub-sahariana, l'hotspot globale della povertà energetica, tenere conto del fabbisogno di circolazione e condizionamento dell’aria locale stimato (in aggiunta agli obiettivi di consumo residenziale di base) determini una riduzione sostanziale della quota di sistemi standalone come l'opzione di elettrificazione meno costosa entro il 2030, e un importante aumento della capacità di generazione di elettricità e dei requisiti di investimento. Tali risultati suggeriscono la necessità di una maggiore considerazione delle esigenze di adattamento climatico nella pianificazione dei sistemi energetici dei paesi in via di sviluppo e nella valutazione del trade-off tra l'espansione della rete elettrica centrale e sistemi decentralizzati per raggiungere un’elettrificazione universale. La pianificazione dell'elettrificazione deve essere tecnicamente efficiente, ma deve anche considerare l'ambiente politico-economico in cui gli investimenti vengono canalizzati. Il quarto saggio valuta il ruolo della governance e della qualità regolatoria nel quadro di modellazione dell'accesso all'energia elettrica. In particolare, si introduce un indice di governance dell'accesso all'elettricità basato su più indicatori che viene poi implementato nel modello di elettrificazione IMAGE-TIMER. L’effetto dell’indice viene modellato attraverso il suo effetto modificatore sui tassi di sconto privati (una misura del rischio e della disponibilità ad accettare costi futuri rispetto ai costi attuali). I risultati mostrano che la governance e la qualità regolatoria nell'accesso all'elettricità hanno un impatto significativo sul mix tecnologico ottimale e sui flussi di investimenti privati per raggiungere l'elettrificazione universale in Africa subsahariana. In particolare, un ambiente rischioso scoraggia l’investimento da parte dei fornitori privati di soluzioni di accesso decentralizzato all'energia, con il rischio di lasciare molti senza elettricità anche oltre il 2030. Il quinto e ultimo saggio analizza il settore energetico africano da un punto di vista ‘Nexus’. Il saggio valuta l'affidabilità del sistema energetico nei sistemi energetici dominati dall'energia idroelettrica (come in molti paesi dell'Africa centrale e orientale) e del ruolo che i cambiamenti climatici e gli eventi estremi possono esercitare su di esso. Il lavoro combina analisi qualitative e quantitative per (i) proporre un solido framework per evidenziare le interdipendenze tra energia idroelettrica, disponibilità di acqua e cambiamento climatico, (ii) analizzare sistematicamente lo stato dell'arte sugli impatti previsti dei cambiamenti climatici su l'energia idroelettrica nell'Africa subsahariana e (iii) fornire evidenza empirica sui trend passati e sulle traiettorie di sviluppo futuro del settore. I risultati suggeriscono che il cambiamento climatico influenzerà l'affidabilità e la sicurezza della fornitura elettrica attraverso diversi canali. Ad esempio, molti dei principali bacini idrologici sono stati caratterizzati da una diminuzione del livello idrico nel corso del ventesimo secolo. Si evidenzia come tuttavia una diversificazione del mix di generazione elettrico sia finora stata promossa solo in un numero limitato di paesi. Si suggerisce infine che l'integrazione delle fonti rinnovabili variabili con l'energia idroelettrica possa aumentare la resilienza del sistema. / This dissertation is a collection of five essays examining some important energy-related aspects at the interplay of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)’s development and its interactions with the regional and global environment. The essays are introduced by a general overview chapter – highlighting the core energy-related challenges of SSA and the scope of this work. The main implications of the essays, both for research and for policymakers, are then considered in the final discussion chapter. The first essay focuses on access to modern energy, and chiefly on electricity. I illustrate the role of satellite data and the statistical analysis of geospatial data in improving the understanding of the electricity access situation in sub-Saharan Africa. The essay includes an analysis of inequality characterising the electricity access quality in the region. The main finding is that after decades, energy access inequality is beginning to decline but it remains prominent in particular as far as the quantity consumed is concerned. I find that electrification efforts between 2020 and 2030 must triplicate their pace to meet Sustainable Development Goal 7.1.1. The second essay develops a spatially-explicit bottom-up energy demand assessment platform to estimate the energy needs among communities where access to electricity is currently lacking, as identified with the methodology introduced in the first essay. The assessment is not restricted to residential energy needs, but it includes a detailed, appliance-based account of power needs for schools, healthcare facilities, water pumping for irrigation, crop processing, and micro enterprises, the key drivers of rural development. I carry out a country-study for Kenya to show the importance of considering multiple demand sources beyond residential when the aim is developing an electrification strategy which truly overcomes energy poverty. I also show that there is considerable potential for rural productivity and profitability growth thanks to the input of electric energy. In many areas, these local profits might pay back the electrification infrastructure investment in only few years. The third essay analyses a specific aspect at the interplay between electricity access planning, household energy demand and climate change adaptation. I combine climate, satellite, and demographic data and scenarios to produce a global spatially-explicit estimate of unmet ACC demand due to the lack of electricity access. Based on integrated climate-energy and geospatial electrification modelling, I find that in sub-Saharan Africa, the global hotspot of energy poverty, accounting for the estimated local ACC needs on top of baseline residential consumption targets determines a substantial reduction in the share of decentralised systems as the least-cost electrification option by 2030, and a major ramp-up in the power generation capacity and investment requirements. My results call for a greater consideration of climate adaptation needs in the planning of energy systems of developing countries and in evaluating the trade-off between the central power grid expansion and decentralised systems to achieve universal electrification. Electrification planning must be techno-economically efficient, but it must also consider the political-economic environment where investment needs to be channelled. The fourth essay evaluates the role of governance and regulatory quality in the electricity access modelling framework. In particular, I introduce an Electricity Access Governance Index based on multiple indicators implement it into the PBL’s IMAGE-TIMER electrification model through its modifier effect on private discount rates (a measure of risk and willingness to accept future costs vis-à-vis present costs). The results show that governance and regulatory quality in electricity access have a significant impact on the optimal technological mix and the private investment flows for reaching universal electrification in sub-Saharan Africa. In particular, risky environment crowd out private providers of decentralised energy access solutions with the risk of leaving many without electricity even after 2030. The fifth and final essay takes a nexus perspective in the analysis of the African power sector. It deals with the reliability of the energy system in hydropower-dominated power systems (such as in many countries in Central and East Africa) and the role that climate change and extreme events can exert on it. The essay combines qualitative and quantitative analysis to (i) propose a robust framework to highlight the interdependencies between hydropower, water availability, and climate change, (ii) systematically review the state-of-the art literature on the projected impacts of climate change on hydropower in sub-Saharan Africa, and (iii) provide supporting evidence on past trends and current pathways of power mix diversification, drought incidence, and climate change projections. I find that climate change can affect supply reliability and security in multiple ways. For instance, several major river basins have been drying throughout the twentieth century. Nonetheless, I highlight that diversification has hitherto only been promoted in a limited number of countries. I suggest how integrating variable renewables and hydropower can increase system resilience.

This thesis is made up of four chapters on productivity and efficiency analysis. The first chapter is a critical review of theoretical and empirical literatures related to this broad field, which has attracted a considerable amount of economic research in the last years; the other three chapters are original contributions in different directions. Chapter 2 consists of an extensive Monte Carlo exercise on the misspecification of the inefficiency distribution in stochastic frontier models, Chapter 3 investigates, both theoretically and empirically, the relationship between vertical integration and firm efficiency in the Italian machine tool industry, and, finally, Chapter 4 sheds light on the effect of both inward and outward foreign direct investments on regional productivity growth in Europe. Although each chapter has its own independence, two features characterize the entire thesis: the detection of large differences in production performance both at the micro and aggregate level, and the attempt to relate these differences to other aspects of the production units, starting from economic theory.

This thesis examines the relationship between environmental regulation, innovation, and competitiveness. Specifically, it investigates the impact of regulatory stringency on innovation in the chemical industry by analyzing the evolution of innovative activity in highly regulated technological areas in the European Union from 1976 to 2003. A direct quantitative measure of regulatory impact on innovation was constructed by transforming the economic measurement problem into a technological classification issue. The specific regulation investigated was the EU Council Directive 76/769/EEC, which contains 986 restrictions imposed on the marketing and use of 939 chemical substances. These restrictions were linked to 17 technological fields in the International Patent Classification. The data on patent applications was extracted from the ESPACE Bulletin database maintained by the European Patent Office. Given the increasing regulatory stringency, four questions were investigated: Did regulation spur patenting activity? Has there been a change in the geographical origin of patents? Has there been an increase in patenting concentration? Has there been a change in the direction of the patenting trend? These issues were examined at the aggregated level using descriptive statistics, panel data regressions, and the study of technological trend. Four case studies were conducted to illustrate strategies utilized by European and non-European firms. I found that most restrictions were imposed during the years of 1997 and 2003 and affected mainly technological areas associated with agrochemicals, polymers, and paints and dyes. In overall regulatory stringency impacted positively patenting activity. However, top players were impacted negatively. Consequently, there was a reduction in the concentration of innovative activity in highly regulated technological areas. Ma jor changes occurred in areas in which the largest number of restrictions were imposed. There was an overall increase in innovations associated with new processes and formulations, indicating increased incremental innovation and a shift from patenting in regulated to non-regulated applications. Hence, there was increasing patenting activity in areas that did not depend on novel substances or did not have an opportunity to innovate in non-regulated uses. By contrast, there was a sharp fall in the number of applications in areas in which these conditions did not exist. Two explanations for these results are proposed: “new” technologies benefit from regulatory stringency while “old” technologies are discouraged; regulation spurs the development of substitutes better adapted to the actual regulatory framework. Moreover, this thesis shows that the Porter hypothesis is supported for the chemical industry. Yet, this occurs not because firms innovate under more stringent regulation, but because it stimulates new entrants in the market of innovation.

La crisi finanziaria esplosa nel 2008 è degenerata in un’aspra e duratura ondata recessiva, che ha colpito l’economia reale a livello internazionale. La presente tesi si propone di contribuire alla letteratura econometrica sull’ultima crisi focalizzandosi su due temi ampiamente dibattuti: vincoli finanziari e produttività totale dei fattori. Il manifatturiero italiano si presenta come scenario preferenziale per condurre l’analisi, tenuto conto della struttura produttiva frammentata e della dipendenza delle imprese dal debito bancario. Si cercherà dapprima di analizzare l’impatto dei vincoli finanziari sulle dinamiche manifatturiere durante la crisi, per poi passare a trattare i temi della rigidità finanziaria e degli effetti di contagio che si sono verificati tra le imprese attraverso il canale del credito commerciale, quali determinanti della probabilità di insolvenza. Infine, il tema delle agglomerazioni tra imprese, di tipo geografico e settoriale, sarà analizzato quale fattore cruciale per la formazione di spillover di produttività, insieme alla capacità innovativa del territorio. I risultati confermano il carattere di pervasività dell’ultima recessione, che alterando le dinamiche manifatturiere ha contribuito ad esacerbare gli episodi di insolvenza. Il possedere una base produttiva clusterizzata ed eterogenea può tuttavia rappresentare ancora un punto di forza, persino all’interno di un contesto operativo plasmato dalla crisi. / The financial crisis that erupted in 2008 translated into harsh recessionary effects at an international level, that were passed on to the real economy. A solid recovery is still lagging behind. The dissertation contributes to the econometric literature on the great recession by focusing attention on two debated topics: financing constraints and total factor productivity (TFP). The fragmented and strongly bank-dependent Italian production base is a preferred environment to conduct the analysis. The role played by financing constraints as amplifiers of manufacturing dynamics is firstly investigated. As a second step, financial rigidity of firms and contagion effects that occurred via trade credit interconnections are considered, and jointly modelled as core determinants of distress likelihoods by resorting to spatial econometric techniques. In the last section, geographical and sectoral clustering phenomena are spatially analyzed in order to investigate knowledge spillovers at the micro level. Results highlight the pervasive nature of the last crisis. The harshness of the recessionary effects fostered a change in manufacturing equilibria and caused the proliferation of distress episodes. Nevertheless, a clustered production base still represents a driver for the formation of positive externalities.

La presente tesi, attraverso l’utilizzo di diverse fonti di dati, sia longitudinali che trasversali, contribuisce alla letteratura esistente in materia di lavoro precario, invecchiamento e discriminazione di genere, fornendo evidenza empirica riguardo le conseguenze in termini di salute e benessere della precarietà, del pensionamento e della leadership femminile nel mercato del lavoro. Il primo capitolo esamina la relazione esistente fra insicurezza sul lavoro, prospettive di reimpiego e disagio psicologico, utilizzando dati cross-country provenienti dalle European Working Conditions Surveys del 2010. Il secondo capitolo è dedicato alla stima dell’effetto causale del pensionamento sull’utilizzo dei servizi sanitari in 10 paesi Europei nel periodo 2004-2013. In particolare, il capitolo approfondisce il tema della riduzione del costo opportunità del tempo libero dopo il pensionamento, che può dare luogo ad aumenti improvvisi nell’utilizzo dei servizi sanitari. Il terzo capitolo, infine, studia la relazione esistente tra leadership femminile, pratiche organizzative a livello aziendale e discriminazione di genere per 30 paesi Europei, considerati nel periodo 1995-2010. / The present dissertation, using both longitudinal and cross-sectional data from different sources, contributes to existing literature on precarious employment, aging and gender discrimination providing empirical evidence on the health and wellbeing outcomes of work-related insecurity, retirement and female leadership across European countries. Chapter 1 examines the relationship among perceived job insecurity, employability and psychological distress in Europe, using cross-country data from the 2010 European Working Conditions Surveys. Chapter 2, using SHARE data (from 2004 to 2013) for 10 European countries, is devoted to the analysis of the (causal) effect of retirement on health care utilization. In particular, it explores the existence of a discontinuous change in health investment at the time of retirement, as suggested by the theory, asking whether this ``puzzling'' jump is associated with the drop in the opportunity cost of time induced by retirement. Chapter 3 investigates the association between female leadership, work organization practices and perceived gender discrimination within firms, using EWCS data for 30 European countries for the period 1995-2010.