Ricardo Firetti (p), Eder Pinatti, Patrícia Helena, Nogueira Turco

Bustamante Lemus Carlos

Brazil is a continental country with more than 200 million habitants and a population concentrated in the southeast/south axis. The food consumption habits of these people are influenced by the ethnic, cultural and financial diversity of the families. Recent research results from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics on household budgets (POF 2017-2018) showed that the household purchase of fish by Brazilians was 2.8 kilograms per capita per year. The number is much lower than that indicated by the FAO-UN of 12 kg/habitant/year. In order to understand the consumption behavior of Brazilian families from different income classes, this work investigated the main types of fish purchased and the presentation of the products in each of them. Income classes are: up to €424 [Class F]; €424 to €635 [Class E); €635 to €1,272[Class D]; €1,272 to €2,120 [Class C]; €2,120 to €3,180 [Class B]; Above €3,180 [Class A]. Secondary data from the 2017-2018 POF (table 8157) were used, which present the “yearly household food purchase per capita by total income classes”. In the six income classes, per capita acquisition of fish was identified; subgroups (freshwater and saltwater fish); fish products (types of fish) and forms of presentation (fresh fish, fresh fillets and frozen fillets). The results obtained were expressed in kg/per capita/year. The highest per capita acquisition rates of fish are from Classes F; A and E; with respectively 3.36; 3.23 and 3.1 kg. Classes D and C had the lowest fish purchase rates with 2.43 and 2.32 kg. In Brazil, there is no direct correlation between the increase in income and the increase in the purchase of fish. Families with income in Class A buy more saltwater fish when compared to other classes; and the same occurs with Class F in relation to fresh fish, either whole or in the form of fillets. There is a correlation between the income level and the quantities of products purchased in the form of Fillets for family home consumption, in which Class F has a value of 0.11 kg and Class A of 1.1 kg/per capita/ year. The consumption of Fresh Tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum) and its hybrids stands out, a species native to Brazil (Amazon) and raised in captivity through aquaculture with complete feeds, usually in small and medium-sized fish farms. Families in Classes B, E and F had household consumption of Fresh Tambaqui estimated between 0.20 and 0.23 kg/per capita/year.

Ibolya Török (p), József Benedek, Valér Veres

Ricardo Firetti

Economic convergence has usually been considered as a process of catching up of less developed regions towards core regions. However, economic convergence is not able to express the complexity of change in human well-being and quality of life. Therefore, we expand the use of the convergence concept beyond the traditional GDP-based approach taking into consideration social variables as well. More exactly, we test in this paper whether there is a social or economic convergence process towards a homogenous stable state/economy in Romania in the period 1990-2020. In order to depict the social and economic convergence of the analyzed territorial units we have applied a four-step econometric model. First, we have applied one of the most commonly used method for estimating convergence, namely the σ and β-convergence statistics, also considering the spatial econometrics estimation method in order to test the existence of spatial dependence. In order to point out that several territorial units tend to show a homogenous growth/development path or form clubs of convergence, we have applied the log t convergence approach. The results suggest that economic indicators (GDP/capita, income/capita) tend to diverge, while some of the social indicators (life expectancy of birth, secondary education) have a tendency to converge. Further on, the analysis also shows that the formation of convergence clubs is stronger in the middle/average- and least developed regions, the well-developed ones having unique development paths.

Luca Bettarelli, Davide Furceri, Pietro Pizzuto, Khatereh Yarveisi (p)

Ibolya Török

The strength of fiscal spillovers has been the subject of intense policy debate, especially in Europe, as it is crucial for assessing the desirability of fiscal policy coordination and underpins the architecture of fiscal policy under the Stability and Growth Pact. Although fiscal spillovers across countries have received increasing attention in recent years, very little is known on transnational country-to-region fiscal spillovers. To fill this gap, this paper examines how fiscal shocks in a given economy affect foreign regions through regional trade linkages, by applying the local projection method by Jordà (2005) to a panel of 132 NUTS-2 regions in 15 European countries during the period 2001-2020.
To identify fiscal shocks, we follow the approach of Auerbach and Gorodnichenko (2013), and we use the forecast errors of actual government spending as reported in the October issue of the IMF World Economic Outlook for the same year. These forecast errors are further purged from any predictable component available at the time of the forecast, by regressing them on the lags of output and government spending and taking the residuals.
Data on regional GDP are taken from the Annual Regional Database of the European Commission (ARDECO), whereas data on trade are taken from a novel database developed by Thissen et al. (2019), which provides information on bilateral trade flows for EU regions in 2013, disaggregated by sectors of activity.
We find that countries-to-regions fiscal spillovers are positive, statistically significant, persistent, and non-negligible in size. The magnitude of the fiscal spillovers, however, varies over time and across regions. Fiscal spillovers tend to be larger when the recipient region experiences a recession, when monetary policy of the recipient country is at the zero-lower-bound, and when the recipient region and the source country are both part of the European Monetary Union (EMU).

Evina Sofianou (p), Georgios Aretoulis

Khatereh Yarveisi

Polycentricity is a multilevel concept referring to the interlinkages among neighboring spatial entities with common characteristics, creating synergies and spatial networks. Also, polycentricity is interpreted in two dimensions, the morphological, reflecting the nodal characteristics’ aspect and the functional, examining the spatial interactions between the nodes. Focusing on the city scale, urban polycentricity is one form of polycentricity with increasing momentum in academic research and strategic planning, especially during the last decades. It is anticipated that polycentric urban structures could result in improved city performance through the equal distribution of various urban performances. Hence, spatial structures based on relatively regionalized and polycentric patterns could stimulate urban and regional performance on a more sustainable basis.

Cultural heritage is a crucial indicator of integration in a polycentric network fostering cultural, social and economic exchange. Architectural heritage with its connotative meanings as part of cultural heritage is regarded as a ‘living organism’ and dominant component of cultural evidence. Architectural assets could be considered as nodes of polycentric networks able to stimulate synergies for economic and social development.

This paper investigates the challenges of implementing polycentric urban planning based on architectural cultural heritage. The Region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace in Northern Greece, with rich architectural heritage, is selected for the implication of the proposed methodology. The paper focuses on morphological polycentricity and the potential inherent interconnections among selected architectural assets of the 18th and 19th century as nodes of the networks.

Following this research strand, a polycentricity index is introduced as a methodological tool for networking architectural cultural assets on urban and inter-urban scale. In this context the methodological approach of multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) is utilized to compare alternatives with strengths or weaknesses to the objectives set. The MCDA methodology is used in this paper for the quantification of qualitative values and assemblage of the degree of polycentricity and architectural heritage attributes, in order to construct the new polycentricity and architectural assets index. The ultimate goal is to propose polycentric networks based on the area’s architectural heritage for further sustainable regional development opportunities.

Francesca Bitonti (p), Filippo Accordino, Angelo Mazza, Luigi Scofani

Evina Sofianou

Since 2014, the National Strategy for Inner Areas (SNAI) has categorized Italian municipalities based on their distance from "poles", defined as centers that provide some essential services (at least one hospital with an emergency room, secondary schools, a train station). The "inner areas" (AI) are municipalities located at a certain distance from the poles. The SNAI model has been praised in scientific debates, but it appears to be strongly focused on the provision of the three indicated services. The model neglects demographic, economic, and infrastructural accessibility differences that characterize territories and guide development policies. In this work, we aim to provide a more nuanced representation of the phenomenon and municipalities, going beyond the availability of the three SNAI services. In particular, we propose a reclassification of the AI by selecting some indicators related to two thematic areas: a) accessibility to infrastructure and services, b) demographic and socioeconomic context. Dimensionality reduction is achieved through principal component analysis. Distances are calculated using the Google Maps API. The online platform provides distance matrices that take into account travel time based on traffic conditions, determined by mobility intensity, accidents, as well as road maintenance and alignment. Google Maps, therefore, allows for a more realistic calculation of the temporal distance between locations than traditional sources. The reclassification is applied to municipalities in Sicily (Italy). On the island, economic globalization has exacerbated the contrast between metropolitan areas and depopulation of inner areas in recent decades. The objective of this work is to reclassify Sicilian municipalities based on their degree of peripherality, infrastructural scarcity, and demographic and economic difficulties. The proposed classification is intended as an alternative to SNAI and is not competitive. However, our method is entirely different, based on a different theoretical premise and a greater number of indicators. The initial results show a more detailed division of areas compared to the one that emerged from SNAI. Specifically, it is possible to highlight the critical issues of municipalities in a more precise manner. This could be of great help in developing targeted intervention plans, minimizing waste.

Bustamante Lemus Carlos (p), Andrés Rosales Roldán

Francesca Bitonti

Public policies for peripheral centres on the influential area of a railroad megaproject at Yucatan Peninsula: Challenge for technological innovation”

By: Carlos Bustamante Lemus and Roldán Andrés Rosales

Abstract
The “Tren Maya” is one of the emblematic megaprojects announced by the Mexican Government from the beginning of its administration (2018-2024). It is a railroad Project aimed at connecting most the four primary cities and most of the medium-sized semi-rural towns along the Mayan Peninsula on the south-south-eastern macro-region of Mexico throughout more than 3000 km of railroads. One of the most important objectives of such a Project is boosting the tourist activities which are being a crucial economic activity for Yucatan since the construction of Cancun as the first touristic centre (1973) in the Mexican Caribbean shores.
This project has been ordered to FONATUR (the National Fund for the Tourist Development). However, as most of the government projects and programs in Mexico, and perhaps in many developing countries, enabled a uni-sectoral project. This means that FONATUR is the only responsible to direct, finance and coordinate the public works of such a magnificent infrastructure project, which is supposed that such government agency should be responsible to coordinate to other several government and private local institutions, whose main tasks could be to operate some other complementary works, such as secondary roads connecting the peri-urban towns to the railway stations along the train’s route, and moreover, some supplementary urban infrastructure and equipment programmes to them. All these works, either by the TM itself, or by the complementary institutions works, could be benefitting those small towns from the technical innovation to be programmed and implemented to them.

Our concern in this work is that the low participation of other public institutions could generate a bias and only benefit a small population, since a more comprehensive policy is required, which not only benefits businessmen, but also the population living there.