Daniele Crotti (p), Jurgena Myftiu

Sofia Wixe

Following the sustainable development paradigm, in the tourism domain the interplay between tourists and resident populations interacts with the social and natural environment. Although many studies focused on residents’ opinions and perception of mass tourism, a scarce attention has been devoted to the role of open-air marketplaces in the understanding of tourism sustainability issues at a local level. In this paper we contribute to the literature on the sustainability impact of marketplaces on the evolution of destinations, and, as a case study, we studied the Mercato di Luino, a historical and traditional open-air marketplace in the province of Varese. We use survey data collected in 2020 among residents in Luino and nearby towns (742 observations). The survey is composed of three main parts. The first section collects information about socio-demographic aspects. The second section includes questions on organizational features of the marketplace linked to tourism activities. In the third section, the survey explores the residents’ perception about the social, economic and environmental sustainability of the marketplace. Following the Downtown Tourism Lifecycle Model, the resident population is divided into four groups, based on two dimensions. The first relates to the places where visitors live, i.e., in-town vs. out-of-town, while the second considers the casual vs. habitual use of the marketplace. For the analysis, ANOVA tests are applied to the mean values of the survey responses among the groups to evaluate their significance. The analysis of four segments of visitors/users of the Mercato di Luino performed in this research provides insightful and promising results about the interplay between sustainability and tourism lifecycle of a destination. From a tourism lifecycle point of view, the results imply that the Mercato di Luino is at different stage of its lifecycle, depending on the sustainability-related view of users. More importantly, we found evidence that the shared perception of social, economic, and environmental features of the marketplace might be mostly affected by the usage frequency of marketplace visitors, and not by their geographical location. From a theoretical perspective, this study paves the way for a conceptualization of a sustainability-based tourism lifecycle.

Yuval Arbel (p)

Daniele Crotti

The objective of the current study is to explain non-compliance to social distancing rules in western societies in the absence of a stringent law enforcement mechanism and vaccines. In the first part of the analysis an evolutionary game theory mechanism of two players is developed. The theoretical model assumes the existence of the Prisoner’s Dilemma due to personal inconveniences associated with mask wearing, hand washing and lockdowns. The model demonstrates that in the absence of sufficient law enforcement mechanism, and regardless of the initial strategy undertaken, one of the three potential equilibria solutions is the convergence of the system to defection of both players. In the second part of the analysis, based on the freedom-house measures, we provide empirical evidence supporting the notion that law enforcement efficiency is higher in autocratic countries. We show the perseverance of higher projected infection rates per 100,000 persons in democratic countries even 8 months after the outburst of the COVID19 pandemic. Given the well-known inclination to cooperate more often than expected by game theory, this real-life outcome of non-compliance is remarkable. Moreover, the recent protests against lockdowns in China might reflect a shift from one equilibrium point (cooperation) to another (non-compliance).

Sofia Wixe (p), Johan Klaesson

Yuval Arbel

We employ sequence analysis to explore the heterogenous labor market paths of entrepreneurial Iraqi immigrants in Sweden, who we follow from their year of immigration (2006-2009) to 2019. To reduce endogeneity, especially reverse causality, individual and geographic characteristics during the first five years after immigration are used to explain the subsequent labor market careers of the Iraqi immigrants. Additionally, in the empirical estimations, we control for the fact that entrepreneurial individuals may be different from the rest of the population. The results show that residing in an entrepreneurial ethnic enclave increases the probability to engage in self-employment, while socioeconomic segregation decreases the chances that the chosen labor market path leads to self-sufficiency in terms of income. Additionally, having self-employed Iraqi neighbors seems to promote mainly necessity entrepreneurs, who show a low degree of participation on the regular labor market. As expected, individuals with a higher education level are more successful on the labor market, and their entrepreneurship is more likely to be driven by opportunity than necessity.