Xavier Fageda (p), Jordi Teixidó

Guido de Blasio

In this paper, we investigate the effect of the EU’s Emission Trading System (EU ETS) on actual technology diffusion using reliable, comparable metrics of technology change. To do so, we focus on the European commercial aviation sector and analyze how the EU ETS affects actual emission intensity (kg of CO2 per seat-km), aircraft model choice and aircraft retrofit decisions (winglets). We use data on the universe of flights in Europe and neighboring countries. To identify the impact of the EU ETS, we exploit the policy change introduced when limiting the scope of the scheme for aviation to flights within the European Economic Area, regardless of airline’s nationality. This policy change provides us with a group of flights that can be used as a control for our analysis. We use a difference-in-differences strategy to compare changes in terms of technological and retrofitting available options in the aircraft fleets operating on the EU ETS regulated routes with those made by our control group between 2010 and 2019. Our results show that the EU ETS improved average emission intensity (kg of CO2 per seat-km) by a statistically significant, but environmentally negligible, 2–4%. The average effect is low because technology change only has an impact a few years after policy implementation; yet, this technology change occurs earlier than it would have done without a carbon pricing policy in place.

Elżbieta Zysk (p)

Xavier Fageda

The global trend of urban population growth, climate change, and the energy crisis are a serious challenge for local governments and are prompting them to take action for sustainable development. Local authorities will have to respond to the needs and preferences of society, and in particular to activities that contribute to environmental and climate protection through innovative infrastructure solutions including: using renewable energy sources. Therefore, the paper sets a research goal of: improving the quality of life of urban residents in the context of sustainable development. The paper used a survey questionnaire to identify the needs of the local community and a field search. The final result was a presentation of universal projects that meet the assumptions of sustainable urban development, developed on the example of one Polish city. The projects considered the requirements of local residents, including proposed infrastructure solutions using renewable energy sources as an integral part of concern for the future of society, the environment and the climate of each city.

Daniela Bragoli (p), Davide Fedreghini, Tommaso Ganugi, Giovanni Marseguerra

Elżbieta Zysk

In this paper the aim is to analyze the role of transport infrastructure proximity in fostering companies’ sustainability practices. One stream of the literature has focused on the role that infrastructure has in promoting local productivity and consumption, the relocation of businesses and households, and local growth patterns (Blanquart and Koning, 2017). Another stream has investigated the role of proximity on the innovative performance of firms through the concept of agglomeration economies (Boschma and Frenken, 2010; Tubiana et al., 2022). To our knowledge not many papers have analyzed the relation of accessibility (measured as infrastructure proximity) on sustainability practices of firms. Our paper is closely related to Chen et al. (2021) who study the effects of transportation infrastructure development on firms’ CSR performance in China.
The closeness of the firm to the infrastructure can increase firms’ sustainability practices since infrastructure brings public attention and pressure. With reduced barriers to information sharing and increased transparency, stakeholders can better know the firm, express their opinions, adopt actions to put pressure on firms and expect firms to guarantee their maximum interests. Therefore, the enhanced accessibility of information leads to a more competitive environment and to higher operational pressures (Delgado-Ceballos et al., 2012).
We study this relation using a unique survey integrated with balance sheet information from AIDA Bureau van Dijk. The survey of around 50 question is conducted on a sample of almost 300 SMEs of the Province of Brescia (Italy). The questions concern firms’ sustainability activities regarding environmental, social, and governance issues. By means of factor analysis, we construct a sustainability index, and we regress it on the distance in Km that each firm has from the nearest motorway entrance. We also consider some control variables such as leverage, ROA, age, whether the sector is regulated, sector dummies and municipalities dummies.
Results show that indeed firm proximity to the infrastructure increases sustainability practices especially when the latter are addressed towards social matters. In addition, results point out that larger and more profitable firms together with more concentrated sectors, which are less influenced by stakeholders’ interests, are characterized by a smaller effect (moderating effect). We address the omitted variable problem by adopting a sample splitting approach used in the literature (see for example Aghion et al. 2012).

Guido de Blasio (p), Guglielmo Barone, Carlo Ciccarelli, David Chilosi

Daniela Bragoli

There is a long-standing debate on the economic consequences of Italian unification in 1861 on the country’s dual development. This paper uses a new cross-country historical dataset relating to the 19th century to estimate the impact of unification on the economies of Centre-North and the South with a novel approach: the synthetic control method. We find that over the fifty years following the birth of the unified state, neither area drew discernable benefit from unification in terms of GDP per capita, and that and consolidation caused a delayed industrialization. The South, however, benefited from a strong spread of rail infrastructure, while the Centre-North enjoyed a pronounced increase in literacy. Our results support the views that the benefits of a larger market were overall small and that the cost of nation-building was significant. They point to a crucial role for non-economic forces as drivers of unification nationalism.