Wessel Vermeulen, Carlo Menon, Rudiger Ahrend (p)

Simona Cafieri

The Autonomous Province of Trento (Trentino) is among the most productive regions in Europe. However, in recent years the productivity gap of Trentino widened by over 20% compared to regions with the same productivity level in 2000. The benchmarking of the drivers of productivity in Trentino with those of “peer” regions point to several policy priorities. They include: reviving productivity in tradable sectors, including through increased internationalisation; increasing the share of the labour force with a tertiary education, and getting more out of public R&D while boosting private sector R&D.

Simona Cafieri (p)

Rudiger Ahrend

The circular economy is a systemic model that aims to limit the production of waste and the use of resources and to reduce the environmental impact of resource extraction right through to the end of a product's life The transition requires a cultural and structural change, a real territorial intelligence: a profound revision and innovation of production, distribution and consumption models are the cornerstones of this change, passing through new business models and the transformation of waste into resources with high added value.
Cities and local territorial areas are strategic places in the development of circular economy approaches capable of making the management of resources (materials, water, energy, soil) more efficient. Urban areas, in particular, play a crucial role in driving sustainability in the production and consumption of goods and services since they are home to more than half (55%) of the world's population generate more than 80% of GDP, are responsible for 75% of natural resource consumption, produce 50% of global waste and 60-80% of greenhouse gas emissions. As indicated by the 2030 Agenda, cities are the engines of innovation and sustainable economic development, but also the battleground for the new challenges of this century, such as population growth, urban sprawl, climate change, waste generation and environmental degradation.
Cities are laboratories for the development of circularity approaches and can be places of experimentation and catalysts for circular transition
The transition of cities and territories towards economic models capable of ensuring economic, environmental and social sustainability requires a step change in collaboration between sectors and between territories themselves, the dissemination of new models of consumption (sharing, reuse, etc.), the involvement of key players in the design and implementation of innovative solutions, as well as the development of technologies, the implementation of sharing platforms and integrated projects, and greater involvement of citizens. In addition, focusing circular development models on local specificities makes it possible to enhance the resources present in the area, nurture virtuous circles of knowledge development and dedicated technologies, and leverage the participation and involvement of local stakeholders.
The purpose of this work is therefore to provide tools for measuring the circular economy through the construction of ad hoc indicators based on official statistical data.

Hyejin Lee (p), Alexander Lembcke

Simona Cafieri

The United Kingdom provided the highest government support for business R&D expenditure among OECD countries in 2018, accounting for 0.4% of its GDP. The UK government aims to further increase domestic public investment in R&D by at least 40% outside the Greater South East regions by 2030, as outlined in the "Levelling Up" white paper. However, government support can potentially reduce private R&D investment simply by replacing private R&D that would have been invested anyway, or by increasing production costs due to input competition such as wage increases for scientists. An important policy question is then whether and to what extent public R&D investment can bring additional private R&D investment. This paper employs a system-GMM approach to estimate the returns on private R&D investment with a focus on UK regions. Using OECD TL2 subnational data spanning from 1998 to 2018, the analyses address three main challenges of the R&D data: the underestimated of UK R&D business expenditure, the inclusion of tax relief in business R&D funding, and the absence of internal R&D funds for the UK higher education sector. Our findings indicate that USD 1 public R&D investment in UK regions could stimulate USD 2.4 private R&D investment in the long-run. The majority of the effect crowds-in within the first five years with the remaining impact gradually materialising over the next 20 years. The returns appear to be high in regions that already invest heavily in R&D, benefitting from agglomeration economies. However, these returns are not limitless. In UK regions, the returns are rather lower in East of England and South East England compared to the other regions, despite their R&D intensity exceeding 2%. Cross-country evidence also shows that countries investing in R&D more than the United Kingdom, such as Korea, Austria, and the United States, do not necessarily exhibit higher returns.

Simona Cafieri (p)

Hyejin Lee

For a long time, the wealth of cities drew the poor from the countryside, giving rise to a so-called rural exodus. Over the centuries, the division of space has become more complex, mainly due to urban expansion. The suburbs of cities expanded, in part due to the growth of suburban housing. The debate on the standard of living of the suburbs is not new. Disadvantaged suburbs are often presented as the areas where hardship accumulates: it is now far from the city, in suburban and rural areas, that poverty is to be found. However, according to official statistics, the peri-urban area, although far from reaching the living standards of affluent inner-city neighborhoods, remains on average largely advantaged. This paper aims to examine the quality of life in cities, suburbs, and rural areas in European countries.
This work presents long-term trends in socioeconomic development in different regions of the world, focusing on the effects of the 2008 financial crisis and the consequences of the COVID-19 crisis and current wars.
The analysis is based on data from social surveys conducted by European and worldwide statistical institutes. It will examine the relationships between environment, life expectancy, education, employment, and poverty in the urban and rural context. With the help of ad-hoc statistical indicators, it will also reveal where people are more satisfied with their quality of life.