Cui Zhang (p), Baifang Wang

Luca Buzzanca

Does intercity innovation collaboration contribute to the catch-up of laggard cities? We study this question in China and show that intercity innovation collaboration helps laggard cities catch up with frontier cities. Technological capability improvement is an important underlying mechanism. However, the role of intercity innovation collaboration in catching up varies according to the partner chosen. Collaboration with frontier cities is more important for laggard cities to close the gap with the frontier than collaboration with other laggard cities. Furthermore, we show that intercity innovation collaboration widens the gap between laggard cities close to the frontier and those further from the frontier, with important implications for innovation disparities.

Luca Buzzanca (p), Carlo Caporali

Balázs György Forman

We study how Nigerian mafias exploit the vulnerability of people affected by climatic shocks through human trafficking to increase their illicit activities in Italy. Exploiting two empirical strategies, a shift-share IV and a difference-in-differences approach, we find that climatic shocks occurring in Edo State result in an increase in crimes related to human trafficking in Italy. The effect on crimes becomes significant after three quarters and lasts up to three years. Additionally, it is strongly correlated with the density of Nigerian communities in Italian provinces, suggesting that social networks play a key role in driving trafficking-related crimes. Our findings indicate that climatic shocks can have nontrivial implications for organized crime.