Camilla Civardi (p), Lorena M. D'Agostino, Claudia Ghisetti, Erica Santini, Jacopo Staiano

Mateusz Kowalski

The twin transition (TT), which integrates digitalization and environmental sustainability, is increasingly shaping economic and societal transformations. While substantial research examines digital and green transitions at the firm level, fewer studies analyze their adoption at the local level, particularly in Italy’s local production systems (LPSs), which play a central role in fostering innovation and growth. This paper addresses this gap by investigating the factors underlying the adoption of digital, green, and twin practices across Italian provinces.
To do so, we exploit a novel dataset, the Place Leaders of Twin Transition in Italian Local Manufacturing Systems (PLOTTI), which integrates data from ISTAT’s 2022 business census, the national database of state aids (RNA), and Moody’s AIDA business database. PLOTTI allows for an analysis of firm-level adoption patterns and the distribution of public funding across provinces. Our empirical strategy employs a cross-sectional econometric model, incorporating a Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) to capture the dispersion of public funds, along with additional controls for economic size, industrial specialization, and spatial spillovers.
This study contributes to the growing debate on TT by examining the role of financial support in fostering green and digital transformations at the local level. Given the importance of public interventions in shaping innovation ecosystems, our findings may offer insights for policymakers on the design of funding strategies to enhance sustainable and digital transitions within LPSs.

Krzysztof Rogatka, Mateusz Kowalski (p)

Eva Gossiaux

Over half of our planet's population lives in cities - landscapes strongly transformed by humans, struggling with many problems. The most crucial ones include the negative effects of climate change. Over the last decades, new visions of urban development have been created to reverse these negative effects. One such vision is a biophilic city where one does not visit nature; one lives in nature.
This paper presents the author's original research, the aim of which was to determine:
resources, accessibility, and perception of green urban areas (GUAs) in Toruń (Poland). According to the author, these three elements are the initial determinants of the biophilicity of cities. Using the 3-30-300 concept, research assumptions were constructed regarding the first two elements: (1) the share of GUAs in the total area of the city and each urban unit is at least 30%; (2) the share of the zone 300 m to the nearest GUAs in the total area of the city and each urban unit (after excluding GUAs themselves from the total area) is at least 50%. The assumption regarding (3) perception is the strong attachment of city inhabitants to nature and the high assessment of GUAs.
To verify the assumptions, geospatial analyses were performed in the QGIS software. The research area constitutes the city of Toruń, divided into twenty urban planning units (UPUs). Data from publicly available sources were used for the analyses, e.g., Urban Atlas (UA), and Open Street Map (OSM). The research's time scope covered the years 2018-2022. Additionally, a survey was conducted among city inhabitants (N=525), which concerned the perception of green areas (February-March 2024).
The analyses confirmed the research assumptions (1) and (2) for the entire city area. The constructed theses have not been confirmed in relation to all UPUs. It should be concluded that the resources and accessibility of GUAs in Toruń are generally good - they exceed the established limit values of indicators. However, unevenness in their distribution was observed. There are UPUs with very high indicators, and small resources and poor accessibility of GUAs characterize others. As for assumption (3), it was also not completely fulfilled. The city's inhabitants were strongly attached to nature, but GUAs' assessment should be considered average.

Eva Gossiaux (p), Mohamed Bahlali

Hiroaki Shirayanagi

Urban air pollution poses multifaceted challenges with substantial health, economic and social repercussions. Although previous research has examined its impacts, the impacts of air pollution and air quality policies on urban spatial structure remains an understudied area, requiring an integrated approach. This paper advances understanding by integrating realistic atmospheric dispersion into a novel and unified urban equilibrium model of location and travel mode choices, incorporating the interdependence of location choices, economic activities, commuting patterns, and pollution. The distribution of pollution emissions, represented by residential areas, firms and the commuting flows between them, is determined endogenously in the model, affecting in turn the attractiveness of certain areas and resulting in heterogeneous pollution exposure.

Using several sources of microdata and transportation surveys, we calibrate this model to assess the impact on air quality and spatial structure of the Grand Paris Low Emission Zone (LEZ), a policy restricting highly polluting vehicles in the strongly monocentric metropolitan area. The results highlight that the LEZ significantly reduces the average exposure to NOx pollution but also reveal the potential of the LEZs to induce relocation patterns, influencing pollution emissions and exposure differentially between geographic areas. The population density increases in the LEZ area and particularly within Paris, due to higher commuting disutility and lower ambient pollution. However, employment follows the opposite trend though the magnitude of the variations are much smaller.
The welfare analysis reveals a 13\% aggregate welfare loss when accounting for relocation, contrasting with a 1\% welfare gain in a naive model accounting for travel mode switch but ignoring relocation responses. This underscores the importance of incorporating general equilibrium effects in policy evaluation. In addition, the analysis shows that policies that aim to reduce air pollution levels in highly polluted areas can have positive and negative spillover effects on neighboring areas. Finally, counterfactual exercises suggest that complementary transport policies, such as fare adjustments and infrastructure expansion, could mitigate the economic costs induced by the LEZ.

Hiroaki Shirayanagi (p), Takeshi MATSUYAMA, Yukisada KITAMURA

Frank van Oort

　The population of Japan has been declining since 2004 and the average age of the population is expected to become increasingly older. The number of emergency calls in Japan has been increasing every year , and has about 1.94 times in the past 24 years (from 3.93 million calls in 1999 to 7.64 million calls in 2023). Moreover, the travel time from the fire station to the location requested by the ambulance has about 1.66 times in the past 21 years (from 6.2 minutes in 2001 to 10.3 minutes in 2022), and the travel time required to arrive at the hospital has about 1.65 times in the past 21 years (from 28.5 minutes in 2001 to 47.2 minutes in 2022), so the burden of emergency transport operations has increased significantly in recent years.
　Based on this background, the purpose of this study is to quantitatively discuss the optimal allocation of fire stations and firefighting units from the viewpoints of emergency transport workload in the Kochi City Fire Department. In this study, total transport time per fire station, firefighting unit, and time zone is calculated. The transport time is the sum of time running from the fire station to the location requested by the ambulance, time staying the location requested by the ambulance and time running from the location requested by the ambulance to arrive at the hospital and is an indicator of the workload of emergency transport. We summarize the issues that each station faces regarding workload, and propose measures to improve the assignment of units.
　As a result, among the eight stations (four main stations, one branch station, and three sub-stations) in the Kochi City Fire Department, it was the Minami Main Station that presented the over-workload. The total transport time per firefighting unit was 86,044 minutes. The value is the highest among all firefighting units, especially between 9:00 and 21:00. Furthermore, the location of the Minami Main Station, which covers a wide area and is separated from other stations, made it difficult to improve the situation by reorganizing the stations. Furthermore, the arrival time at the hospital is longest among all firefighting units in all time zones, and it was possible to decreasing the workload per unit by working two firefighting units between 9:00 and 21:00.

Frank van Oort (p)

Camilla Civardi

This paper analyzes the economic impact of very large distribution centers (XXL DCs) on regional economies in the East-Southeast Freight Corridor of the Netherlands, the country’s logistics hub and “Gateway to Europe.” Using detailed geolocation data on XXL DCs and comprehensive Dutch employment records, we employ a difference-in-differences (DiD) approach to assess whether indirect employment benefits can be causally attributed to XXL DCs, as suggested by place-based policy and agglomeration theory. Our findings indicate no causally identifiable indirect employment effects at either the regional or municipal level.

Regarding sector diversity, we observe statistically significant rebalancing effects at the municipal level. However, further analysis suggests this is likely a spurious correlation rather than evidence of a causal relationship, challenging narratives that portray XXL DCs as drivers of economic monotony. Unobserved variables and underlying trends remain more plausible explanations.

These findings have implications for the governance and policy surrounding XXL DC attraction, subsidies, and development. They call into question the economic benefits often cited by local governments and highlight the need for rescaling decision-making to both national and municipal levels. We advocate for bolder, more interactive governance approaches to address the epistemic uncertainty surrounding XXL DCs’ economic impact.