Alessandro Palma, Giuliano Marco Federico Rolle (p), Daniela Vuri

Davide Di Marcoberardino

The rapid growth of Prosecco wine production in the Veneto Region (Italy) has intensified pesticide use, raising urgent concerns about maternal health and child neurodevelopment. Although prior epidemiological studies have identified links between prenatal and early-life pesticide exposure and adverse birth outcomes, limited evidence exists on its long-term cognitive effects in high-income European countries.
This study addresses that gap by analyzing how municipal-level pesticide restrictions—enforced under Regional Executive Resolution DGR no. 1379/2012 of the Veneto Region—impact children’s health at birth and their later-life cognitive development. The policy-driven staggered introduction of pesticide restrictions has generated variation in exposure levels across municipalities and over time.
The findings indicate that reduced in-utero and early-life pesticide exposure is associated with higher mathematics scores in early grades, highlighting the importance of perinatal environmental factors in shaping human capital. These results underscore the critical role of strict environmental regulations in safeguarding vulnerable populations. They also suggest that sustainable pest management not only benefits public health but contributes to improved educational trajectories

Mariagrazia D'Angeli, Davide Di Marcoberardino (p)

Miriam Berretta

Climate-related disasters have increasingly drawn global attention due to their devastating effects on communities, infrastructure, and economic activity. Recent extreme weather events in regions such as Emilia-Romagna (Italy) and the Valencian Community (Spain) underscore the growing risks associated with climate change. The latest IPCC reports confirm that human-induced climate change has intensified the frequency and magnitude of such events. Economic growth and population expansion further contribute to rising vulnerabilities, while mitigation efforts remain insufficient. Within this complex framework, this study investigates the effects of repeated climate-related hazards on socio-economic vulnerability at the local level, specifically focusing on European NUTS-3 regions. While previous research has to some extent examined multiple hazard risks, there remains a gap in large-N empirical studies assessing the cumulative impact of consecutive disasters on socio-economic vulnerability. Given the increasing likelihood of spatially and temporally linked extreme events, it is critical to understand their influence on adaptive capacity and resilience for informing disaster risk management policies and strengthening adaptive capacity at the local level. Using the Joint Research Centre's (JRC) socio-economic vulnerability indicator, as developed by Sibilia et al. (2024) and HANZE flood data, this study aims to assess the relationship between disaster recurrence and vulnerability. Preliminary results indicate that the first disaster event significantly increases socio-economic vulnerability, while subsequent disasters exhibit diminishing effects, except in social vulnerability, which continues to deteriorate. This suggests potential adaptation mechanisms at play, though social vulnerability remains a persistent challenge.

Miriam Berretta (p), Daria Denti

Carlo Caporali

This study investigates the impact of exposure to natural hazards—specifically floods, cyclones, and tornadoes—on the incidence of violence against women and girls (VAWG) in Mexico from 2008 to 2023. While the nexus between disasters and violence against women has long been denounced by international organizations, causal quantitative studies remain limited. Some studies have found an effect of droughts and earthquakes on VAWG, but to the best of our knowledge, no prior research has examined the effects of floods, cyclones, and tornadoes on VAWG using counterfactual methods.

To identify instances of VAWG at the municipal level, we utilized official hospitalization data provided by the Mexican government’s health department, classified according to the 10th International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10). These data span from 2008 to 2023, encompassing 34,348 violent events across 602 municipalities. Following established literature, we selected 495 codes considered likely to be associated with episodes of VAWG. Data on disasters were taken from the Mexican National Centre to Prevent Disasters (CENAPRED) by selecting all events classified as disasters. The dataset reports 7,922 events between 2000 and 2023, across 1,578 municipalities. Other variables related to political violence, organized crime violence, social-unrest-related violence, share of female population, and share of unemployment by gender were used to run the balancing tests. The final dataset includes all the variables matched by municipality and aggregated at the monthly level.

Our study investigates the causal relationship between exposure to the above-mentioned disasters and the occurrence of VAWG by employing a staggered difference-in-difference methodology. Following the recent development of the staggered diff-in-diff, we ran a two-way fixed effects model that allows for heterogeneous treatment effects between groups or over time. The estimation considered two settings: the hit by the disaster using a disaster binary indicator, and the different intensity of the disaster (continuous treatment) according to the economic effect and deaths caused by each disaster.

Preliminary results show a significant increase of 0.41 in VAWG hospitalizations four months after the occurrence of the disaster. The results hold with different lengths of the treatment. Several factors may contribute to the delay in the observed increase. For instance, in the aftermath of a disaster, hospitals may be overwhelmed, and women may prioritize caring for their families, preventing victims of violence from seeking medical attention. Finally, incidents of violence may gradually rise, requiring hospitalization after some time.

Carlo Caporali (p), Cecilia Castaldo, Alessandro Palma

Giuliano Marco Federico Rolle

Our paper addresses this gap and sheds light on the complex dynamics between a changing climate and collective behavior by conducting a large-scale investigation of the causal impact of extreme weather events on electoral outcomes (turnout and electoral preferences) in Italy from 2004 to 2022. Our results show that exposure to extreme weather events shortly before an election significantly decreases voter turnout in regional, national, and European elections, while increasing electoral participation in municipal elections. Additionally, we find that green parties gain electoral support relative to both left-wing and right-wing coalitions.