Non-Performing Loans and Macroeconomics Factors: The Italian Case

The purpose of this work is to investigate the influence of macroeconomics determinants on non-performing loans (NPLs) in the Italian banking system over the period 2008Q3–2020Q4. We mainly contribute to the literature by being the first empirical article to study this relationship in the Italian context in the recent period, thus providing fresh evidence on the macroeconomic impact on NPLs, i.e., on the credit risk of Italian banks. By employing the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) cointegration model, we are able to investigate the short and long-run effects of macroeconomic factors on NPLs. The empirical findings show that gross domestic product and public debt have a negative impact on NPLs. On the other hand, we find that the unemployment rate and domestic credit positively influence impaired loans. Finally, we find evidence of the “gamble for resurrection” approach, i.e., Italian banks tend to support “zombie firms”.

Life cycle inventory data for the Italian agri-food sector: background, sources and methodological aspects

Purpose For the development of any life cycle assessment study, the practitioner frequently integrates primary data collected on-field, with background data taken from various life cycle inventory databases which are part of most commercial LCA software packages. However, such data is often not generally applicable to all product systems since, especially concerning the agri-food sector, available datasets may not be fully representative of the site specificity of the food product under examination. In this context, the present work investigates the background, sources and methodological aspects that characterise the most known commercial databases containing agri-food data, with a focus on four agri-food supply chains (olive oil, wine, wheat products and citrus fruit), which represent an important asset for the Italian food sector. Methods Specifically, the paper entails a review of currently available LCI databases and their datasets with a twofold scope: firstly, to understand how agri-food data is modelled in these databases for a coherent and consistent representation of regional scenarios and to verify whether they are also suitable for the Italian context and, secondly, to identify and analyse useful and relevant methodological approaches implemented in the existing LCI databases when regional data are modelled. Results Based on the aforementioned review, it is possible to highlight some problems which may arise when developing an LCI pertaining to the four Italian agri-food supply chains, namely: 1. The need for specific inventory datasets to tackle the specificities of agri-food product systems. 2. The lack of datasets, within the existing DBs, related to the Italian context and to the abovementioned supply chains. In fact, at present, in the currently available LCI DBs, there are very few (or in some cases none) datasets related to Italian wine, olive oil, wheat-based products and citrus fruit. The few available datasets often contain some data related to the Italian context but also approximate data with that of product systems representing other countries. Furthermore, the present study allowed to identify and discuss the main aspects to be used as starting elements for modelling regional data to be included in a future Italian LCI database of the abovementioned four supply chains. Conclusions The results of the present study represent a starting point for the collection of data and its organisation, in order to develop an Italian LCI agri-food database with datasets which are representative of the regional specificities of four agri-food supply chains which play an important role in the Italian economy.

Youth Activism for Climate on and Beyond Social media: Insights from FridaysForFuture-Rome

The FridaysForFuture movement (FFF), launched by Greta Thumberg's school strikes in 2018, has led a new wave of climate activism worldwide. Young people are at the forefront, with social media serving both as mobilizing tools and expressive spaces. Drawing upon literature on youth and digital activism with a generational, situated approach, we account for how both the climate struggle and social media are appropriated by FFF-activists as part of their own youth grassroots politics. Moreover, we explore the activities they mix and the strategies they adopt when moving across online and offline environments. From July 2020 to January 2021, we carried out 6 months of ethnographic work with(in) the FFF-Rome group by blending participant observation of assemblies and protests with digital ethnography on the homonym WhatsApp group. Results’ thematic analysis shows that FFF-activists believe climate activism to be their own fight and social media their own battlefield. A generational understanding of digital climate activism emerges at the intersection of the appropriation of the dispute (climate change) and the digital environments (social media). Findings also account for broader logics and strategies adopted by FFF-activists, on and beyond social media. They move seamlessly between online and offline, spanning across and negotiating with different platforms according to political goals and target audiences. These results contribute to overcoming reductive or marginalizing approaches to youth activism, to legitimizing and situating young activists’ social media usage practices within an array of grassroots political practices, and to understanding how generational belonging affects such practices in the Italian context.

An Econometric Model for the Analysis of the Influence of the Refurbishment Costs on Housing Prices

With reference to the Italian context, the present research intends to analyze the functional relationships between the unit cost of restructuring and the selling prices in the residential segment. The analysis has been contextualized to the three clusters (Northern Italy, Central Italy, Southern Italy and Islands) in which the Italian territory is commonly divided. The case study concerns 965 residential units sold in the first half of 2019 and located in the 103 provincial capitals. The implemented econometric technique is a data-driven method that employs a genetic algorithm and allows the identification of the most influencing factors among the explanatory variables considered. For each cluster, a model has been selected in order to study the influence of unit cost of restructuring on housing prices.

I Correct or Canceling You

This contribution studies the debated terms “politically correct” and “cancel culture” on Twitter and in particular investigates the meaning that people give when they label something or someone as politically correct or indicate a case of cancel culture in the Italian context, where they are not yet widespread as they are in the USA and Britain. A textual analysis of a corpus of tweets selected through a set of hashtags was carried out to identify thematic clusters to understand features and meanings given to these expressions, along with their ways of using in the various situations and contexts. The main results show different meanings of the term, in the negative sense as a limitation of freedom of speech, and in a positive sense as the exclusion of some terms that may offend some people or groups. In this case, the meaning of a word is relative and depends on the situation and context in which it is used. Furthermore, the recourse in the discourses of cancel culture is only rhetorical; there are no actions of cancellation or boycott of someone or something.

Smart Health From the Hospital to the City

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the transition of health systems from “hospital” to “city” thanks to smart devices aimed at health promotion through the deployment of ICT in urban contexts. Worldwide, the pandemic has triggered a rethinking of the healthcare system according to the prevention principle, characterized by the usage of advanced technology, which can widely re-orient markets and public action in the field of public and private health services. The chapter will consider the impacts of such innovations and the challenges for the regulatory framework, with a special focus on the Italian context. First, it outlines the main global and EU strategies for digital healthcare. Second, it focuses on the use of smart devices as tools of health prevention. Third, it highlights critical aspects regarding competition and privacy. Finally, the author reflects upon the centrality of the city as a crucial actor for urban health innovation and its upcoming regulatory challenges.

Small Relative Age Effect Appears in Professional Female Italian Team Sports

The relative age effect (RAE) concerns those (dis)advantages and outcomes resulting from an interaction between the dates of selection and birthdates. Although this phenomenon is well known in a male context, limited data are available in female sports. Thus, the aim of this study was to quantify the prevalence and magnitude of the RAE in a female Italian context at the professional level in basketball, soccer, and volleyball. A total of 1535 birthdates of elite senior players were analyzed overall and separately between early and late career stages. Chi-square goodness-of-fit tests were applied to investigate the RAE in each sport. An asymmetry in birthdates was observed in all sports (Crammer’s V ranged = 0.10–0.12). Players born close to the beginning of the year were 1.62 and 1.61 times more likely to reach first and second Italian divisions of soccer and volleyball, respectively, than those born in the last part of the year. A small over-representation of female athletes born close to the beginning of the year is evident at the senior professional level in all Italian investigated team sports. In soccer, this trend was more evident in the first stage of a senior career.

An Automatic Tool for the Determination of Housing Rental Prices: An Analysis of the Italian Context

In the last decades, some global events such as the economic crisis of 2008 and the COVID-19 emergency of 2020, have generated more attention towards the housing rental market and its capacity to meet several social needs. In order to study the existent demand for houses, then define the interventions on the residential assets to make them more affordable for the most fragile population groups, adequate evaluation tools are required. With reference to the residential property segment of five metropolitan cities located in the Italian territory, the present research is aimed at analyzing the contribution of the most influencing factors on rental prices. In particular, this research refers to the rented properties of the second half of 2019, with a set of variables that represent the intrinsic and extrinsic factors of the local market. The implementation of an automated valuation model allows the determination of the most significant factors and the functional relationships that they have with housing rental fees. The outputs obtained could support the improvement of equitable public housing policies or could guide private investment decisions, such as refurbishment interventions of certain significant factors that could increase the market rental value. This study is the first step in wider research that is currently in progress, which aims to investigate the effects of the existing COVID-19 pandemic on the residential rental market.