Auswahl der wissenschaftlichen Literatur zum Thema „Finance (Public), Italy“

The paper deals with the historical reconstruction of the relation between the Austrian economist Emil Sax and the Italian economists of his generation. It is focused on three episodes. The first concerns the introduction of marginal analysis in public finance, seeing the works of Maffeo Pantaleoni (1883) and Sax (1887) as of primary significance. The second is about the reception accorded to the 1887 Sax's work in Italy by Giuseppe Ricca-Salerno (1887), and by Augusto Graziani (1887). The third relates to the development of a pure theory of public finance, and concerns the works of Sax (1887) and Antonio De Viti De Marco (1888). This analysis indicates that school rivalries were responsible for the different reactions of Italian economists to Sax's work.

Affordable housing is increasingly developed, financed and managed by a mix of state, third-sector, market and community actors. This has led to the emergence of various hybrid governance and finance arrangements. This development can be seen as part of a general long-term neoliberal trend in government policies, and social, cultural and economic developments. It is therefore likely that the hybridity and variety of governance and finance of affordable housing will continue to grow. This article discusses innovative hybrid arrangements from Austria, England and Italy, in which governments, private and non-profit actors collaborate to increase the supply of affordable housing. These cases illustrate how the provision of affordable housing in a neoliberal context can benefit from the involvement of market actors and communities. Nevertheless, they also show that governments continue to play a crucial role in initiating and facilitating these arrangements.

Abstract James Buchanan came to Italy in 1955 as Fulbright visiting professor until July 1956 and made his research at the library of the Bank of Italy. He visited the University of Pavia, a quite famous center for public finance studies, still directed by Benvenuto Griziotti. On that occasion I became acquainted with professor Buchanan and our longlasting friendship started soon. On his itinerary from the political economy perspective to public choice that James Buchanan did undertake, after the Italian 1955-56 visit, he has written: «After Italy I was prepared, intellectually, psychologically and emotionally to join in an entrepreneurial venture with my Virginia colleague Warren Nutter, a venture aimed at bringing renewed emphasis to ‘political economy’ in a classical sense. And from these beginnings, the more directed research spin-off into the ‘economics of politics’ initiated jointly with my colleague Gordon Tullock, now seems a natural progression»

The aim of the article is to compare the situation of public finance in the twelve largest European economies, i.e. Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Poland, Belgium and Austria. In addition to debt and budget balance indicators the author analyzes social and public expenditure and total budgetary revenues indicators, as well as revenues from property and income taxes as well as the related to production and imports. The key determinants of a Europe-wide trend of permanent increase in borrowing countries are indicated, too.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the Public Private Partnerships (PPP) in Italy in order to highlight challenges and opportunities for a more effective adoption of PPP in Italy. In particular we analyze three key aspects that affect the PPP adoption and implementation, namely the institutional, organizational, and financial ones, and their changes over time. Design/methodology/approach – To reach the aim, we have conducted an empirical research, gathering qualitative and quantitative relevant information, to characterize three key dimensions affecting the PPP adoption and its effective implementation, namely the institutional, organizational, and financial dimension. Findings – The analysis of PPP in Italy reveals that, although it is a relatively recent practice, its use is widely spread in delivering public infrastructures. Nevertheless, there are still some shortcomings, related to administrative, financial, and legal issues, that make the application and use of PPP, although considerable in size, less effective and efficient in Italy than in some other countries. In order to overcome these limitations, different interventions are required in order to strength the practices and advance the body of knowledge. Practical implications – The study formulates useful recommendations for an effective implementation of PPP based on the analysis of the main constraints for the PPP's development in Italy. Originality/value – The study overcomes the gap of the existing literature on the Italian PPP that have analyzed the phenomenon under two different approaches. Some researchers have investigated the key aspects characterizing PPPs, by adopting a mono-dimensional perspective. Other studies have analyzed the extent of adoption and diffusion of PPP in Italy, by presenting data on PPP projects by sector and/or by types. This paper contributes to fill this gap by providing both a comprehensive analysis of PPP, based on three key dimensions characterizing the PPP adoption and implementation, as well as by presenting an updated picture of the PPP in Italy.

Abstract Cesare Cosciani, the leading Italian public finance scientist recently passed over, is the author of numerous publications (about two hundred, among books and articles) covering many subjects. This paper refers to some contributions given by him to the theory of public finance, as well as to the fiscal reform in Italy. Finally, Cosciani’s remarkable activity as a professor is mentioned with reference to both his successful textbook and the influence exercised by him on his students.

Abstract Fausto, D. - De Bonis, V. (eds), 2003, The Theory of Public Finance in Italy from the Origins to the 1940s, special issue of Il pensiero economico italiano, XI, 2003, Pisa-Roma, Istituti Editoriali e Poligrafici Internazionali, pp. 286, p.n.a.

The sovereign debt-­‐crises that recently unfolded in Europe highlight how incompletely we understand why prosperous developed countries persistently accumulate debt even in the face of risk of fiscal turmoil. Scholarly research explored why countries run deficits, but it remains unexplained why countries fail to put their fiscal houses in order once public debt reaches potentially dangerous proportions. This thesis argues that the key to the problem of excessive debt accumulation is the lack of compromise among powerful socio-­‐economic groups within the polity about the distribution of the necessary fiscal sacrifices. As long as each group finds it expedient to resist spending cuts and tax increases that place part of the burden of consolidation on its members, stabilization is delayed and debt is allowed to grow. The readiness of groups to reach a compromise and accept a share of the fiscal pain is a function of the economic harm each suffers from the side-­‐effects of fiscal imbalances, such as high inflation or declining international competitiveness. Therefore, the insulation of socio-­‐ economic actors from such side-­‐effects delays stabilization. This perspective sheds new light on unintended consequences of EMU-­‐membership. This explanation is couched in a society-­‐centred analysis of policy making. The thesis identifies coalitions of societal interest to explain policy choices, along the lines laid down in Gourevitch’s Politics in Hard Times (1986) and it uses Alesina and Drazen’s (1991) war of attrition model of delayed stabilization to analyse the costs and benefits for socio-­‐economic groups of resisting fiscal pain. Using this approach, it provides theoretically guided historical analyses of Belgium’s and Italy’s experiences with excessive debt accumulation in the 1980s, consolidation in the 1990s and mixed results in the 2000s, demonstrating how the interests of societal groups shaped the politics of fiscal policy-­‐making and investigating the effect of the EMU accession on fiscal outcomes.

The thesis “Fiscal forecasting in Italy” is comprised of three main chapters in which is analyzed, from an empirical point of view, several issues related to public finance forecasts, with an application to Italy. Chapter II, “Accuracy of fiscal forecasts in Italy” is focused on one of the most important aspects of the new Treaty: it requires that the decisions and recommendations taken by the European Commission are no longer be based on outcomes but on forecasts. In this chapter, I evaluate whether fiscal forecasts for Italy are accurate and econometrically efficient. I focus on a large number of deficit forecasts for Italy that come from a variety of sources, including both public and private agencies as well as Italian and international institutions. I analyse the extent of the discrepancies between the yearly released deficit on GDP and its forecast in Italy from 1/1992 to 12/2011. I conduct two types of analysis. In the quantitative analysis, I carry out different accuracy tests to detect which organization is the best forecaster and in what part of the year better results are published. I also compare forecasters’ performance against a naïve benchmark model, which provides a minimum level of accuracy. In the qualitative analysis, I consider the quality of the forecasts and I test efficiency, unbiasedness and serial correlations. I conclude that all fiscal forecasters for Italy provide unbiased and inefficient forecasts. In general, forecast errors do not persist in a regular way. The most relevant result of this analysis is that private forecasters are frequently more accurate than national and international ones. In Chapter III, “Combine to compete: improving fiscal forecast accuracy over time”, take advantage of the information contained in all individual budget forecasts analysed in the previous chapter to improve their accuracy. I do this by projecting combined forecasts through pooling the judgment and expertise of the forecasters. Following this idea of improving the forecasting accuracy, I apply a variety of combination techniques, both simple and advanced, which account for past forecasting performance, to compute a combined forecast. I look at a same dataset which is analysed in the previous Chapter. My main finding is that different combinations of budget forecasts often result in more accurate forecasts than individual models. This is particularly the case for a weighted forecast combination and Rbest that value the forecasts that have been more accurate in recent periods. Standard tests of forecasting accuracy show that even one year ahead, some of the pooled forecasts significantly outperform a naïve model. I use recently developed fluctuation tests to check forecasting accuracy over time I find that the weighted forecast combinations outperforms other predictors overall years. Its improvement in accuracy is statistically significant when compared to a naïve model. Chapter IV, “Nowcasting public finance in Italy,” moves from the idea of forecast and combination of annual data to the most recent idea of nowcasting fiscal variables. The reason is to give policy makers the capacity for dynamic monitoring of the public budget’s cash flow. This monthly analysis exploits the information at higher frequencies before the official figure becomes available. The approach that I use consists of using different nowcasting techniques that are well known in the literature. In particular, I propose a set of models that are parsimonious and suitable for real-time monitoring of the fiscal deficit. I conclude that the linear regression models outperform the other techniques used. The introduction of public finance and economic confidence variables and Google trends results in performance gains when compared with the VAR, the time series and autoregressive models.

L'objet de ce travail est d'analyser, du XIXe siècle à 2010, les déterminants politico-économiques du niveau des dépenses publiques, exprimé en pourcentage du PIB, pour les quatre principaux pays de l'Union européenne. (la France, l'Allemagne, l'Italie et le Royaume-Uni ; groupe que l'on notera « UE-04 »). Dans le chapitre 1, nous présentons les différentes mesures de la « taille de l'État », et mettons en évidence la croissance des dépenses publiques depuis le début du XIXe siècle. Nous recensons et testons les principaux modèles monofactoriels de détermination du niveau des dépenses publiques : loi de Wagner, modèle de développement de Rostow, effet de déplacement de Peacock et Wiseman, Granger-causalité entre dépenses et recettes, et interactions budgétaires internationales. Ces modèles ne peuvent expliquer que partiellement et superficiellement l'évolution séculaire des dépenses : ils sont trop simples pour appréhender la profonde complexité des processus. Les niveaux de dépenses publiques sont de plus en plus interdépendants, du fait de l'intensification du processus de globalisation. Ils varient de plus en plus de manière similaire : ce co-mouvement (ou cycle international) est probablement lié à l'émergence d'un « fédéralisme budgétaire européen » et à l'amplification de l'intégration. Enfin, ils ne semblent pas converger, du fait de la persistance de fortes et anciennes différences, notamment institutionnelles. Le chapitre 2 propose une première étude systématique des épisodes de baisse des dépenses publiques depuis le XIXe siècle. Après une recension de la littérature, nous procédons à une analyse quantitative. Le nombre d'années de hausse des dépenses est approximativement égal à celui des baisses. En revanche, l'intensité moyenne des hausses est supérieure à celle des baisses. Ces mouvements sont de plus en plus coordonnés entre les économies. La chronique politico-économique atteste que le PIB et les dépenses liées aux guerres constituent des facteurs fondamentaux, et que sur la période contemporaine les configurations institutionnelles et la volonté des dirigeants politiques exercent une influence essentielle. Enfin, les épisodes de baisse durable sont peu nombreux et sont généralement mis en œuvre lorsque la conjoncture économique est favorable, par des réductions opérées dans les trois grandes catégories de dépenses publiques : consommation, investissement et transferts. Dans le chapitre 3, nous effectuons une ample recension de la littérature sur les déterminants des dépenses publiques. Il existe plusieurs dizaines de facteurs potentiels. Les processus de détermination des dépenses publiques étant très complexes, le contenu interprétatif des modèles théoriques est limité. La littérature néglige deux éléments pourtant désormais fondamentaux : les interactions budgétaires entre les pays, et l'influence des institutions de l'Union européenne. Le creusement de la dette et la crise des finances publiques ont conduit à une homogénéisation des gouvernements : les décisions budgétaires sont désormais largement déconnectées du positionnement idéologique des dirigeants ainsi que du niveau de soutien dont ils disposent. Une analyse économétrique en panel des déterminants des catégories de dépenses publiques sur la période 1992-2010 pour l'UE-04 indique que la croissance du PIB agit de manière significativement négative. Les autres variables politico-économiques traditionnelles peinent à expliquer les évolutions des dépenses. Un panel dynamique permet d'apprécier le rôle joué par la variable dépendante retardée. Pour le total des dépenses publiques, il existe une force de rappel, pour laquelle les transferts jouent un rôle prépondérant
The purpose of this thesis is to analyze, from the 19th century to 2010, the politico-economic determinants of the public expenditures level, expressed in percentage of GDP, of the four major European countries. (France, Germany, Italy, and United Kingdom; group that will be abbreviated "UE-04") In Chapter 1, a presentation of the various measures of the "size of government" is undertaken, and the increase of public expenditures since the 19th century is highlighted. The most important monofactorial models determining public expenditures are reviewed and tested: Wagner's law, Rostow's development model, Peacock and Wiseman's Displacement effect, Granger causality between expenditures and receipts, and international budgetary interactions. These models can only explain partially and superficially the long-term evolution of expenditures: they are too simple to grasp the deep complexity of the determination processes. Public expenditures levels are more and more interdependent, because of the intensification of the globalization process. The levels vary more and more in a similar way: this comovement (or international cycle) is probably linked to the emergence of a "European budgetary federalism" and to the expansion of the integration. Finally, they do not seem to converge, because of the persistence of strong and old differences, especially institutional ones. Chapter 2 is a first systematic analysis of the episodes of the public expenditures' reduction from the 19th century. The literature is reviewed, and a quantitative analysis is carried out. The number of years of increase is approximately equal to the number of years of reduction. Nonetheless, the average intensity of increases is greater than the average intensity of reductions. These movements are more and more coordinated across economies. The politico-economic chronicles establishes that GDP and war-related expenditures are fundamental factors, and that in the contemporary period the institutional configurations and the will of the political leaders exert a major influence. Finally, there are few episodes of sustainable reduction. They are generally implemented when the overall economic situation is favorable, and cuts are then employed in the three major categories of public expenditures: consumption, investment, and transfers. In Chapter 3, the abundant literature related to the determinants of public expenditures is reviewed. There are several dozens of potential factors. The determination process of the public expenditures is very complex, and thus the interpretive content of theoretical models is rather limited. The literature disregards two elements that are henceforth fundamental: the budgetary interactions between countries, and the influence of the institutions of the European Union. The growing public debt and the public finance crisis have led to a homogenization of governments: budgetary decisions are henceforth largely unrelated to the ideological orientation of political leaders, as well as to the level of popularity that these leaders enjoy. An econometric analysis of panel data is performed to study the determinants of the main categories of public expenditures on the period 1992-2010 for the UE-04. GDP growth's impact is significantly negative. The other traditional politico-economic variables barely explain the evolution of public expenditures. The role played by the lagged dependent variable is estimated using a dynamic panel. There is a restoring force for the total of public expenditures, for which the transfers play a paramount role

Defence date: 26 January 2021
Examining board: Professor Regina Grafe (European University Institute); Professor Luca Molà (University of Warwick); Professor Carmen Sanz Ayán (Universidad Complutense de Madrid); Professor Manuel Herrero Sánchez (Universidad Pablo de Olavide)
This doctoral thesis analyses the process of state construction in the early modern period from a joint perspective that amalgamates the agencies of state officials, lending communities, and local elites in the Hispanic Monarchy during the four initial years of Philip II’s reign. The project examines the convergence of private agendas inside and outside the royal administration, which were channelled by the Genoese lending community to overcome the consolidation of royal short-term debt in 1557 and its consequences. The application of an institutional approach, based on the works of Avner Greif, to the analysis of the social organisations that prevented a failure of coordination in the Hispanic Monarchy offers a fresh perspective on a topic normally assessed under predatory models. The specific study of two Genoese lenders who contributed to the establishment of a more viable and efficient financial system in the monarchy, Costantin Gentil and Nicolao de Grimaldo, provides details about how interregional transactions and local economies contributed to the consolidation of the early modern state.

"In Italy there is a need to modernize and realize public infrastructures, but the decreasing public funds and the budget constraints make it difficult. In a Public-Private Partnership the public authority and the private operator decide to cooperate for the realization of a public work through the instrument of the Project Financing in which the investment, the execution and the management of the work are borne by the private operator. This cooperation allows the convergence of interests: the public side increases the public value through the realization or the improvement of the infrastructure, and the private entity recovers the investment and makes a profit thanks to cash flows coming from the management of the public work/service, for a time agreed in the contract. The paper analyses the complex regulatory framework starting from the European regulation up to the Italian discipline with emphasis on the recent Legislative Decree 50/2016 and its implications, proceeding with characteristics and operational aspects of PPP. Then, it describes the procedures to initiate a PPP in Project Financing and all documents involved in the operation with a deep analysis on the economic-financial plan, its construction starting from input data, its achievement of the balance and the evaluation of profitability and bankability ratios. Being an elaborate tool, the PPP has not often been fully understood and correctly used by the parties involved in the project, consequently generating several debates and critical issues on the topic. After a critical analysis, the presentation of a real case-study will follow, focusing on the construction and the assessment of the economic-financial plan, and highlighting some critical aspects of the project proposal by the private operator."

La presente tesi si concentra sui processi di decentramento in Italia e Spagna, analizzando l'impatto dei mutamenti del quadro giuridico europeo sull'autonomia finanziaria regionale. L’ordinamento finanziario sovranazionale è stato infatti ampiamente modificato negli ultimi anni (specialmente con riferimento alla c.d. "Eurozona") per affrontare le pressanti sfide di natura macroeconomica derivanti dalla crisi del debito sovrano, che ha coinvolto svariati Stati Membri. L'analisi del tema proposto viene effettuata con il metodo della comparazione, prendendo in considerazione gli ordinamenti italiano e spagnolo. Tale scelta metodologica riposa essenzialmente su due elementi, che integrano il requisito della comparabilità tra i due ordinamenti: a) la vicinanza strutturale e l'influenza reciproca che storicamente si è verificata tra i due modelli di decentramento (che vengono usualmente riportati alla forma – o tipo – di Stato regionale); b) la comune soggezione ai vincoli finanziari derivanti dall’ordinamento europeo, unita a una condizione di grave difficoltà finanziaria che coinvolge il sistema regionale in generale, e – in maniera più acuta – le Regioni e Comunidades Autónomas (d’ora in poi, CC.AA.) che sono state (o sono) colpite da fenomeni di mala gestio. Si presenterà ora brevemente la struttura del lavoro. I primi due capitoli parlano dello Stato regionale in Italia e in Spagna, ossia il contesto, lo “sfondo”, nel quale si inserisce il tema dell’autonomia finanziaria, seguendo la contrapposizione astratto/concreto, statico/dinamico: da un lato i modelli elaborati dalla dottrina, dall'altro l’evoluzione storica delle esperienze regionali, in entrambi i casi con particolare riferimento ai profili finanziari. Il primo capitolo descrive dunque la modellistica che viene generalmente utilizzata rispetto alle forme di distribuzione territoriale del potere politico (unione di stati, confederazione, stato federale, stato regionale, stato unitario), con un particolare approfondimento per la problematica categoria dello Stato regionale e, rispetto ad esso, registrando sia le posizioni critiche sull’utilità della categoria sia la particolare rilevanza che il livello di autonomia finanziaria regionale può avere a fini classificatori. Il secondo capitolo tratta invece partitamente le due linee storiche che si incrociano nella tematica in esame. Da un lato, lo sviluppo del regionalismo in Spagna e in Italia e le varie fasi dell’autonomia finanziaria nei due ordinamenti: non sfugge infatti a chi scrive che l’attuale stato delle finanze pubbliche territoriali sia in entrambi i casi il frutto di un complesso processo di evoluzione; tuttavia – ai fini della comparazione – pare opportuno privilegiare l’aspetto sincronico a quello diacronico, concentrandosi sull'ultimo stadio di questo percorso, nel suo intreccio con un sistema normativo e decisionale sempre più complesso, nazionale e sovranazionale. Dall'altro lato, si fa appunto un quadro dell’evoluzione della governance finanziaria europea sotto l’impatto della crisi economico-finanziaria che si è originata a livello globale a partire dal 2008. Tale evoluzione costituisce infatti il presupposto dei mutamenti costituzionali e normativi che si vogliono analizzare nel presente lavoro. Il terzo capitolo, che è il più ampio del lavoro, descrive l’ordinamento finanziario di Regioni e CCAA nel quadro di un sistema normativo che ormai affonda le sue radici nel livello sovranazionale. Obiettivo di questa parte del lavoro è tanto dare conto del sistema delle fonti dell’autonomia finanziaria da un punto di vista formale, quanto esporre ed analizzare le scelte normative compiute in concreto. Al suo interno, il capitolo è tripartito: ordinamento UE, ordinamento italiano e ordinamento spagnolo. La ragione di una trattazione separata dei due Paesi sul piano delle fonti è evidente: si tratta di sistemi peculiari e non sovrapponibili. In Spagna il metodo di finanziamento delle CCAA è determinato da due importanti leggi organiche, la LOFCA (Ley Orgánica de Financiación de las Comunidades Autónomas) e la LOEPSF (Ley Orgánica de Estabilidad Presupuestaria y Sostenibilidad Financiera): diventa dunque essenziale approfondire natura e ambito di competenza di ciascuna di esse, assieme al discusso problema del rapporto tra leggi organiche e Statuti delle CCAA nel sistema delle fonti del diritto. In Italia il quadro delle fonti si è fatto nel tempo sempre più articolato: basti ricordare la previsione di una specifica legge rinforzata da parte della nuova formulazione dell’art. 81, c.6, Cost. e il ruolo della legge delega sul federalismo fiscale (l. n. 42 del 2009) nel condizionare il contenuto dei relativi decreti legislativi di attuazione. All'interno dei paragrafi relativi all'uno e all'altro Paese si cerca di porre in luce i due versanti dell’autonomia finanziaria già esplicitati in precedenza, entrata e spesa. Rispetto al'’autonomia di entrata, si dà conto tanto dello spazio concesso alla potestà impositiva di Regioni e CCAA – e quindi il potere di istituire tributi propri regionali e i ccdd. tributos cedidos anche dal punto di vista normativo nel caso spagnolo – quanto del problema centrale del finanziamento delle autonomie territoriali mediante risorse derivanti dai tributi statali, nelle forme della compartecipazione al gettito degli stessi e dei trasferimenti statali. Il profilo dell’autonomia di spesa riceve poi una considerazione altrettanto approfondita. In sistemi regionali in cui la decisione sulle entrate è ancora sostanzialmente in mano al livello di governo centrale, è chiaramente l’autonomia di spesa a concretare più direttamente l’autonomia finanziaria regionale, fino a spingere taluno a coniare la categoria del federalismo fiscale “di spesa”. Proprio sull'autonomia di spesa hanno però impattato in maniera più diretta la crisi economico- finanziaria, i vincoli finanziari europei e la loro attuazione a livello interno: quest’ultima è avvenuta non soltanto tramite provvedimenti del legislatore statale volti a porre un limite globale alla spesa delle autonomie, al fine di garantire il rispetto dei vincoli sovranazionali da parte del complesso dei soggetti che compongono la c.d. finanza pubblica allargata (limiti diretti all'autonomia di spesa), ma anche tramite norme di legge che incidevano su ambiti rientranti nella competenza delle Regioni, fra i quali gli aspetti ordinamentali, giustificati dallo scopo di contenimento della spesa pubblica (limiti indiretti). Il quarto capitolo approfondisce il tema delle relazioni finanziarie fra Stato e Regioni/CCAA sul piano dei principi costituzionali: a differenza del capitolo precedente, la trattazione viene svolta trasversalmente fra i due ordinamenti, nella convinzione che vi siano alcune linee fondamentali in comune fra di essi. Si delinea quindi un vero e proprio statuto costituzionale dell’autonomia finanziaria nello Stato regionale che si sostanzia nei seguenti principi: autonomia finanziaria e corresponsabilità fiscale; solidarietà; sufficienza finanziaria (connessione risorse-funzioni); coordinamento finanziario; equilibrio di bilancio e sostenibilità finanziaria; leale collaborazione. Per ciascun principio non si dà conto soltanto dei riferimenti normativi ma soprattutto dell’interpretazione che ne è stata data dalla giurisprudenza costituzionale, istanza deputata a far “vivere” i principi nei mutamenti istituzionali e sociali tramite l’interpretazione costituzionale. Il quinto capitolo approfondisce infine un profilo spesso trascurato a livello dottrinale, ossia quello dei sistemi finanziari delle autonomie differenziate, nell’uno e nell’altro ordinamento. Nel caso italiano, il tema è quello della c.d. specialità finanziaria, che configura un percorso originale e peculiare nel quadro del regionalismo italiano. Il tema parrebbe porsi in maniera più complessa nel caso spagnolo, in virtù della potenziale asimmetria che caratterizza il sistema: tuttavia, in virtù della portata omogeneizzatrice della LOFCA, la maggior parte delle comunità autonome presenta un sistema di finanziamento sostanzialmente unitario. La reale differenziazione si coglie piuttosto rispetto al sistema del convenio e concierto autonómico seguito da País Vasco e Navarra, sistema che costituisce il portato di un lungo percorso storico e concreta una delle peculiarità del regimen foral di questi territori. Specialità finanziaria e regime forale presentano tratti di somiglianza e costituiscono esperienze meritevoli di approfondimento: essi sono da un lato oggetto di critica in entrambi i Paesi in quanto considerati “privilegi fiscali”, allo stesso tempo non di rado la estensibilità dei sistemi ad alcune (o a tutte le) Regioni viene fatto oggetto di studio.
Los dos primeros capítulos hablan del Estado regional en Italia y España, es decir el contexto en el que se inserta el tema de la autonomía financiera. El primer capítulo describe las categorías que generalmente se usan con respecto a las formas de distribución territorial del poder político (unión de Estados, confederación, Estado federal, Estado regional, Estado unitario), con un estudio particular de la categoría problemática del Estado regional. El segundo capítulo trata de las dos líneas históricas que se entrecruzan en el tema estudiado. Por un lado, el desarrollo del regionalismo en España e Italia y las diversas fases de autonomía financiera en los dos sistemas; por otro lado, la evolución de la governance financiera europea bajo el impacto de la crisis económico-financiera que se ha originado a nivel mundial desde 2008. Esta evolución es, de hecho, la condición previa de los cambios constitucionales y legislativos que se quieren analizar en el trabajo. Los capítulos tercero y cuarto estudian la autonomía financiera regional según una perspectiva constitucional general: el tercero desde el punto de vista formal, con referencia al sistema de fuentes del derecho, y el cuarto desde el sustantivo, es decir, con respecto a los principios constitucionales. El capítulo tercero trata de la autonomía financiera respectivamente de ingreso y de gasto en el caso italiano y español, considerando los sistemas de fuentes de la Unión Europea e internos de ambos Estados. En relación a la autonomía de ingreso, el trabajo se centra principalmente sobre el problema del poder de las Regiones y CCAA para establecer sus propios impuestos regionales (y sus límites), así como sobre los impuestos cedidos por el Estado a las CCAA en España, por para luego abordar el problema central de financiar autonomías territoriales a través de los recursos derivados de impuestos estatales, en la forma de compartir los ingresos y las transferencias estatales. El perfil de la autonomía del gasto juega también un papel central en el trabajo. Sobre el poder de gasto de las autonomías, han impactado de manera más directa la crisis económica y financiera, las limitaciones financieras europeas y su aplicación a nivel interno. También se considerará el problema de la deuda pública. El capítulo cuarto estudia en particular la jurisprudencia constitucional sobre los siguientes principios: principio de autonomía financiera, principio de suficiencia financiera, principio de coordinación, principio de estabilidad presupuestaria, principio de solidaridad y de ordinalidad, principio de lealtad institucional y de cooperación. Finalmente, el quinto capítulo estudia un perfil a menudo descuidado a nivel doctrinal, que es el de los sistemas financieros de las autonomías diferenciadas, en uno u otro País. En el caso italiano, se trata de la especialidad financiera, que configura un camino original y peculiar en el marco del regionalismo italiano. En el caso español, la diferenciación real se verifica con respecto al sistema de convenio y concierto autonómico de País Vasco y Navarra. Especialidad financiera y régimen Foral tienen rasgos similares y son experiencias interesantes: algunos las critican como "privilegios fiscales", pero otros estudian la extensibilidad de estos sistemas a las demás Regiones/Comunidades.
Els dos primers capítols parlen de l'Estat regional a Itàlia i Espanya, és a dir el context en què s'insereix el tema de l'autonomia financera. El primer capítol descriu les categories que generalment es fan servir pel que fa a les formes de distribució territorial del poder polític (unió d'Estats, confederació, Estat federal, Estat regional, Estat unitari), amb un estudi particular de la categoria problemàtica de l'Estat regional. El segon capítol tracta de les dues línies històriques que s'entrecreuen en el tema estudiat. D'una banda, el desenvolupament del regionalisme a Espanya i Itàlia i les diverses fases de l'autonomia financera en els dos sistemes; d'altra banda, l'evolució de la governance financera europea sota l'impacte de la crisi economicofinancera que s'ha originat a nivell mundial des de 2008. Aquesta evolució és, de fet, la condició prèvia dels canvis constitucionals i legislatius que es volen analitzar en el treball. Els capítols tercer i quart estudien l'autonomia financera regional segons una perspectiva constitucional general: el tercer des del punt de vista formal, amb referència al sistema de fonts del dret, i el quart des del substantiu, és a dir, pel que fa als principis constitucionals . El capítol tercer tracta de l'autonomia financera respectivament d'ingressos i de despesa en el cas italià i espanyol, considerant els sistemes de fonts de la Unió Europea i interns d'ambdós Estats. En relació a l'autonomia d'ingressos, el treball se centra principalment sobre el problema del poder de Regions i CCAA per a establir els seus propis impostos regionals (i el seus límits), així com sobre els impostos cedits per l'Estat a les CCAA a Espanya, per després abordar el problema central de finançar autonomies territorials a través dels recursos derivats d'impostos estatals, en la forma de compartir els ingressos i les transferències estatals. El perfil de l'autonomia de despesa juga també un paper central en el treball. Sobre el poder de despesa de les autonomies, han impactat de manera més directa la crisi econòmica i financera, les limitacions financeres europees i la seva aplicació a nivell intern. També es considerarà el problema del deute públic, al qual s'han posat límits significatius a partir del nou context regulador supranacional. El capítol quart estudia en particular la jurisprudència constitucional sobre els següents principis: principi d'autonomia financera, principi de suficiència financera, principi de coordinació, principi d'estabilitat pressupostària, principi de solidaritat i d'ordinalitat, principi de lleialtat institucional i de cooperació. Finalment, el cinquè capítol estudia un perfil sovint descuidat a nivell doctrinal, que és el dels sistemes financers d'autonomies diferenciades, en un o altre País. En el cas italià, es tracta de l'especialitat financera, que configura un camí original i peculiar en el marc del regionalisme italià. En el cas espanyol, la diferenciació real es verifica que fa al sistema de conveni i concert autonòmic del País Basc i Navarra. Especialitat financera i règim foral tenen trets similars i són experiències interessants: alguns les critiquen com "privilegis fiscals", però altres estudien la extensibilitat d'aquestes sistemes a les demés Regions / Comunitats.
The first two chapters deal about the “regional State” in Italy and Spain. The first chapter describes the categories that are generally used to classify the forms of territorial distribution of political power (union of States, confederation, federal State, regional State, unitary State), with particular attention to the problematic category of the regional State. The second chapter concerns the two historical aspects of the matter. On the one hand, the development of regionalism in Spain and Italy and the various phases of financial autonomy in the two systems; on the other hand, the evolution of European financial governance under the impact of the economic crisis since 2008. This evolution is, in fact, the precondition of the constitutional and legislative changes that the thesis aims to analyse. The third and fourth chapters are devoted to regional financial autonomy according to a general constitutional perspective: the third from the formal point of view, with reference to the system of sources of law, and the fourth from the substantive standpoint (constitutional principles). In particular, the third chapter deals with financial autonomy and, respectively, with tax power and power of expenditure in the Italian and Spanish cases, considering both the European Union and the internal sources of law. In relation to the tax autonomy, the thesis focuses mainly on the problem of the power of Regions and Autonomous Communities to establish their own regional taxes (and their limits), as well as on the taxes assigned by the State to the Autonomous Communities in Spain. Then, the thesis deepens the central problem of financing territorial autonomies through resources derived from State taxes, in the form of revenue sharing and State transfers. The topic of spending power also plays a central role in the research: the European financial rules and their application have a direct impact on regional spending autonomy. The problem of public debt, which is significantly regulated by the new supranational legal context, will also be considered. The fourth chapter is devoted in particular to the constitutional case law on the following principles: the principle of financial autonomy, the principle of financial sufficiency, the principle of coordination, the balance budget principle, the principle of solidarity and its limits, the principle of institutional loyalty and cooperation. Finally, the fifth chapter deals with a matter often neglected at the doctrinal level, which is the financial systems of differentiated autonomies, in both countries. In the Italian case, the Financial Specialty represents an original and peculiar way within the framework of Italian regionalism. In the Spanish case, the most important differentiation is the system of the convenio/concierto autonómico (agreement) of the Basque Country and Navarre.

The economic crisis following the Covid-19 pandemic impacted productivity and output performances of most countries, putting at risk the survival of many companies. Policy choices were implemented to “hibernate” the economy and avoid disruptive effects of firms bankruptcy on employment, consumption and supply chain dynamics. We investigate whether governments did too much, fueling the risk of firm zombification, or too little, letting productive companies die. To examine this issue we try to understand if public supports and policy choices distorted the usual determinants of bankruptcies. Referring to existing studies on the matter conducted using French data, we develop a logit model for Italy on a sample of 262.509 Italian firms of the retail sector during the period 2014-2020. Using data of the Household budget survey (HBS), we measure the Covid-19 shock on consumption with the variation in the average monthly payments by Italian families between 2019 and 2020, using the ECOICOP classification. Results show that the determinants of bankruptcies work similarly in 2019 and in 2020, without relevant distortion in the bankruptcy dynamics. Considering our Covid Shock measure in the model, we find that policy support partially absorbed the shock given its minor relevance in the prediction of firm bankruptcy.

L’analyse des politiques fiscales des communautés autonomes de la Val Seriana (XVe-XVIe siècle) montre l’existence d’une relation asymétrique entre la République de Venise, la Commune urbaine de Bergame et les pouvoirs locaux. Dès la conquête, la Dominante et les Communes rurales entament des rapports qui garantissent à la République ses recettes fiscales et aux communautés la tutelle de leur autonomie administrative. La ville perd définitivement son influence directe institutionnelle et donc fiscale sur cette parties de son district. Cette relation continue, renforcée, pendant les deux siècles suivants, en dépit des transformations des modèles de prélèvement (introduction de contributions extraordinaires et d’une taxe militaire unique remplaçant des anciennes charges; fin XVe – début XVIe siècles). Ces changements et l’augmentation de la demande fiscale, due principalement aux guerres en Italie et en Orient, emmènent au développement d’un nouveau système financier local, remplaçant des anciennes organisations fondées sur des impositions tels que les dazi. Bien que bénéfique pour l’entière communauté, ces nouvelles institutions restent sous le contrôle des familles locales qui gouvernent déjà la Commune ; le nouveau système se fonde sur l’emprunt public émis par des créanciers privés, qui font souvent partie de la classe dirigeante locale, et sur la vente et location des biens communs des communautés
The analysis of the local fiscal policies of the autonomous communities of the Val Seriana during the XV and XVI centuries proves the existence of a three-sided, asymmetrical equilibrium between the Republic of Venice, the Commune of Bergamo and local powers. Whilst the Town manages to influence the communities' choices from a marginalised position, the Republic and the latter share a pact that benefits them respectively in fiscal revenues and protection of autonomy. This relationship will strenghten in time, through the transformations of the Venetian fiscal system (late XV century) that will put more emphasis on extraordinary revenues and monetisation of military corvées. These radical changes combined with the financial strain coming from the renewed war engagement in Italy and in the East that will increase Venetian fiscal demand, will locally set a trend for the development around communal finances of a new apparatus, replacing the old system based on customs. Though beneficial for the whole community, this system will be largely managed by local governing families; its roots will be public borrowing from private businessmen (often, relations to the members of the political management) and the commercialisation of a portion of the communal properties

Abstract By considering project performance along the various phases of the project life-cycle, this paper aims to fill a gap in the literature on cost overruns and project management in Italy. Employing a large dataset of Italian transport infrastructure projects for roads, started and completed during the period 2000-2013, it applies the same methodology used by the construction management research regarding project types and phases. More specifically, the research goal is to assess the generating process of the magnitude of cost overruns in the sample, trying to evaluate the role of cost evolution by project phase distinguish between the costs of physical execution and the other costs. The findings show that contracting authorities seem to overestimate the extent of the final costs systematically. This behaviour was more important in term of financial coverage. The results can be relevant to explain the cost overruns in the execution stage suggesting the adoption of more stringent rules in budgeting and financial coverage of the projects.
Abstract This paper aims at analyzing the impact of the design phase on the performance in the realization of public works. In the literature, the design phase is largely recognized as one of the possible determinants of inefficiency in public works execution. Notwithstanding, empirical evidence on the topic remains scarce. Using a large dataset of public works awarded in Italy in the period 2008-2014, we investigate empirically the relationship between different choices made in the design phase and the performance in public works execution. Our empirical findings show that the presence of an external designer is associated with higher cost and time renegotiations. The issue is especially relevant for small municipalities that more heavily rely on external designers, possibly because of the limited expertise of their technical offices. From a public policy perspective, our findings offer some support to the recent reform of the Italian public procurement regulation that has introduced new accreditation requirements for the contracting authorities.
Abstract Cost overruns are an endemic feature of transport infrastructure provision all over the world. In the last decades, a considerable amount of studies has been devoted to assessing the magnitude and determinants of cost overruns in the transportation sector. However, empirical findings are scattered among different strands of literature, ranging from the fields of construction engineering and management to that of applied economics. To shed light on the determinants of cost overruns in the execution of transport infrastructure projects, we conduct a systematic review of the empirical literature on the topic. Of the 945 articles retrieved, 26 articles published between the years 2000 and 2016 meet our inclusion criteria. For them, we describe the different empirical approaches, provide a classification of the determinants employed in the analyses and summarise their impact on cost overruns. Finally, we discuss some directions and concerns for further research in the field.

Abstract The tax-reform hypotheses formulated so far may not appear sufficiently draconian to tackle the imbalances in Italy’s public finances. This is not in fact true; as explained above, since the sphere of direct and indirect public intervention in the Italian economy has to be reduced, we believe it is inappropriate to think of increasing the overall tax burden in order to achieve the perennial objective laid down in every policy document from the so-called Amato Plan1 to the latest Finance Bill, namely to eliminate the primary budget deficit (i.e. the budget deficit net of interest payments on the public debt).

Abstract Prior to the reforms in the late 1970s public health care in Italy was financed largely through employment-based sickness funds and provided mainly by non-profit organizations.1 In 1975 coverage against inpatient care costs was increased from 95 per cent to 100 per cent when responsibility for public hospital services was transferred to the state. In 1978 the government created a national health service—the Servizio Sanitario Nazionale (SSN)— and cover for ambulatory care and medical goods was increased to 100 per cent. The SSN was to be financed eventually out of general taxation, although it was accepted that in the short term there would be some reliance on earnings-related health-specific social insurance contributions as under the old sickness fund system. In contrast to the British National Health Service (NHS), it was accepted that the private sector would play a part in the provision of SSN-financed health care.

Abstract Issues of broadcasting, i.e., its role in society and its impact on culture, the attempts by political powers to master it and the uncertainties of its future development, are, as in several other countries, at the top of the agenda of public debate in Italy. Nevertheless, one such issue is probably more acute in Italy than elsewhere: the impact of party influences on the broadcasting system. This is due to the extreme ubiquity of Italian parties in almost all sectors of civic and economic life. Their presence is both manifest and indirect, institutional and informal. In the last few years, according to some political analysts, their grasp appears to have been declining. In particular, party control over the electronic mass media, traditionally close, has been challenged by a series of economic, technological and legal developments.

As mentioned, the Cohesion Policy is the EU’s main investment policy and — in the wake of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis — the European Regional Development Fund and the Cohesion Fund became the major sources of finance for investment in many countries. Francesco Prota, Gianfranco Viesti and Mauro Bux, in chapter 10, review how this policy has evolved over time in terms of financial size and geographical coverage. Firstly, in the programming period 2000–2006, the centre of gravity in Structural Funds allocation shifted from the Southern regions too the Eastern regions of Europe. What is interesting is that, looking at the expenditure composition by types, ‘transport infrastructure’ and ‘environmental infrastructure’ are the main expenditure items. The investments in transport infrastructure financed by the Cohesion Policy have changed the accessibility of EU regions. In particular, many regions in Eastern Europe have significantly benefitted from the Cohesion Policy financed transport infrastructure investments in terms of improved accessibility. Also, as result of the 2008 crisis, the Cohesion Policy has been the major source of finance for public investment for many Member States of the European Union. In 2015–2017 it represents around 14% of the total; this figure is larger than 50% in some small Central and Eastern European countries, in Portugal and Croatia; larger than 40% in Poland; larger than 30% in most of the other Central and Eastern European countries. In the EU-15, the figure is lower in most Member States (7% for Spain, 4.4% for Italy and 2.5 % for Germany). However, it has reached 20% of total capital expenditures in Convergence regions in Spain, 15% in Italy and 10% in Germany.

Abstract The decision to go public is one of the most important and least studied questions in corporate finance. Most corporate finance textbooks limit themselves to describing the institutional aspects of this decision, providing only a few remarks on its motivation. The conventional wisdom is that going public is simply a stage in the growth of a company. Although there is some truth in it, this ‘theory’ alone cannot explain the observed pattern of listings. Even in developed capital markets like the United States, some large companies—such as United Parcel Service or Bechtel—are not public.1 In other countries, like Germany and Italy, publicly traded companies are the exceptions rather than the rule, and quite a few private companies are much larger than the average publicly traded company. These cross-sectional and cross-country differences indicate that going public is not a stage that all companies eventually reach, but is a choice.

Chapter 4, by Floriana Cerniglia and Federica Rossi, addresses the case of Italy. They start from the premise that this country, over the last decade, has experienced the worst economic crisis, which has had a huge impact on the already weak public finance conditions. Italy had to implement extraordinary actions to contain and reduce its public debt. Public investments have been curtailed the most, with respect to other functional areas of expenditure. The chapter provides an overview of major trends in public capital expenditure, including local and national public companies, which in Italy are significant contributors to public investment. The chapter considers also the breakdown of public investment by levels of government. Since the reform of the Italian Constitution in 2001, the interactions between levels of government in Italy have become increasingly challenging. Coordination issues between the central government and sub-national governments in running current and capital expenditures as well as the financing of local expenditures (both current and capital) remain unsolved problems, which most obviously impact the time required to make an investment. Moreover, Italy’s regional divide remains large, and sadly, it continues to grow. The issue of having shares of public investments in North-Central Italy and the Mezzogiorno, that proportionally reflect the population in those areas, has been a serious political concern these last years. Finally, the chapter discusses some legislative and bureaucratic factors that keep investments in Italy from taking off and hinder the transformation of resources into actual construction sites. The authors conclude by an assessment of some policy prescriptions for the relaunch of Italian public investment.

Chicken manure used as a natural fertilizer, given its high Nitrogen content, requires key actions in odor control that are often difficult to carry out resulting in an image loss for the company. Manure land-filling however is costly as well as incineration and this latter does still require odor control. Energy conversion from chicken manure may turn the cost into an earning that could payback both the investment and the image loss for odorous emissions. In this optic the paper analyses the different technologies that are available for energy conversion from chicken manure namely incineration, gasification, pyrolysis and anaerobic digestion with application to a real case. A large scale egg selling company in central Italy, with three production sites, was selected and its mass and energy flow balance assessed with particular reference to manure production and electricity consumption and expense. Five different technologies were then considered for energy conversion from chicken manure both for a single production site (microscale) and for the three (small scale). Grate incineration with steam production from exhaust gases was considered and discarded because of the too small scale. BTG gasification technology and IPRP pyrolysis technology presented by the authors, were evaluated and the techno-economic assessment showed interesting pay back time with medium to high investment costs and medium efficiencies. Pyrolysis technology with gas-steam combined cycle was considered but the economics show a very high pay back for the investment due to the small scale. Finally anaerobic digestion was evaluated showing the lowest investment cost and efficiency but an interesting payback period also considering that no public financing was considered. This latter solution has been presented to the company that will decide whether to finance the project.

The EU Competition Law refers to the activities of undertakings. The term undertaking is not defined by TFEU although it uses that term. That is why the notion of undertaking is defined in the CJEU case law. According to the Höfner judgment (C-41/90, parа 21) the concept of undertaking encompasses every entity engaged in an economic activity, regardless of the legal status of the entity and the way in which it is financed. Defining approach is functional and answer if some entity is undertaking depends on assessment if its activity can be qualified as economic. Pursuant to Commission v. Italy judgment (C-118/85), economic activity is any activity consisting in offering goods or/and services on a given market. Coverage of such definition is extremely broad and notion of undertaking except companies and entrepreneurs encompasses opera singers, inventors, some supplementary insurance funds, sporting bodies, customs agents, employment office, professional sportsmen, lawyers, doctors, pharmacists, architects, agricultural cooperatives and so on. In order to limit the coverage of undertaking notion in the CJEU case law are developed criterions by which some entities are excluded from undertaking status. These are: State’s imperium (exercising public authority), principle of solidarity and absence of autonomy in deciding over its own conduct on the market.

Nowadays available ICT and e-learning technologies transform the way educational processes takes place and require constant upgrades. This fast pace creates challenges with regards to the extent to which educational programs and the technologies employed by them are effectively responding to users' needs. Designing effective e-learning tools and educational programs requires the contribution of social science research tools. In the context of designing, monitoring, evaluating e-learning instruments, social research could boost effectiveness and reduce risks, by providing a better fit to their social environment. Questions with regards to: functionalities, skills, attitudes, behavior, usage, educational content, features of communication with target group could be properly addressed by employing research tools such as need assessment and impact assessment. This paper argues in the favor of the use of social research to support and improve management processes for e-learning projects and presents the benefits of using such tools. Throughout the paper the benefits of using social research will be illustrated through a case study (e-learning project). The case study, used as illustration, refers to a nationwide strategic e-learning project, co-financed by the European Social Fund (ESF) and the Romanian Government, under the Sectorial Operational Programme Human Resource Development (SOP HRD) in Romania. The project implementation partnership was made of: University "Politehnica" in Bucharest (partnership leader), the Technical University "Gheorghe Asachi" in Iasi (the first two technical universities from Romania accredited for research and advanced education), Pythia International (a technical and management consultancy company in Bucharest), and CSI Piedmonte (a public consortium in Torino, Italy, specialized in IT for public administration). The main objective of the eProf project was the training of 2000 secondary education (ISCED 2-3) teachers in using interactive methods of e-learning, successfully completed in July 2013. The need assessment undertaken within this project was designed mainly to inform management, the course curriculum and content creation, but also supporting other broader activities and objectives of the project such as informing the strategy for communication with the target group. The relevance of this research goes beyond eProf project, as this was the first publicly available representative survey of the secondary education teachers in Romania concerning their ICT skills, access, usage behavior and attitudes. Within the final months of the project an impact assessment has also been undertaken.

Abstract ENCIO (European Network for Component Integration and Optimization) is a European project aiming at qualifying materials, components, manufacturing processes, as well as erection and repair concepts, as follow-up of COMTES700 activities and by means of erecting and operating a new Test Facility. The 700°C technology is a key factor for the increasing efficiency of coal fired power plants, improving environmental and economic sustainability of coal fired power plants and achieving successful deployment of carbon capture and storage technologies. The ENCIO-project is financed by industrial and public funds. The project receives funding from the European Community's Research Fund for Coal and Steel (RFCS) under grant agreement n° RFCPCT-2011-00003. The ENCIO started on 1 July 2011. The overall project duration is six years (72 months), to allow enough operating hours, as well as related data collection, investigations and evaluation of results. The ENCIO Test Facility will be installed in the “Andrea Palladio” Power Station which is owned and operated by ENEL, located in Fusina, very close to Venice (Italy). The Unit 4 was selected for the installation of the Test Facility and the loops are planned for 20.000 hours of operation at 700°C. The present paper summarizes the current status of the overall process design of the thick-walled components, the test loops and the scheduled operating conditions, the characterizations program for the base materials and the welded joints, like creep and microstructural analysis also after service exposure.

The abundance of eLearning projects requires an integrated design for the communication strategy for such projects. The technological changes need to be reflected within the communication strategy and communication tools used within these projects. Inappropriately designed communication strategy could be an important generator of risks for the project, dissatisfaction for the target group (clients targeted by the eLearning project), dysfunctionalities within the project’s team, resource waste, and others similar to these. Designing communication strategy and tools is contributing to the social impact of the project in which they are used. Both extremes, allocating too many or insufficient resources to communication within eLearning projects has its own pitfalls. This paper is aiming to tackle into some of the important aspects regarding the efficient design for the communication strategy and tools. Some of the questions aiming to be answered by this paper are: what should the communication strategy for an eLearning project entail? How communication strategy and tools are linked with the social impact generated by that respective project? How detailed the communication planning should be? Who should be addressed by communication within an eLearning project? Which are the tools due to be used for communicating within an eLearning project distinguished by the phase of the project? The theoretical distinctions tackled here will be illustrated by a case study, referring to a nationwide strategic eLearning project, co-financed by the European Social Fund (ESF) and the Romanian Government, under the Sectorial Operational Programme Human Resource Development (SOP HRD) in Romania. The project was implemented in partnership by the following organizations: University “Politehnica” in Bucharest (partnership leader), the Technical University “Gheorghe Asachi” in Iasi (the first two technical universities from Romania accredited for research and advanced education), Pythia International (a technical and management consultancy company in Bucharest), and CSI Piedmonte (a public consortium in Torino, Italy, specialized in IT for public administration). The main outcome of the eProf project is a number of 2000 secondary education (ISCED 2-3) teachers who graduated the training program, using interactive methods of eLearning. Communication strategy, planning and other communication tools where designed and used throughout the entire duration of the project for managing the communication with the teachers targeted by the training program provided by this project.

As conventional cadastral maps only show building perimeters, they contain no information about the city’s internal structure—about the complex interplay of architecture and its socio-economical use. Thus urban planning seems to spare little thought for what really takes place inside the buildings lining a street, although we perfectly know that the potentials of ground floor use and the structure of the correlating public street space are directly related. The Urban Parterre Modelling UPM-method refers to the city’s “parterre” as a holistic urban system: it covers both built-up and non-built-up areas. Thus street, ground floor and courtyard are treated as entity, so that their interrelations can come to light. Technically the method represents the merging of a common 3D-city-model and a Comprehensive Ground Plan Survey CGPS—a researching technique used in the 1960s until the 1990s (mostly in Italy and Switzerland). This new urban research method has been developed and tested in a pilot study by means of an in depth exploration of an exemplary historical street in Vienna. In September 2015 a new four years research program was financed by the Austrian Science Fund (Austria's central funding organization for basic research, FWF) and launched at the Department of Urban Design at Vienna University of Technology. Within this operational framework a variety of different street-level environments in Vienna are being examined. Given this perspective the paper is therefore addressing the following issues: How was the Viennese ground level originally used? Which urban functions were located there? What are the (historical) interrelations between public space and the life inside buildings? How does this micro system influence urban life and especially pedestrian behaviour?References: CANIGGIA, G. (1986): “Lettura di Firenze – Strukturanalyse der Stadt Florenz”. In Malfroy/ Caniggia: Die morphologische Betrachtungsweise von Stadt und Territorium. Zürich: ETH, Lehrstuhl f. Städtebaugesch. MALFROY, S. (1986): „Die morphologische Betrachtungsweise von Stadt und Territorium“. Zürich : ETH, Lehrstuhl f. Städtebaugeschichte MURATORI, S. (1960): Studi per un operante storia urbana di Venezia. Roma: Istituto Poligrafico dello Stato PETERS, M. (1990): „Stadtgrundriss als Arbeitsinstrument: dem Mittelalter auf der Spur“. In: Hochparterre 1990/4, 30-31 (http://dx.doi.org/10.5169/seals-119191) accessed 23.10.2017 PETERS, M. (1999b): „Elektronische Erfassung eines Industriequartiers: zusammenhängende Grundrissaufnahme in Zürich, ein Experiment“. In: Schweizer Ingenieur und Architekt, Vol.117, 779-784. RUEGG, A. (ed.) (1975): Materialien zur Studie Bern. 4. Jahreskurs 1974/75. Zurich: ETH/Schnebli/Hofer

This contribution describes the final part of the development process of PLEINAIR (Free and Inclusive Parks in Networks for Recreational and Physical Intergenerational Activity), a two-years multidisciplinary research project financed by the POR FESR 2014-2020 program regulated by Emilia Romagna Region in Italy.The PLEINAIR project aims to develop a smart outdoor park, specifically designed for encouraging positive socio-recreational interactions among different generations and for promoting the adoption of active lifestyles for all and at any stage of their life.This is because, according to WHO, sedentary lifestyle is increasing worldwide and it risks to produce more cardiovascular diseases compared to the past, but also because most of the urban parks nowadays are composed of arbitrary and selective areas that do not stimulate interaction between different generations.The purpose of PLEINAIR is to provide real solutions through operational products called OSOs (Outdoor Smart Objects). Monitoring a series of parameters ­– through an IoMT (Internet of Medical Things) infrastructure – related to people’s motor or ludic activities, the OSOs aim to find the most suitable and customizable motivational strategies to stimulate a positive health lifestyle for any user at any age.PLEINAIR is based on a Human-Centered Design approach and it utilizes participative Co-Design techniques to discover and satisfy the real needs of people.Due to the COVID-19, the first part of the needs analysis was conducted remotely. Despite there were no chances to interact with users in person, the on-line activities collected many insights to develop the early concepts of the OSOs.When the Italians lockdown restrictions in public education were temporally less severe, two Co-Design workshops were organized involving two schools in Province of Bologna, Italy, to collaboratively validate and refine the concept ideas with young users.Considering this, the paper describes two Co-Design activities performed in both schools.The first workshop collaborated with an elementary school and it was divided in two parts: the first stage collected the children’s and expectations about the OSOs’ early concepts through a visual questionnaire; the second stage used free drawing to collect children’s ideas, dreams and expectations about their personal concepts of PLEINAIR outdoor park.The second workshop involved an high school and it was divided in three main round tables, each one focused on a specific aspect of the PLAINAIR IoTM system: the first table co-designed the graphical interface and the navigation system of PLAINAIR application; the second table co-designed and co-validated the motivational strategies that the app uses to encourage people to improve their health conditions; the third table co-designed digital and analogic interactions for dialoguing with the OSOs. The activities were based on an open debate and free drawing session because they let young users free to express themselves around the three themes of the workshop. The final results produced qualitative data that were difficult to collect during the remote activities and they were used, as guidelines, to improve many aspects of the User Experience of the PLEINAIR IoTM system.