Università della Svizzera italiana

Does the support of innovative clusters sustainably foster R&D activity? Evidence from the German BioRegio and BioProfile contests

Engel, Dirk ; Mitze, Timo ; Patuelli, Roberto ; Reinkowski, Janina

In this paper, we evaluate the R&D enhancing effects of two large public grant schemes aiming at encouraging the performance of firms organized in clusters. These are Germany's well known BioRegio and BioProle contests for which we compare the research performance of winning regions in contrast with non-winning and non-participating comparison regions. We apply Difference-in-Difference...

Università della Svizzera italiana

The influence of role models on immigrant self-employment : a spatial analysis for Switzerland

Guerra, Giuliano ; economiche, Università della Svizzera italiana, Svizzera ; Patuelli, Roberto ; economiche, Università della Svizzera italiana, Svizzera

Theoretical and empirical research suggests a connection between the presence of role models and the emergence of entrepreneurs. Existing entrepreneurs may act as role models for self-employment candidates by providing successful examples. By explicitly considering the self- employment rates of the natives, which may influence locally the decisions of immigrants towards entrepreneurship, we...

Università della Svizzera italiana

Ethnic concentration, cultural identity and immigrant self-employment in Switzerland

Guerra, Giuliano ; Patuelli, Roberto ; Maggi, Rico

Immigrant self-employment rates vary considerably across regions in Switzerland. Business ownership seems to provide an alternative to wage labour, where immigrants have to face structural barriers such as the limited knowledge of the local language, or difficulties in fruitfully making use of their own human capital. Despite the historically high unemployment rates with respect to natives,...

Università della Svizzera italiana

Persistent disparities in regional unemployment : application of a spatial filtering approach to local labour markets in Germany

Patuelli, Roberto ; Schanne, Norbert ; Griffith, Daniel A. ; Nijkamp, Peter

The geographical distribution and persistence of regional/local unemployment rates in heterogeneous economies (such as Germany) have been, in recent years, the subject of various theoretical and empirical studies. Several researchers have shown an interest in analysing the dynamic adjustment processes of unemployment and the average degree of dependence of the current unemployment rates or ...

Università della Svizzera italiana

Trading cultural goods in the era of digital piracy

Patuelli, Roberto ; Lionetti, Stefania

The issue of digital piracy as violation of intellectual property rights is a hot button among many governments around the world. Until now, nor legislation or its enforcement have managed to keep up with the most recent technologies facilitating piracy. Piracy rates may significantly affect both internal demand and international trade of cultural goods. This paper aims to empirically assess...

Università della Svizzera italiana

Neural networks for cross-sectional employment forecasts : a comparison of model specifications for Germany

Patuelli, Roberto ; Reggiani, Aura ; Nijkamp, Peter ; Schanne, Norbert

In this paper, we present a review of various computational experiments – and consequent results – concerning Neural Network (NN) models developed for regional employment forecasting. NNs are widely used in several fields because of their flexible specification structure. Their utilization in studying/predicting economic variables, such as employment or migration, is justified by the...

Università della Svizzera italiana

Spatial filtering and eigenvector stability : Space-time model for German unemployment data

Patuelli, Roberto ; Griffith, Daniel A. ; Tiefelsdorf, Michael ; Nijkamp, Peter

Regions, independent of their geographic level of aggregation, are known to be interrelated partly due to their relative locations. Similar economic performance among regions can be attributed to proximity. Consequently, a proper understanding, and accounting, of spatial liaisons is needed in order to effectively forecast regional economic variables. Several spatial econometric techniques are...

Università della Svizzera italiana

A spatial-dependence continuous-time model for regional unemployment in Germany

Oud, Johan H.L. ; Folmer, Henk ; Patuelli, Roberto ; Nijkamp, Peter

This paper analyzes patterns of regional labour market development in Germany over the period 2000-2003 by means of a spatial-dependence continuous-time model. (Spatial) panel data are routinely modelled in discrete time. However, there are compelling arguments for continuous time modelling of (spatial) panel data. Particularly, most social processes evolve in continuous time such that analysis...

Università della Svizzera italiana

Poolability and aggregation problems of regional innovation data : an application to nanomaterial patenting

Patuelli, Roberto ; Vaona, Andrea ; Grimpe, Christoph

Research and development (R&D) in the field of nanomaterials is expected to be a major driver of innovation and economic growth. In this respect, many countries, as national systems of innovation, have established support programs offering subsidies for industry- and government-funded R&D. Consequently, it is of great interest to understand which factors facilitate the creation of new...