Alessandra Michelangeli | Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca (original) (raw)

Papers by Alessandra Michelangeli

Social Science Research Network, 2010

This paper provides an assessment of quality of life in Italian cities using the hedonic approach... more This paper provides an assessment of quality of life in Italian cities using the hedonic approach. We analyze micro-level data for housing and labor markets to estimate compensating differentials for local amenities within five domains: climate, environment, services, society and economy. The estimated implicit prices are used to construct overall and domain-specific quality of life indices. We find that differences in amenities are reflected in substantial compensating differentials in housing prices, whereas the effects on wages are relatively small. Quality of life varies substantially across space and is strongly related to differences in public services and economic conditions. Overall, quality of life is highest in medium-sized cities of the Center-North, displaying relatively high scores in all the domains considered. Northern cities fare better with respect to services, social and economic conditions, while relatively worse for climate and environmental conditions.

RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, 2017

In this paper we exploit data at regional level on decentralized public expenditure provided by C... more In this paper we exploit data at regional level on decentralized public expenditure provided by Conti pubblici territoriali from 1996 to 2014 and we decompose decentralized public expenditure into current and capital spending. The aim is to disentangle their specific effect on economic growth. Since literature does not provide unanimous indication about the effect of different component of expenditure on growth, we consider a generalized additive model, which is a semi-parametric estimation method that allows more flexibility than conventional estimation techniques. Our findings show a non-linear effect, that is different according to categories of expenditure. More specifically, the effect of capital expenditure is positive, while, decentralized current expenditure tends to have a negative effect on the rate of economic growth

We examine several functional and numerical measures of wage discrimination in the spirit of the ... more We examine several functional and numerical measures of wage discrimination in the spirit of the Lorenz curve. The First Order discrimination curve is based on the comparison of the wage CDF of two subpopulations. Three di¤erent Second Order discrimination curves are derived to re…ne the …rst one by taking into account inequality and/or e¢ ciency in the wage distribution across the two groups. We explore the relationship between these curves and some Butler and McDonald (1987) developed about two decades ago the similar concept of interdistributional Lorenz curve and the main idea of our paper was already implicit in the work of some other scholars. However, our paper seems to constitute the …rst systematic study of these curves as a …rst step towards the derivation of partial dominance criteria in the analysis of discrimination data. y We thank Alain Trannoy for useful comments. The usual disclaimer applies.

Research in Globalization

Is actual income inequality accurately translated into people's perceptions, and what are the gen... more Is actual income inequality accurately translated into people's perceptions, and what are the genuine hopes of citizens? Our contribution offers insights into how the reality and two subjective dimensions of income inequality, namely perceptions, and desires, interact. Using data from the Eurobarometer, we study the main patterns of different 'types' of inequality (measured by S80/S20 ratio) in the regions of the EU Member States. Considering the role of attitudes and beliefs, the residents of the same region are typically found to hold a similar perception of how unequal their society is. Moreover, and somewhat surprisingly, the reality is contrary to people's perception since low (high) actual income inequality in the region is often reflected in its overestimated (underestimated) perception. We also show that perceived, and desired inequality are distinct metrics as commonly applied determinants of perceptions are rather weakly associated with desired inequality, probably due to the normative nature of the latter. The evidence presented here implies that objective measures of income inequality should be used in conjunction with subjective ones to gain a complete picture of the phenomenon. Our findings may assist policy-makers and other interested stakeholders in designing dedicated policies to counteract inequality in all its forms.

13th World Congress of the RSAI - Regional Science Association International, 2021

RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, 2004

L'opération de rénovation urbaine concernant le quartier de la Goutte d'Or dans le 18ème arrondis... more L'opération de rénovation urbaine concernant le quartier de la Goutte d'Or dans le 18ème arrondissement de Paris a débuté en 1985 et se poursuit jusqu'à nos jours. Nous nous intéressons à l'évaluation d'une telle opération par le marché du logement. A cette fin, nous utilisons une base de données sur les prix de transaction (380 000 observations sur la période 1981-2001) qui nous permet d'étudier la dynamique de ce marché à travers l'estimation d'indices *. Nous remercions Anne Lafferrère John Quigley, Nancy Wallace et deux rapporteurs anonymes pour des commentaires. Nous remercions la Chambre des Notaires de Paris de nous avoir permis d'utiliser leur base primaire ainsi que la CDC et le ministère de la recherche (Programme ACIV) pour leur soutien. Les idées exprimées ici n'engagent pas ces institutions.

Regional Studies, Feb 23, 2022

In the last decades cities have been affected by dramatic changes due to the so-called megatrends... more In the last decades cities have been affected by dramatic changes due to the so-called megatrends such as globalization, digitalization, climate change and resource scarcity. Such transformations have been accompanied by structural changes moving resources from traditional low-productivity activities to modern, more productive industries. These phenomena are challenges cities have to face and involve a growing number of people over time. Indeed, the proportion of the population living in urban areas is dramatically rising. Since 2007, more than half of the total population worldwide has been located in cities, and in 2050, 70% of the total population is expected to live in urban areas. In this constantly changing world, the elements determining quality of life are also changing.Many definitions of quality of life have been proposed in the social sciences. InThe City and Quality of Life, Peter Karl Kresl highlights the evolution of the concept of quality of life over time in accordance with the evolution of the economy. He looks at this ever-changing world focusing on quality of life in contemporary cities. Cities are drawn as places that must be able to keep up with the times if theywant to be competitive and attract people looking for a better life. Chapter 2, a survey of previous studies, shows how variables used to assess urban quality of life have changed over time. Items related to environment and climate conditions have been replaced by diversity, creativity and local culture. All these elements are important in determining the quality of life of a particular subgroup of citizens composed of highly skilled, highly mobile, ambitious and, often, family-oriented younger workers. Kresl focuses on them since they are central to today’s economy of knowledge and advanced technology. Well-paid young workers have different needs and behaviours in their daily life in comparison with workers employed in the former traditional economy based on manufacturing sector. Cities that want to take charge of its future development and the nature of its future economy have to valorize aspects of city life and structures that have the power to attract and retain the categories of workers who contribute to the development of the dominant economy. The capacity of cities to attract high-skilled workers is related to the city’s competitiveness. Kresl explains the notion of urban competitiveness, pointing out the differences with the notion of competitiveness of a firm. Quality of life is basically viewed as a determinant of urban competitiveness. The next step for the author is to examine the impact of quality of life on the nature and structure of a city’s economy. The evolution of both goes hand in hand. A dominant economy has evolved from manufacturing to retail and services to advanced technology. The labour force has changed accordingly. Quality of life has changed as well. One chapter is devoted to demographic aspects in relation to the quality of life. Some of them, such as migration, religion and sexual identification, can cause conflict and tensions within the city’s residents. This, in turn, has a negative impact on the quality of life of residents. Kresl emphasizes the important role that the political system could play putting in place public policies to curb discrimination with regard to race, religion and sexual preferences, as well as anti-immigration sentiment. The benefits of such policies – also in terms of a better quality of life – would go beyond cities’ boundaries to spread to the whole country. Other demographic issues related to population growth and population size lead the author to wonder about the optimal city size and its relationship to the quality of life. As Kresl points out, different optimal city sizes have been suggested by economists who analyse the effects of economies of agglomeration, economies of scale, effects of diversity, availability of public and other services. On the contrary, an optimal city size for quality of life has never been identified. Cities of all sizes are potentially fine. Individuals choose a living and working arrangement according to their personal preferences in order to maximize their quality of life. In the last part of the book, Kresl focuses on amenities as determinants of urban quality of life. The amenities are location-specific characteristics with positive or negative effects on an individual’s utility. A general consensus exists within the economic literature on urban quality of life about the types of amenities that are most important to household location decision and quality of life. Theory suggests that amenities should be measured in a way that fully captures how consumers view them. Objective measures are clearly the easiest to obtain. Kresl select eight amenities central to a city’s quality of life. However, the impact of an amenity on quality of life is not the same for all residents. The impact can be dramatically different depending on the…

RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, Jun 1, 2014

The standard index of urban quality of life provides an approximated value of the quality of life... more The standard index of urban quality of life provides an approximated value of the quality of life, since it associates the bundles of amenities observed in urban areas with their implicit marginal prices, and not with the prices of infra-marginal units. In this paper, we adjust the standard measure to determine the monetary value of any bundle, which might substantially differ from the bundle of the marginal quantities of amenities. Our methodology relies on a welfare measure that represents the individual willingness to give up (accept) to insure (forego) a change in the current distribution of amenities across areas will take place, keeping the level of utility unchanged. We obtain a new measure, the value-adjusted quality of life index, that can be identified from parametric models of consumer preferences. We use this index to measure the quality of life in the city of Milan.

This paper provides a comprehensive overview of urban inequality in the Stockholm Metropolitan Ar... more This paper provides a comprehensive overview of urban inequality in the Stockholm Metropolitan Area analyzing the spatial distribution of amenities and their accessibility. Inequality in urban amenities is measured by a multidimensional index that can be decomposed into the sum of inequality indices computed on the marginal distributions of amenities across locations plus a residual term accounting for their joint distribution. Our research leverages a unique dataset that combines income data for approximately 200,000 geocoded individuals residing in the metropolitan area with information from the OpenStreetMap platform, enabling us to examine the distribution of both natural and urban design-related amenities. Furthermore, we integrate data from online platforms to analyze the housing market, merging it with geocoded information. Our findings reveal moderate levels of inequality in amenities within the Stockholm Metropolitan Area, with social segregation emerging as the primary dri...

AStA Advances in Statistical Analysis

This paper proposes an M-quantile regression approach to address the heterogeneity of the housing... more This paper proposes an M-quantile regression approach to address the heterogeneity of the housing market in a modern European city. We show how M-quantile modelling is a rich and flexible tool for empirical market price data analysis, allowing us to obtain a robust estimation of the hedonic price function whilst accounting for different sources of heterogeneity in market prices. The suggested methodology can generally be used to analyse nonlinear interactions between prices and predictors. In particular, we develop a spatial semiparametric M-quantile model to capture both the potential nonlinear effects of the cultural environment on pricing and spatial trends. In both cases, nonlinearity is introduced into the model using appropriate bases functions. We show how the implicit price associated with the variable that measures cultural amenities can be determined in this semiparametric framework. Our findings show that the effect of several housing attributes and urban amenities differ...

Regional Studies, 2022

In the last decades cities have been affected by dramatic changes due to the so-called megatrends... more In the last decades cities have been affected by dramatic changes due to the so-called megatrends such as globalization, digitalization, climate change and resource scarcity. Such transformations have been accompanied by structural changes moving resources from traditional low-productivity activities to modern, more productive industries. These phenomena are challenges cities have to face and involve a growing number of people over time. Indeed, the proportion of the population living in urban areas is dramatically rising. Since 2007, more than half of the total population worldwide has been located in cities, and in 2050, 70% of the total population is expected to live in urban areas. In this constantly changing world, the elements determining quality of life are also changing.Many definitions of quality of life have been proposed in the social sciences. InThe City and Quality of Life, Peter Karl Kresl highlights the evolution of the concept of quality of life over time in accordance with the evolution of the economy. He looks at this ever-changing world focusing on quality of life in contemporary cities. Cities are drawn as places that must be able to keep up with the times if theywant to be competitive and attract people looking for a better life. Chapter 2, a survey of previous studies, shows how variables used to assess urban quality of life have changed over time. Items related to environment and climate conditions have been replaced by diversity, creativity and local culture. All these elements are important in determining the quality of life of a particular subgroup of citizens composed of highly skilled, highly mobile, ambitious and, often, family-oriented younger workers. Kresl focuses on them since they are central to today’s economy of knowledge and advanced technology. Well-paid young workers have different needs and behaviours in their daily life in comparison with workers employed in the former traditional economy based on manufacturing sector. Cities that want to take charge of its future development and the nature of its future economy have to valorize aspects of city life and structures that have the power to attract and retain the categories of workers who contribute to the development of the dominant economy. The capacity of cities to attract high-skilled workers is related to the city’s competitiveness. Kresl explains the notion of urban competitiveness, pointing out the differences with the notion of competitiveness of a firm. Quality of life is basically viewed as a determinant of urban competitiveness. The next step for the author is to examine the impact of quality of life on the nature and structure of a city’s economy. The evolution of both goes hand in hand. A dominant economy has evolved from manufacturing to retail and services to advanced technology. The labour force has changed accordingly. Quality of life has changed as well. One chapter is devoted to demographic aspects in relation to the quality of life. Some of them, such as migration, religion and sexual identification, can cause conflict and tensions within the city’s residents. This, in turn, has a negative impact on the quality of life of residents. Kresl emphasizes the important role that the political system could play putting in place public policies to curb discrimination with regard to race, religion and sexual preferences, as well as anti-immigration sentiment. The benefits of such policies – also in terms of a better quality of life – would go beyond cities’ boundaries to spread to the whole country. Other demographic issues related to population growth and population size lead the author to wonder about the optimal city size and its relationship to the quality of life. As Kresl points out, different optimal city sizes have been suggested by economists who analyse the effects of economies of agglomeration, economies of scale, effects of diversity, availability of public and other services. On the contrary, an optimal city size for quality of life has never been identified. Cities of all sizes are potentially fine. Individuals choose a living and working arrangement according to their personal preferences in order to maximize their quality of life. In the last part of the book, Kresl focuses on amenities as determinants of urban quality of life. The amenities are location-specific characteristics with positive or negative effects on an individual’s utility. A general consensus exists within the economic literature on urban quality of life about the types of amenities that are most important to household location decision and quality of life. Theory suggests that amenities should be measured in a way that fully captures how consumers view them. Objective measures are clearly the easiest to obtain. Kresl select eight amenities central to a city’s quality of life. However, the impact of an amenity on quality of life is not the same for all residents. The impact can be dramatically different depending on the…

University of Milan Bicocca Department of Economics, 2021

During the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, different countries adopted different strategies in or... more During the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, different countries adopted different strategies in order to mitigate the effects of the pandemic. Regarding higher education, university studies were moved entirely to digital solutions in some countries, while other countries kept the universities open but restricted access. The sudden move to digital educational solutions affected students differently, and since different countries invented different mitigation strategies we got an opportunity to compare the effects of lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic on university students’ performance in Italy, Sweden, and Turkey. We employ a difference-in-differences approach by exploiting the fact that Italy and Turkey experienced national lockdowns, while Sweden never applied nationwide mandatory restrictive measures. We use administrative data from universities in the three countries to estimate the probability to pass exams after the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic (and the shift to distance...

This paper proposes an innovative methodology to assess inequality between different urban areas.... more This paper proposes an innovative methodology to assess inequality between different urban areas. We focus on urban inequality generated by the uneven distribution of amenities. Individuals are assumed to be averse to an unequal accessibility to amenities. Individuals? inequality aversion is embedded in a social welfare function from which a parametric multidimensional index for inequality is derived. This index is composed of unidimensional inequality indices, accounting for the particular accessibility to each amenity between urban areas, plus a residual term summarising any correlation among the distribution of amenities. The main advantage of the index is that it allows to disentangle the contribution of each amenity accessibility to the overall index from the joint effect of the amenities. The residual term is also interpreted as the degree of complementarity/substituability among different amenities. The multidimensional inequality index depends on a set of parameters measurin...

In recent studies, there has been a growing interest toward tolerance and its implications in soc... more In recent studies, there has been a growing interest toward tolerance and its implications in social and economic systems. So far, the openness of people to homosexuals or to foreign-born people has been considered the best indicator of tolerant attitudes. In this paper, we consider tolerance as a multi-faced phenomenon involving several different social domains. The aim is to provide some recommendations on how to develop a multidimensional index for tolerance in the case of survey’s items measured by Likert-scale. Our discussion relies on a case study about a student survey carried out at Milan-Bicocca University Abstract In studi recenti, c’è stato un crescente interesse verso la tolleranza e le sue implicazioni nei sistemi sociali ed economici. Finora, l’apertura delle persone agli omosessuali o alle persone nate all’estero è stata considerata il miglior indicatore di atteggiamenti tolleranti. In questo lavoro, consideriamo la tolleranza come un fenomeno dalle molteplici sfaccet...

Social Science Research Network, May 30, 2020

This paper provides a comprehensive overview of intergenerational income mobility in Sweden. Inte... more This paper provides a comprehensive overview of intergenerational income mobility in Sweden. Intergenerational income mobility is considered in both relative and absolute terms, and the analysis is carried out at the individual and municipality-level. We use multilevel models to explore the correlation between upward mobility and social, economic and demographic characteristics of cities. The analyses is carried out on three subpopulations: offspring who live in a different municipality than their parents (mobile population); offspring who live in the municipality where they grew up (immobile population); offspring belonging to visible minority groups. Our results confirm those of previous studies showing a relatively high intergenerational mobility in Sweden compared to other European and North American countries. Substantial differences are observed across municipalities meaning that the particular combination of municipality attributes contributes to shaping the chance of status attainment among young generations. Highly mobile municipalities have more significant human capital, more residential segregation by income, more income inequality, and greater accessibility to jobs.

In this paper we exploit data at regional level on decentralized public expenditure provided by C... more In this paper we exploit data at regional level on decentralized public expenditure provided by Conti pubblici territoriali from 1996 to 2014 and we decompose decentralized public expenditure into current and capital spending. The aim is to disentangle their specific effect on economic growth. Since literature does not provide unanimous indication about the effect of different component of expenditure on growth, we consider a generalized additive model, which is a semi-parametric estimation method that allows more flexibility than conventional estimation techniques. Our findings show a on-linear effect, that is different according to categories of expenditure. More specifically, the effect of capital expenditure is positive, while, decentralized current expenditure tends to have a negative effect on the rate of economic growth.

Social Science Research Network, 2010

This paper provides an assessment of quality of life in Italian cities using the hedonic approach... more This paper provides an assessment of quality of life in Italian cities using the hedonic approach. We analyze micro-level data for housing and labor markets to estimate compensating differentials for local amenities within five domains: climate, environment, services, society and economy. The estimated implicit prices are used to construct overall and domain-specific quality of life indices. We find that differences in amenities are reflected in substantial compensating differentials in housing prices, whereas the effects on wages are relatively small. Quality of life varies substantially across space and is strongly related to differences in public services and economic conditions. Overall, quality of life is highest in medium-sized cities of the Center-North, displaying relatively high scores in all the domains considered. Northern cities fare better with respect to services, social and economic conditions, while relatively worse for climate and environmental conditions.

RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, 2017

In this paper we exploit data at regional level on decentralized public expenditure provided by C... more In this paper we exploit data at regional level on decentralized public expenditure provided by Conti pubblici territoriali from 1996 to 2014 and we decompose decentralized public expenditure into current and capital spending. The aim is to disentangle their specific effect on economic growth. Since literature does not provide unanimous indication about the effect of different component of expenditure on growth, we consider a generalized additive model, which is a semi-parametric estimation method that allows more flexibility than conventional estimation techniques. Our findings show a non-linear effect, that is different according to categories of expenditure. More specifically, the effect of capital expenditure is positive, while, decentralized current expenditure tends to have a negative effect on the rate of economic growth

We examine several functional and numerical measures of wage discrimination in the spirit of the ... more We examine several functional and numerical measures of wage discrimination in the spirit of the Lorenz curve. The First Order discrimination curve is based on the comparison of the wage CDF of two subpopulations. Three di¤erent Second Order discrimination curves are derived to re…ne the …rst one by taking into account inequality and/or e¢ ciency in the wage distribution across the two groups. We explore the relationship between these curves and some Butler and McDonald (1987) developed about two decades ago the similar concept of interdistributional Lorenz curve and the main idea of our paper was already implicit in the work of some other scholars. However, our paper seems to constitute the …rst systematic study of these curves as a …rst step towards the derivation of partial dominance criteria in the analysis of discrimination data. y We thank Alain Trannoy for useful comments. The usual disclaimer applies.

Research in Globalization

Is actual income inequality accurately translated into people's perceptions, and what are the gen... more Is actual income inequality accurately translated into people's perceptions, and what are the genuine hopes of citizens? Our contribution offers insights into how the reality and two subjective dimensions of income inequality, namely perceptions, and desires, interact. Using data from the Eurobarometer, we study the main patterns of different 'types' of inequality (measured by S80/S20 ratio) in the regions of the EU Member States. Considering the role of attitudes and beliefs, the residents of the same region are typically found to hold a similar perception of how unequal their society is. Moreover, and somewhat surprisingly, the reality is contrary to people's perception since low (high) actual income inequality in the region is often reflected in its overestimated (underestimated) perception. We also show that perceived, and desired inequality are distinct metrics as commonly applied determinants of perceptions are rather weakly associated with desired inequality, probably due to the normative nature of the latter. The evidence presented here implies that objective measures of income inequality should be used in conjunction with subjective ones to gain a complete picture of the phenomenon. Our findings may assist policy-makers and other interested stakeholders in designing dedicated policies to counteract inequality in all its forms.

13th World Congress of the RSAI - Regional Science Association International, 2021

RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, 2004

L'opération de rénovation urbaine concernant le quartier de la Goutte d'Or dans le 18ème arrondis... more L'opération de rénovation urbaine concernant le quartier de la Goutte d'Or dans le 18ème arrondissement de Paris a débuté en 1985 et se poursuit jusqu'à nos jours. Nous nous intéressons à l'évaluation d'une telle opération par le marché du logement. A cette fin, nous utilisons une base de données sur les prix de transaction (380 000 observations sur la période 1981-2001) qui nous permet d'étudier la dynamique de ce marché à travers l'estimation d'indices *. Nous remercions Anne Lafferrère John Quigley, Nancy Wallace et deux rapporteurs anonymes pour des commentaires. Nous remercions la Chambre des Notaires de Paris de nous avoir permis d'utiliser leur base primaire ainsi que la CDC et le ministère de la recherche (Programme ACIV) pour leur soutien. Les idées exprimées ici n'engagent pas ces institutions.

Regional Studies, Feb 23, 2022

In the last decades cities have been affected by dramatic changes due to the so-called megatrends... more In the last decades cities have been affected by dramatic changes due to the so-called megatrends such as globalization, digitalization, climate change and resource scarcity. Such transformations have been accompanied by structural changes moving resources from traditional low-productivity activities to modern, more productive industries. These phenomena are challenges cities have to face and involve a growing number of people over time. Indeed, the proportion of the population living in urban areas is dramatically rising. Since 2007, more than half of the total population worldwide has been located in cities, and in 2050, 70% of the total population is expected to live in urban areas. In this constantly changing world, the elements determining quality of life are also changing.Many definitions of quality of life have been proposed in the social sciences. InThe City and Quality of Life, Peter Karl Kresl highlights the evolution of the concept of quality of life over time in accordance with the evolution of the economy. He looks at this ever-changing world focusing on quality of life in contemporary cities. Cities are drawn as places that must be able to keep up with the times if theywant to be competitive and attract people looking for a better life. Chapter 2, a survey of previous studies, shows how variables used to assess urban quality of life have changed over time. Items related to environment and climate conditions have been replaced by diversity, creativity and local culture. All these elements are important in determining the quality of life of a particular subgroup of citizens composed of highly skilled, highly mobile, ambitious and, often, family-oriented younger workers. Kresl focuses on them since they are central to today’s economy of knowledge and advanced technology. Well-paid young workers have different needs and behaviours in their daily life in comparison with workers employed in the former traditional economy based on manufacturing sector. Cities that want to take charge of its future development and the nature of its future economy have to valorize aspects of city life and structures that have the power to attract and retain the categories of workers who contribute to the development of the dominant economy. The capacity of cities to attract high-skilled workers is related to the city’s competitiveness. Kresl explains the notion of urban competitiveness, pointing out the differences with the notion of competitiveness of a firm. Quality of life is basically viewed as a determinant of urban competitiveness. The next step for the author is to examine the impact of quality of life on the nature and structure of a city’s economy. The evolution of both goes hand in hand. A dominant economy has evolved from manufacturing to retail and services to advanced technology. The labour force has changed accordingly. Quality of life has changed as well. One chapter is devoted to demographic aspects in relation to the quality of life. Some of them, such as migration, religion and sexual identification, can cause conflict and tensions within the city’s residents. This, in turn, has a negative impact on the quality of life of residents. Kresl emphasizes the important role that the political system could play putting in place public policies to curb discrimination with regard to race, religion and sexual preferences, as well as anti-immigration sentiment. The benefits of such policies – also in terms of a better quality of life – would go beyond cities’ boundaries to spread to the whole country. Other demographic issues related to population growth and population size lead the author to wonder about the optimal city size and its relationship to the quality of life. As Kresl points out, different optimal city sizes have been suggested by economists who analyse the effects of economies of agglomeration, economies of scale, effects of diversity, availability of public and other services. On the contrary, an optimal city size for quality of life has never been identified. Cities of all sizes are potentially fine. Individuals choose a living and working arrangement according to their personal preferences in order to maximize their quality of life. In the last part of the book, Kresl focuses on amenities as determinants of urban quality of life. The amenities are location-specific characteristics with positive or negative effects on an individual’s utility. A general consensus exists within the economic literature on urban quality of life about the types of amenities that are most important to household location decision and quality of life. Theory suggests that amenities should be measured in a way that fully captures how consumers view them. Objective measures are clearly the easiest to obtain. Kresl select eight amenities central to a city’s quality of life. However, the impact of an amenity on quality of life is not the same for all residents. The impact can be dramatically different depending on the…

RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, Jun 1, 2014

The standard index of urban quality of life provides an approximated value of the quality of life... more The standard index of urban quality of life provides an approximated value of the quality of life, since it associates the bundles of amenities observed in urban areas with their implicit marginal prices, and not with the prices of infra-marginal units. In this paper, we adjust the standard measure to determine the monetary value of any bundle, which might substantially differ from the bundle of the marginal quantities of amenities. Our methodology relies on a welfare measure that represents the individual willingness to give up (accept) to insure (forego) a change in the current distribution of amenities across areas will take place, keeping the level of utility unchanged. We obtain a new measure, the value-adjusted quality of life index, that can be identified from parametric models of consumer preferences. We use this index to measure the quality of life in the city of Milan.

This paper provides a comprehensive overview of urban inequality in the Stockholm Metropolitan Ar... more This paper provides a comprehensive overview of urban inequality in the Stockholm Metropolitan Area analyzing the spatial distribution of amenities and their accessibility. Inequality in urban amenities is measured by a multidimensional index that can be decomposed into the sum of inequality indices computed on the marginal distributions of amenities across locations plus a residual term accounting for their joint distribution. Our research leverages a unique dataset that combines income data for approximately 200,000 geocoded individuals residing in the metropolitan area with information from the OpenStreetMap platform, enabling us to examine the distribution of both natural and urban design-related amenities. Furthermore, we integrate data from online platforms to analyze the housing market, merging it with geocoded information. Our findings reveal moderate levels of inequality in amenities within the Stockholm Metropolitan Area, with social segregation emerging as the primary dri...

AStA Advances in Statistical Analysis

This paper proposes an M-quantile regression approach to address the heterogeneity of the housing... more This paper proposes an M-quantile regression approach to address the heterogeneity of the housing market in a modern European city. We show how M-quantile modelling is a rich and flexible tool for empirical market price data analysis, allowing us to obtain a robust estimation of the hedonic price function whilst accounting for different sources of heterogeneity in market prices. The suggested methodology can generally be used to analyse nonlinear interactions between prices and predictors. In particular, we develop a spatial semiparametric M-quantile model to capture both the potential nonlinear effects of the cultural environment on pricing and spatial trends. In both cases, nonlinearity is introduced into the model using appropriate bases functions. We show how the implicit price associated with the variable that measures cultural amenities can be determined in this semiparametric framework. Our findings show that the effect of several housing attributes and urban amenities differ...

Regional Studies, 2022

In the last decades cities have been affected by dramatic changes due to the so-called megatrends... more In the last decades cities have been affected by dramatic changes due to the so-called megatrends such as globalization, digitalization, climate change and resource scarcity. Such transformations have been accompanied by structural changes moving resources from traditional low-productivity activities to modern, more productive industries. These phenomena are challenges cities have to face and involve a growing number of people over time. Indeed, the proportion of the population living in urban areas is dramatically rising. Since 2007, more than half of the total population worldwide has been located in cities, and in 2050, 70% of the total population is expected to live in urban areas. In this constantly changing world, the elements determining quality of life are also changing.Many definitions of quality of life have been proposed in the social sciences. InThe City and Quality of Life, Peter Karl Kresl highlights the evolution of the concept of quality of life over time in accordance with the evolution of the economy. He looks at this ever-changing world focusing on quality of life in contemporary cities. Cities are drawn as places that must be able to keep up with the times if theywant to be competitive and attract people looking for a better life. Chapter 2, a survey of previous studies, shows how variables used to assess urban quality of life have changed over time. Items related to environment and climate conditions have been replaced by diversity, creativity and local culture. All these elements are important in determining the quality of life of a particular subgroup of citizens composed of highly skilled, highly mobile, ambitious and, often, family-oriented younger workers. Kresl focuses on them since they are central to today’s economy of knowledge and advanced technology. Well-paid young workers have different needs and behaviours in their daily life in comparison with workers employed in the former traditional economy based on manufacturing sector. Cities that want to take charge of its future development and the nature of its future economy have to valorize aspects of city life and structures that have the power to attract and retain the categories of workers who contribute to the development of the dominant economy. The capacity of cities to attract high-skilled workers is related to the city’s competitiveness. Kresl explains the notion of urban competitiveness, pointing out the differences with the notion of competitiveness of a firm. Quality of life is basically viewed as a determinant of urban competitiveness. The next step for the author is to examine the impact of quality of life on the nature and structure of a city’s economy. The evolution of both goes hand in hand. A dominant economy has evolved from manufacturing to retail and services to advanced technology. The labour force has changed accordingly. Quality of life has changed as well. One chapter is devoted to demographic aspects in relation to the quality of life. Some of them, such as migration, religion and sexual identification, can cause conflict and tensions within the city’s residents. This, in turn, has a negative impact on the quality of life of residents. Kresl emphasizes the important role that the political system could play putting in place public policies to curb discrimination with regard to race, religion and sexual preferences, as well as anti-immigration sentiment. The benefits of such policies – also in terms of a better quality of life – would go beyond cities’ boundaries to spread to the whole country. Other demographic issues related to population growth and population size lead the author to wonder about the optimal city size and its relationship to the quality of life. As Kresl points out, different optimal city sizes have been suggested by economists who analyse the effects of economies of agglomeration, economies of scale, effects of diversity, availability of public and other services. On the contrary, an optimal city size for quality of life has never been identified. Cities of all sizes are potentially fine. Individuals choose a living and working arrangement according to their personal preferences in order to maximize their quality of life. In the last part of the book, Kresl focuses on amenities as determinants of urban quality of life. The amenities are location-specific characteristics with positive or negative effects on an individual’s utility. A general consensus exists within the economic literature on urban quality of life about the types of amenities that are most important to household location decision and quality of life. Theory suggests that amenities should be measured in a way that fully captures how consumers view them. Objective measures are clearly the easiest to obtain. Kresl select eight amenities central to a city’s quality of life. However, the impact of an amenity on quality of life is not the same for all residents. The impact can be dramatically different depending on the…

University of Milan Bicocca Department of Economics, 2021

During the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, different countries adopted different strategies in or... more During the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, different countries adopted different strategies in order to mitigate the effects of the pandemic. Regarding higher education, university studies were moved entirely to digital solutions in some countries, while other countries kept the universities open but restricted access. The sudden move to digital educational solutions affected students differently, and since different countries invented different mitigation strategies we got an opportunity to compare the effects of lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic on university students’ performance in Italy, Sweden, and Turkey. We employ a difference-in-differences approach by exploiting the fact that Italy and Turkey experienced national lockdowns, while Sweden never applied nationwide mandatory restrictive measures. We use administrative data from universities in the three countries to estimate the probability to pass exams after the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic (and the shift to distance...

This paper proposes an innovative methodology to assess inequality between different urban areas.... more This paper proposes an innovative methodology to assess inequality between different urban areas. We focus on urban inequality generated by the uneven distribution of amenities. Individuals are assumed to be averse to an unequal accessibility to amenities. Individuals? inequality aversion is embedded in a social welfare function from which a parametric multidimensional index for inequality is derived. This index is composed of unidimensional inequality indices, accounting for the particular accessibility to each amenity between urban areas, plus a residual term summarising any correlation among the distribution of amenities. The main advantage of the index is that it allows to disentangle the contribution of each amenity accessibility to the overall index from the joint effect of the amenities. The residual term is also interpreted as the degree of complementarity/substituability among different amenities. The multidimensional inequality index depends on a set of parameters measurin...

In recent studies, there has been a growing interest toward tolerance and its implications in soc... more In recent studies, there has been a growing interest toward tolerance and its implications in social and economic systems. So far, the openness of people to homosexuals or to foreign-born people has been considered the best indicator of tolerant attitudes. In this paper, we consider tolerance as a multi-faced phenomenon involving several different social domains. The aim is to provide some recommendations on how to develop a multidimensional index for tolerance in the case of survey’s items measured by Likert-scale. Our discussion relies on a case study about a student survey carried out at Milan-Bicocca University Abstract In studi recenti, c’è stato un crescente interesse verso la tolleranza e le sue implicazioni nei sistemi sociali ed economici. Finora, l’apertura delle persone agli omosessuali o alle persone nate all’estero è stata considerata il miglior indicatore di atteggiamenti tolleranti. In questo lavoro, consideriamo la tolleranza come un fenomeno dalle molteplici sfaccet...

Social Science Research Network, May 30, 2020

This paper provides a comprehensive overview of intergenerational income mobility in Sweden. Inte... more This paper provides a comprehensive overview of intergenerational income mobility in Sweden. Intergenerational income mobility is considered in both relative and absolute terms, and the analysis is carried out at the individual and municipality-level. We use multilevel models to explore the correlation between upward mobility and social, economic and demographic characteristics of cities. The analyses is carried out on three subpopulations: offspring who live in a different municipality than their parents (mobile population); offspring who live in the municipality where they grew up (immobile population); offspring belonging to visible minority groups. Our results confirm those of previous studies showing a relatively high intergenerational mobility in Sweden compared to other European and North American countries. Substantial differences are observed across municipalities meaning that the particular combination of municipality attributes contributes to shaping the chance of status attainment among young generations. Highly mobile municipalities have more significant human capital, more residential segregation by income, more income inequality, and greater accessibility to jobs.

In this paper we exploit data at regional level on decentralized public expenditure provided by C... more In this paper we exploit data at regional level on decentralized public expenditure provided by Conti pubblici territoriali from 1996 to 2014 and we decompose decentralized public expenditure into current and capital spending. The aim is to disentangle their specific effect on economic growth. Since literature does not provide unanimous indication about the effect of different component of expenditure on growth, we consider a generalized additive model, which is a semi-parametric estimation method that allows more flexibility than conventional estimation techniques. Our findings show a on-linear effect, that is different according to categories of expenditure. More specifically, the effect of capital expenditure is positive, while, decentralized current expenditure tends to have a negative effect on the rate of economic growth.