Mobility In Italy Research Articles

Smart City Scenario Editor for General What-If Analysis.

Due to increasing urbanization, nowadays, cities are facing challenges spanning multiple domains such as mobility, energy, environment, etc. For example, to reduce traffic congestion, energy consumption, and excessive pollution, big data gathered from legacy systems (e.g., sensors not conformant with modern standards), geographic information systems, gateways of public administrations, and Internet of Things technologies can be exploited to provide insights to assess the current status of a city. Moreover, the possibility to perform what-if analyses is fundamental to analyzing the impact of possible changes in the urban environment. The few available solutions for scenario definitions and analyses are limited to addressing a single domain and providing proprietary formats and tools, with scarce flexibility. Therefore, in this paper, we present a novel scenario model and editor integrated into the open-source Snap4City.org platform to enable several processing and what-if analyses in multiple domains. Different from state-of-the-art software, the proposed solution responds to a series of identified requirements, implements NGSIv2-compliant data models with formal descriptions of the urban context, and a scenario versioning method. Moreover, it allows us to carry out analyses on different domains, as shown with some examples. As a case study, a traffic congestion analysis is provided, confirming the validity and usefulness of the proposed solution. This work was developed in the context of CN MOST, the National Center on Sustainable Mobility in Italy, and for the Tourismo EC project.

Data Sources and Models for Integrated Mobility and Transport Solutions.

The number of data sources and models in the mobility and transport domain strongly proliferated in the last decade. Most formats have been created to enable specific and innovative applications. On the other hand, the available data models present a certain degree of complexity in terms of their integration and management due to partial overlaps, and in most cases, they could be exploited alternatively to implement the same smart and latest innovative solutions. This paper offers an overview of data models, standards and their relationships. A second contribution highlights any possible exploitation of data models for implementing operational processes for city transportation management and for the feeding of simulation and optimization processes that produce other data results in other data models. The final goal in most cases is the monitoring and control of city transport conditions, as well as the tactic and strategic planning of city infrastructure. This work was developed in the context of the CN MOST, a national center of sustainable mobility in Italy, and it is based on exploiting the Snap4City platform.

Gender bias in university student mobility: a cohort analysis in Italy

PurposeThis paper aims to assess gender bias in Italian university student mobility controlling for the field of study. It uses data from the Italian National Student Archive (Anagrafe Nazionale degli Studenti – ANS) for the cohort of freshmen enrolled in the 2017 academic year. The macro-regional comparison unfolds across the following areas: North and Centre, Southern Italy and main Islands (Sicily and Sardinia).Design/methodology/approachThe analysis is firstly carried out at the national level, and secondly, it focusses on macro-geographical areas. University mobility choices are thus investigated from a gender perspective, conditioning upon other theoretically relevant characteristics collected for the prospective first-year university student population enrolled in 2017. The authors analyse data in a regression setting (logit models) within the multilevel framework, which considers students at level 1 and the field of study at level 2. Gender differences in the propensity to be a mover – conditional upon the choice of the field of study – were captured by introducing random intercepts to account for clustering of students in fields of study and random slopes to allow the gender effect to differ among them.FindingsFindings show that university student mobility in Italy leads evidence of gender bias. This has been detected using a multilevel random slope approach that allowed the authors to jointly estimate a slope parameter for gender within each field of study. Moreover, using a regression setting allowed the authors to control for heterogeneity in geographical, educational and socio-demographic characteristics across students. In line with previous empirical findings, the authors' data highlight the presence of a relevant mobility flow of university students from the South toward the North-Centre of Italy and lower mobility of female students compared to male students from the South and Islands.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors' knowledge, there are no studies in Italy, which investigate if families' investment in higher education in terms of selection of no-local universities are affected by gender bias and if geographical differences in this behaviour between macro-areas are in place. Thus, investigating students' choices in tertiary education allows the authors to shed light on the presence of gender bias in families' education strategies addressed to increase the endowment of students' assets for future job opportunities.

“Non-competing social groups”? The long debate on social mobility in Italy (c. 1890–1960)

In the light of the recent literature on the intellectual history of inequality, this paper offers the first survey and a tentative classification of the Italian literature addressing issues related to social mobility, from the late 19th century to the “Economic Miracle” of the 1950s. During these decades, the foremost Italian economists and statisticians (among others, Pareto, Gini, Einaudi and Pantaleoni) worked on issues highly related to the modern understanding of social mobility, from the role of inheritance to the intergenerational transmission of status. While reflecting the evolution and debates in Italian society, these authors also participated in a broader international debate, which should lead us to reconsider the supposed lack of interest in inequality among the economists of this period.

SentiSfaction: New cultural way to measure tourist COVID-19 mobility in Italy

From a psycho-linguistic and marketing perspective, the research fits into the evaluation of in the context of tourism and, in particular, tourism mobility, targeting one of the leading Italian rail transport companies, namely Trenitalia. This study, conducted on tweets, aims to examine how talks about the transport service offered by Trenitalia. A total of 674 tweets for the tourist season 2019 and 100 tweets for the tourist season 2020 were collected following the pre-COVID-19 and COVID-19 period. The methodology is the application of sentiment analysis (SA) that produces quantitative and qualitative results. For the quantitative part, the sentiment was calculated first automatically via the Sentistrength software, then an extraction of the frequencies and calculation of the dependence (Chi-square statistic and t-test) between year and polarity was conducted with R, statistical software. The results show that SA is a good methodology of analysis of the online reputation and customer satisfaction of a company that deals with tourism, also in the difference between pre-COVID-19 and COVID-19 period.

What do people want? An analysis of citizens’ willingness to use Advanced Air Mobility in Italy

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the drivers of citizens’ willingness to use Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) systems, focusing on individual and regional features. We analyse Italian data using a multinomial logit model. Our results show that individuals’ job positions, flying habits, and prior experience with drones positively influence such willingness. We also find that regional features matter, with respondents living in poorly-connected and less innovative regions being more willing than others to use AAM.

Social capital and patients’ mobility in Italy

ABSTRACT Using a 10-year (2006–15) regional dataset on hospital discharges, we estimate the determinants of Italian regional outflow rates while also including three proxies for social capital: the quality of friendships, the involvement in social activities and the ratio of blood donors to the population. We find a significant push effect from the lack of social capital intended as generalized expectation of cooperative behaviour (proxied by blood donors); this does not hold true for the other two proxies of social capital. The lack of a cultural context where norms of reciprocity matter may reduce regions’ ability to retain their patients.

And Yet It Moves: Intergenerational Mobility in Italy

We estimate intergenerational income mobility in Italy using administrative data from tax returns. Our estimates of mobility are higher than prior work using survey data and indirect methods. The rankrank slope of parent-child income is 0.22, compared to 0.18 in Denmark and 0.34 in the United States. The probability that a child reaches the top quintile of the national income distribution starting from a family in the bottom quintile is 0.11. We uncover substantial geographical variation: upward mobility is much stronger in northern Italy, where provinces have higher measured school quality, more stable families, and more favorable labor market conditions. (JEL D31, J31, J62, R23)

Evaluation of levelized cost of hydrogen produced by wind electrolysis: Argentine and Italian production scenarios

Green hydrogen will play a key role in the future energy transition to achieve the main decarbonization goals. However, many large economies have limited renewable energy generation capacity, which leads to the identification of strategic sites for the global export of hydrogen. The aim of this work is to investigate the techno-economic feasibility of green hydrogen production in Argentine Patagonia with subsequent ship transport to Italy. The study includes the entire supply chain, from the production of hydrogen with renewable energy sources to its final use as a fuel for mobility in Italy. Different scenarios have been identified and compared, considering that the hydrogen production can take place directly in Italy or in Patagonia, followed by a transport to Italy. It was assumed that hydrogen is produced through PEM electrolyzers powered by wind energy. Various hydrogen transport and storage methods were analyzed to assess which is the most cost-effective solution. In addition, the influence of wind capacity factor and electricity cost on the levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH) was analyzed to provide an in-depth comparative assessment of the two production scenarios. Even considering the additional transport costs from Argentina to Italy, the scenario with hydrogen production in Patagonia was found to be more convenient than the production in Italy. This is due to the high wind potential in Patagonia, where the average wind capacity factor is about 50% compared to 25% in Italy. The minimum LCOH was obtained considering the storage and transport of hydrogen by means of liquid organic hydrogen carriers, with a final cost of 8.60 €/kgH2 and 11.17 €/kgH2 for the Argentine and Italian production scenarios, respectively. The results of the complete supply chains were analyzed step by step, and the reasons behind the most competitive option elucidated in detail.

The long-tail effect of the COVID-19 lockdown on Italians’ quality of life, sleep and physical activity

From March 2020 to May 2021, several lockdown periods caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have limited people’s usual activities and mobility in Italy, as well as around the world. These unprecedented confinement measures dramatically modified citizens’ daily lifestyles and behaviours. However, with the advent of summer 2021 and thanks to the vaccination campaign that significantly prevents serious illness and death, and reduces the risk of contagion, all the Italian regions finally returned to regular behaviours and routines. Anyhow, it is unclear if there is a long-tail effect on people’s quality of life, sleep- and physical activity-related behaviours. Thanks to the dataset described in this paper, it will be possible to obtain accurate insights of the changes induced by the lockdown period in the Italians’ health that will permit to provide practical suggestions at local, regional, and state institutions and companies to improve infrastructures and services that could be beneficial to Italians’ well being.

The Impact of Hospital Accessibility on Interregional Patient Mobility in Italy.

Patient mobility represents a proxy measure to assess the quality and availability of hospital services, especially in decentralized health systems. Different studies have been focused on the interregional mobility in Italy to capture factors influencing this phenomenon. Among them, hospital capacity is generally captured through the number of beds per population. However, this indicator does not consider the distance to hospitals and the accessibility of extra-regional beds, in particular for patients living at the regional borders. The aim of this paper is to analyse the effect of extra-regional spatial accessibility component on patient mobility among the Italian regions. This can help to capture the level of equity in the provision of services across the country providing a snapshot of the distribution of beds over the territory. Moreover, this study contributes to gain a deeper understanding of the allocation of health resources providing input for policy makers on the basis of the principles of service accessibility.

Inter-Regional Hospital Patients' Mobility in Italy.

Background: The federalization of the Italian National Health Service (NHS) gave administrative, financial, and managerial independence to regions. They are in reciprocal competition according to the “quasi-market” model. A network of independent providers replaced the state monopoly. The NHS, based on the Beveridge model in which citizens are free to choose their place of treatment, was consolidated. The aim of our research was to analyze the fulfillment of need for hospital services on site and patients’ migration to hospitals of other regions. Material and Methods: We analyzed data from 2013 to 2017 of Hospital Discharge Cards (HDCs) provided by the Ministry of Health. The subjects of the analysis (catchment areas) were the hospital networks of every Italian region. The study of flows was developed through Internal Demand Satisfaction, Attraction, Escape, Attraction, Absorption, and Escape Production indexes. Graphic representations were produced using Gandy’s Nomogram and Qgis software. Results: In the studied period, the mean number of mobility admission was 678.659 ± 3.388, with an increase of 0.90%; in particular, the trend for ordinary regime increased 1.17%. Regions of central/northern Italy have attracted more than 60% of the escapes of the southern ones. Gandy’s Nomogram showed that only nine regions had optimal public hospital planning (Lombardy, Autonomous Province of Bolzano, Veneto, Friuli V.G., Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany, Umbria, Latium and Molise). Conclusion: The central/northern regions appear more able to meet the care needs of their citizens and to attract patients than the southern ones.

Pediatric interregional healthcare mobility in Italy

BackgroundThe analysis of interregional healthcare mobility represents one of the main criteria for evaluating Regional Healthcare Systems, both in terms of its economic-financial relevance and the quality and satisfaction of the services provided. The aim of the study is to analyze healthcare mobility and its associated cost in Italy in 2019 for all children ≤ 14 years of age.MethodsWe collected data from the “Rapporto annuale sull’attività di ricovero ospedaliero – Dati SDO 2019” published by the Italian Ministry of Health. These data represent the tool for collecting information relating to all hospitalization services provided in accredited public and private hospitals present throughout the national territory. We collected data for all Italian regions and clustered them in two geographical areas: Center-North regions and South regions (including Sicily and Sardinia). We have analyzed the magnitude of the mobility of children among regions and in particular from the South to the Center-North and the relative cost of this interregional mobility.Results The hospitalization rate of children residing in the South regions was higher than that of children residing in the Center-North regions (13.9% vs 12.3%). Children residing in the South were more frequently treated in other regions than those living in the Center-North (11.9% vs 6.9%). Even considering the high complexity hospitalizations, children living in the South more frequently underwent treatment in other regions (21.3% vs 10.5% of the Center-North). The cost of passive mobility amounts to € 103.9 million for the South regions (15.1% of the total hospitalizations’ expenditure) and the 87.1% of this cost refers to the mobility to the hospitals of Center-North. The cost of healthcare migration from South regions to other South regions was much lower (12.9%, equal to € 13.4 million).ConclusionsHealthcare mobility, while affecting all Italian regions, is particularly relevant in the South regions and indicates a lack of pediatric care, which should be strengthened by creating services that are currently not evenly distributed throughout the territory.

Ad occhi aperti verso il futuro. Il ruolo del digital storytelling nella progettazione partecipata di percorsi di orientamento

Il progetto qui descritto è stato pensato per supportare, attraverso azioni di tutoraggio tra pari basate sul digital storytelling, studenti provenienti in particolare da istituti superiori professionali nell'orientamento verso i Corsi di studio in Scienze dell'educazione.Il progetto si è basato su due principali costrutti teorici. L'approccio fenomenologico, riflettendo sulla progettazione esistenziale autentica e inautentica e discutendo sulle parole scelta e differenza. Il paradigma della complessità, ragionando in opposizione al sovrano sotterraneo costituito dal paradigma della semplificazione.Oltre a ciò, l'orientamento universitario viene presentato anche sul piano della rilevanza politica alla luce del basso indice di mobilità sociale del nostro Paese che colpisce anche coloro, qui nominati metafragili – in qualità di diplomati desiderosi di ottenere una laurea, che difficilmente potranno raggiungere livelli di antifragilità.Le azioni messe in atto (tutoraggio, orientamento tramite le tecnologie, autovalutazione delle capacità di svolgere le professioni in uscita, formazione per gli studenti e i tutor universitari) e i significati dell'approccio narrativo basato sul digital storytelling sono stati rivisitati concentrandosi sulle relazioni tra aspettative e contesto organizzativo alla luce dell'irriducibilità semiotica di cui la narrazione è portatrice.Nelle conclusioni, il percorso progettuale è stato ricontestualizzato nell'attuale emergenza pandemica focalizzandosi sulle opportunità di apprendimento trasformativo dell'organizzazione universitaria.

To Share or not to Share? Determinants of Sharing Mobility in Italy

In the last years, there has been a growing interest in the sharing mobility transport thanks to its potentialities in terms of service accessibility and versatility being a valid alternative to the use of private vehicles. Its role could become central to promote environmental sustinability as well as to fill the gap of public transport being the integrated transport system the new future challenge. The aim of this study is to investigate the main factors promoting sharing mobility in Italy, with reference to cars and bikes, in particular. The representative sample coming from the 2017 Aspects of Daily Life survey has been used in the analysis developed on two research directives: the former based on the use of the logistic regression technique to identify the significant factors predicting the carsharing and bikesharing propensity; the latter based on the use of the Bayesian Networks framework to explore the complex dependence structure of all involved variables. The application results are in line with the sharing mobility literature noting that this is one of the few works based on a representative sample. In this study, many predisponent aspects promoting the sharing service have been emphasized and analysed suggesting new possible intervention policies for managers and stakeholders.

Train-feeder modes in Italy. Is there a role for active mobility?

The transport mode used to reach a train station is an important determinant of the urban traffic and rail transport attractiveness. In this paper, we have investigated train-feeder mode choice on the basis of 185 interviews with Italian train users living in cities of different size. We analyzed their current choice and their stated choices under hypothetical scenarios using various discrete choice model specifications. Their current train-feeder mode choice is mainly car-based: 63.2% of the respondents use the car, as either drivers or passengers. The active modes cycling and walking are chosen by 18.4% and 9.7% of the respondents, respectively; the remaining using either the bus or the scooter. Our estimates confirm that travel time and travel cost play a relevant role with two covariates, commuter and gender, explaining the large heterogeneity of the active mobility travel time variable. However, the performed scenario analysis suggests that, in many instances, it is extremely difficult to alter the existing train-feeder mode choice in favor of the active modes and that promoting active mobility in Italy requires a coordinated effort at many levels, including territorial planning, infrastructural investment and traffic regulations.

Cities as drivers of social mobility

The paper studies the role of cities in enhancing intergenerational social mobility. Cities, where children grew up, can provide resources and opportunities able to increase the chance of employment and status attainment.We assess intergenerational mobility in Italy, the most immobile country in Europe together with Greece and Portugal. We use a data survey providing information on the individual-level track of Italian students' life path from high school to occupation. We merge the data survey with city-level information on socio-economic conditions.We distinguish between students who attended university in the same city where they grew up and those who migrated to another city for higher education. Upward mobility turns out to be higher in: (i) larger cities by population size; (ii) more accessible cities; (iii) cities with low income inequality and high education levels. Also social values and cultural traits play a role in enhancing upward mobility. More generally, if we look at the bundle of factors identifying the urban context, we find that the effect of factors with a positive impact on upward mobility prevails in the Northern cities while the opposite occurs in the Southern cities.

From the Lockdown to the New Normal: An Analysis of the Limitations to Individual Mobility in Italy Following the COVID-19 Crisis

Italy was among the first countries to introduce drastic measures to reduce mobility in order to prevent the diffusion of COVID-19. On March 9, 26 out of 111 provinces were subject to severe limitations on individual mobility between municipalities. One day later, new restrictive measures were introduced in the whole country with no regional distinctions: this continued until June 3 when the limits on movements across regions were eventually lifted. By looking at these watershed moments, this paper explores, for the first time, the impact of the adoption and the removal of restrictive measures on changes in individual mobility in Italy. By using a spatial discontinuity approach, we show that these measures were effective in that they lowered individual mobility by about 7 percentage points relative to what is accounted for by the characteristics of the local population and the disease. The analysis shows, however, that local features played an important role after the travelling bans were lifted: the catching up with pre-COVID-19 patterns has been stronger in those areas where the labour force is relatively less exposed to the risk of contagion and less likely to work from home.

Strontium and oxygen isotopes as indicators of Longobards mobility in Italy: an investigation at Povegliano Veronese

The arrival of the Longobards in Northern Italy in 568 CE marked a period of renewed political stability in the Peninsula after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. The trajectory of the spread of Longobards in Italy across the Alps and into the South is known from many literary sources. However, their mobility and residence patterns at a population level remain to be fully understood. Here we present a multi-isotopic analysis (87Sr/86Sr and 18O/16O) of 39 humans and 14 animals buried at the Longobard necropolis of Povegliano Veronese (VR, Italy; 6th—8th century CE), to address mode and tempo of the spread of this population in the Peninsula. The geographical location of Povegliano Veronese plays a key role: the site lies along the Via Postumia, which was one of the main ancient Roman roads of Northern Italy, representing an important route in post-classical Italy. The integration of isotopic data with the archaeological evidence allowed us to determine the presence of individuals from at least three different regions of origin, building a diachronic map of the dynamics of mobility of this group in northern Italy.

The impact of immigration on the internal mobility of natives and foreign-born residents: evidence from Italy

ABSTRACT The relationship between immigration flows and internal mobility in Italy is investigated for the period 2003–11. Using semiparametric negative binomial gravity models with smooth spatio-temporal trends, and dealing with endogeneity issues through an instrumental variables approach, evidence is provided of a significant negative (or displacement) effect of new foreign immigrants on the internal mobility of foreign citizens and of Italian citizens with a low educational level, as well as a significant positive (or complementarity) effect of new foreign immigrants on the internal mobility of Italian citizens with a high educational level.