Business Power and Mobility to Workplaces in Italian Regions during the First COVID-19 Wave

Demetrio Panarello – University of Bologna, Department of Statistical Sciences “Paolo Fortunati”, Via delle Belle Arti 41, 40126
Bologna, Italy

Giorgio Tassinari – University of Bologna, Department of Statistical Sciences “Paolo Fortunati”, Via delle Belle Arti 41, 40126
Bologna, Italy

Abstract: The diffusion of the pandemic and the severity of COVID-19-relat­ed measures were very uneven across regions; however, the intensity of the restrictions was not always tightly linked with the strength of the pandem­ic. Economic interests and business power might have played a role in defin­ing political responses at the local level, which are in turn able to shape the intensity of work-related mobility. This article aims at investigating wheth­er regional variations in the stringency of COVID-19-related measures have actual impacts on work-related mobility and whether there is an independ­ent effect of the pressure exerted by unions and businesses, assuming mobil­ity to be governed concurrently by stringency, pandemic intensity, and pres­sure. Through the analysis of original regional-level indicators of stringency and public pressure, we demonstrate that trade unions’ pressure is associat­ed with a decrease in work-related mobility during the first COVID-19 wave in Italy.

6th International Scientific Conference on Recent Advances in Information Technology, Tourism, Economics, Management and Agriculture – ITEMA 2022 – Conference Proceedings, Hybrid (University of Maribor, Slovenia), October 27, 2022

ITEMA Conference Proceedings published by: Association of Economists and Managers of the Balkans – Belgrade, Serbia

ITEMA conference partners: Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Maribor, Slovenia; Faculty of Organization and Informatics, University of Zagreb, Varaždin; Faculty of Geography, University of Belgrade, Serbia; Institute of Marketing, Poznan University of Economics and Business, Poland; Faculty of Agriculture, Banat’s University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine ”King Michael I of Romania”, Romania

ITEMA Conference 2022 Conference Proceedings: ISBN 978-86-80194-63-9, ISSN 2683-5991, DOI: https://doi.org/10.31410/ITEMA.2022

Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission. 

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