Inequality, poverty, deprivation and the uneven spread of COVID-19 in Europe

COVID-19 is mostly considered to have ravaged places with high levels of inequality and poverty. Yet, in the case of Europe, the evidence for this is limited. In this paper we address this gap in our knowledge by exploring how regional variations in poverty, wealth and interpersonal inequality have shaped COVID-19-related excess mortality. The results show that during the first 18 months of the pandemic there is no link between inequality and poverty, on the one hand, and the lethality of the disease, on the other. The geographical concentration of wealthy people is related to more, not less, excess mortality. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

On the Territorial Embeddedness of the Fourth Industrial Revolution: A Literature Review about How Industry 4.0 Meets Industrial Districts

This paper aims to critically review the existing literature about the development and/or diffusion of Industry 4.0 within Industrial District (ID) firms. Before the burst of COVID-19, the fourth industrial revolution has been commonly retained and debated as a new industrial paradigm which affects IDs, among the other firms. However, due to the novelty of the topic, just very few contributions analyse the impact of Industry 4.0 technologies within the district boundaries. Thus, this paper intends to identify the main stylized facts to extend both theoretically and empirically the knowledge of the topic. © Società editrice il Mulino.