Research Policy 2024
Does language prevent policy take-up? Evidence from the Italian Start-up Act
Abstract
Does ethnolinguistic diversity prevent policy adoption? The implementation of the Italian Start-up Act of 2012 in the bilingual (German and Italian) region of Trentino-Alto Adige offers the ideal setting to investigate this question. The Act sets up a scheme of benefits which young firms can access by registering as “innovative start-ups” on a voluntary basis. We find that policy take-up has been persistently lower in areas of the region with more German speakers, as local firms with German-named administrators are less likely to register as start-ups than firms with Italian-named ones. These findings are robust to firm characteristics and regional heterogeneity and are also visible within mixed-language municipalities. Furthermore, text analysis on press sources suggests that this national policy was much more extensively covered in the Italian-language local media, while a survey of local residents indicates that German speakers have lower knowledge of national policies unless they are embedded in multilingual networks. • We study the implementation of the Italian Start-Up Act in a bilingual region. • Minority-language firms are less likely to take-up a national policy. • Minority-language press is less likely to report on the policy. • Minority-language residents are less likely to be aware of the policy. • Our findings are robust to territorial-level industrial policies and characteristics.
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.respol.2024.105004
- Sources
- openalex