Start-ups increasingly find the prospect of university-industry collaborations to\ud be a powerful driver of innovation and entrepreneurship activity. Moreover, at\ud the geographical level, they are attracted by teaching and research institutions,\ud either public or private. This paper focuses on the role played by universities.\ud Our hypothesis is that geographical proximity favors the transfer of knowledge and\ud technology from universities to industries and, consequently, represents a positive\ud factor for regional economic development.\ud Results show that university spillovers are positively correlated with the creation\ud of innovative start-ups. Furthermore, the presence of human capital (graduates)\ud exerts a significant influence on the location decisions of start-ups, being a source\ud for competitiveness for firms close to universities. Research quality, especially in\ud the social sciences area, attracts innovative start-ups, while third-mission activities\ud have a weak impact on locational choice

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In recent years a large amount of works has been carried out with the aim to provide alternative meausures of progress and well-being to GDP. Given the multidimensional aspect of the phenomenon, most of these studies differs in terms of their theoretical approach as well as their purpose and statistical methodology used to define what wellbeing is and how to measure it. In this paper we construct a well-being indicator for the Italian (NUTS-3) provinces, following the approach used in Segre et al. (2001) for the construction of the regional (NUTS-2) QUARS indicator. The resulted well-being indicator shows a high degree of heterogeneity not only between provinces located in the North and the South part of Italy, but also among adjacent territories. An empirical model has been tested against possible well-being determinants. Our findings suggest that social capital, social security programs, income, and grant-making activities by Bank Foundations positively affect provincial well-being.

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