Assessing Liveability in Inner Areas: a spatial and metafrontier analysis on three provinces in central Italy

Assessing Liveability in Inner Areas: a spatial and metafrontier analysis on three provinces in central Italy | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Assessing Liveability in Inner Areas: a spatial and metafrontier analysis on three provinces in central Italy Matteo Gaudiello This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7480740/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract This paper examines the liveability of Inner Areas in three provinces of central Italy, addressing demographic and economic challenges as well as opportunities in heritage preservation. A Liveability Composite Index (LCI) is developed, aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goal 11 (SDG11). The methodology uses the Benefit-of-the-Doubt (BoD) approach to create composite indicators and employs Meta-frontier Analysis to compare liveability among groups of municipalities. A Spatial Lag Model (SLM) is applied to adjust for spatial autocorrelation, improving accuracy by accounting for the influence of neighboring areas. To account for spatial differences, a Meta-frontier Analysis is conducted, comparing liveability across groups of municipalities. This approach identifies the group-specific frontiers and the overall Meta-frontier, calculating a Liveability Gap Ratio (LGR) to measure the disparity between group performance and the overall benchmark. Cross-validation and statistical tests, such as Kruskal-Wallis and Dunn’s tests, are employed to ensure the robustness of the model. The analysis reveals spatial clusters of high and low liveability, emphasizing the significant role of spatial factors. Overall, the results prove that the study’s approach offers a valuable tool for assessing liveability, offering insights for addressing the challenges of Inner Areas. Inner Areas Benefit-of-the-Doubt Metafrontier Analysis Spatial Lag Model SDG11 Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7480740","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":514797532,"identity":"ae69203d-04f7-45b3-a4c0-a0dbccd34ce9","order_by":0,"name":"Matteo Gaudiello","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAABBElEQVRIie2RMUsDMRTHX3BwiXR9gpyfQEg5OBxK76v0CDhVubFulUK6FFzjt1AK4viODl0iXTMWCk4O5+ag4AsOipDe6pAfBF7I+/F/jwAkEv8cRVCfQ48r4iPjjQdi+qMohGO+Ejsy7vxSICiKOmLO5pv1tp3A8NbqB2oVZrm/bFZvT3BSRpTCaXFjHWjrL+rGKswLfzWixsUHK0iL2ZEBDX6sVlJh9cgFNWaPstmJ2Scrp0H5YGVpuxTPKcLAUAWF16/usVPZ9e8WDkd991I3C94F3auiZ4NSUmywatu+TwZlttbLUGS9+Thvr82gPJxGYr7B6u877u0PxD4hkUgkEgBfEXxf4C+aGr4AAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"","institution":"University of Trento","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Matteo","middleName":"","lastName":"Gaudiello","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-08-28 13:24:10","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":{"humanSubjects":false,"vertebrateSubjects":false,"conflictsOfInterestStatement":false,"humanSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false,"humanSubjectConsent":false,"humanSubjectClinicalTrial":false,"humanSubjectCaseReport":false,"vertebrateSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false},"doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7480740/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7480740/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":94648438,"identity":"900efbfc-de3a-402b-9e1a-ecfefecb394d","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-29 09:09:06","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":9840831,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"AssessingLiveabilityinInnerAreas.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7480740/v1_covered_ac60a560-8574-4f81-924e-c2aee1704a77.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Assessing Liveability in Inner Areas: a spatial and metafrontier analysis on three provinces in central Italy","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Inner Areas, Benefit-of-the-Doubt, Metafrontier Analysis, Spatial Lag Model, SDG11","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7480740/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7480740/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eThis paper examines the liveability of Inner Areas in three provinces of central Italy, addressing demographic and economic challenges as well as opportunities in heritage preservation. 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