经济增长与气候稳定是否相协调?——以中国和印度为例

世界资本主义目前正接受着气候变化的挑战,这主要是由与矿石燃料消耗相关的温室气体的排放造成的。为了预防这一灾难性环境后果威胁到人类的生存,在资本主义内部必须对经济增长做出根本性和即时性承诺。从对在世界经济中中国和印度的崛起与气候危机之间的相互关系分析表明,要达到减排目标几乎需要实现经济零增长,以减轻气候危机。在大量使用矿石燃料基础上的传统发展模式不再适用,中国和印度需要更改它们的发展模式。只有一种重在社会和环境进步,而不是经济增长的新型发展战略,才可以为人类未来带来更多的福祉。     

Economies with informational asymmetries and limited vetoer coalitions

With reference to a model of coalitional economies with asymmetric information, we consider different possible restrictions on the set of blocking coalitions. We provide suitable price systems decentralizing allocations in the corresponding enlarged core.     

Network planning of fuelling service stations in a near-term competitive scenario of the hydrogen economy

Hydrogen can be viewed as the flexible automotive fuel of the future. However, many issues related to its use have not been sufficiently investigated. One such issue concerns hydrogen logistics and distribution throughout a territory. One near-term scenario over the next decade is likely to include distribution procedures that are similar to those currently used for petrol products. In this scenario, the conversion of petrol service stations into hydrogen distribution points will progressively be implemented. Petrol companies will then represent one of the major categories of hydrogen producers. They will thus have to select, from a cost/benefit standpoint that accounts for competing companies expected to offer the same service throughout a territory, the most convenient and effective locations for hydrogen distribution. The current paper presents a model for planning a network of service stations of a given company within a competitive framework. A case study of a specific territory in northern Italy is presented and discussed.     

Core and equilibria in coalitional asymmetric information economies

We study coalitional economies under uncertainty and asymmetric information, assuming a finitely additive measure space of agents and finitely many possible states of nature. We introduce a suitable core notion showing that it is equivalent to Walrasian expectations equilibria. The finitely additive approach proposed in the paper permits also asymmetric information economy with countably many agents, rather than requiring only a continuum. Moreover, it allows us to overcome well-known criticisms related to the interpretation of individual private core notions.     

Productivity, exporting, and the learning-by-exporting hypothesis: direct evidence from UK firms

Abstract.  Case studies suggest exporters learn from clients. Econometric evidence is mixed. We use firm-level panel data on exporting and productivity with direct information on learning sources, including clients. We find: (a) firms who exported in the past are likely to learn more from clients (relative to other sources); (b) firms who learned from clients in the past are more likely to have faster productivity growth; (c) the reverse is not the case; that is, past productivity growth is not associated with more learning from clients and past learning from clients is not associated with more exporting. These results are consistent with the learning-by-exporting hypothesis.     

On the welfare effects of competition for foreign direct investments

This paper investigates welfare effects of subsidy competition for the location of a multinational enterprise. One of the competing regions benefits more from the inward investment but, in the absence of incentives, the multinational's preferred location is the other, more advanced region. The paper shows that subsidies, by making the multinational switch location, may increase aggregate welfare. If the multinational exports in the absence of incentives, the welfare effects of subsidy competition may look very different. Allowing subsidies attracts the direct investment, which otherwise would not take place, in one of the two regions. Further, it intensifies competition in the market. The paper shows that the welfare increasing role of incentives may be amplified, but also that the competition effect, by hurting domestic firms, may cancel out any other positive role of incentives.     

Export and import market-specific characteristics

Using a rich firm-level dataset on the Italian manufacturing industry, this paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the role that firms and market characteristics play in shaping firms’ trade activities. We enhance the previous analyses by considering firms’ engagement in international transactions, by focusing on either exports or imports. We show that the determinants of a firm’s export participation and value across countries also drive import behavior. Our research is consistent with the presence of country-specific sunk costs and with a qualitatively similar role of gravity forces and other country attributes on both sides of trading activities. Our evidence, however, militates in favor of a framework where variations in market characteristics have a larger impact on imports than exports.     

The trend over time of the gender wage gap in Italy

We analyse gender wage gaps in Italy in the mid-1990s and in the mid-2000s. In this period, important labour market developments took place and they could have had a gender asymmetric impact on wages. We identify the time trends of different components of the gender wage gap across all the wage distribution. Although the unconditional gender wage gap remained roughly constant over time, we find that the component of the gap due to different rewards of similar characteristics deteriorated women’s relative wage. We show that especially women at the centre-top of the wage distribution swam against the tide: while the trend in female qualifications slightly reduced the gender wage gap, the gender-relative trends in the wage structure significantly increased it.     

An empirical study of consumer behavior related to private labels and national brand promotions

One day while in the store, Bernard grabs his usual Dominick's cream cheese off the shelf. I notice and point out that the national brand of Philadelphia cream cheese is on sale and less expensive. Bernard looks at the two products and actually hesitates for a while to switch to the national brand. His hesitation makes it clear that his preference is not based solely on price. (Chang Coupland 2005, 115).     

Factors affecting technology transfer offices' performance in the Italian food context

In recent years, growing attention has been devoted to the commercialisation of knowledge and technologies developed by universities and public research institutions. A central role in this particular process is played by the technology transfer offices (TTOs), which are on the one hand in charge of promoting the transfer of knowledge and technology to external companies, and on the other hand are also responsible for protecting and licensing the intellectual property of the research organisation. This paper is focused on a TTO operating in the food context, with the specific objectives of identifying the performance indicators and the main factors affecting its performance and, finally, analysing the relationships among these factors. Results highlighted the importance of both external and internal factors for the performance of a TTO operating in this context. In addition, we found both direct and indirect relations within these factors.