The diffusion of a new telecommunication service : Network constraints and service quality in a dynamic interpretative model

In this paper, a discrete time model for the adoption of a new telecommunication service is proposed. We analyze the interaction of three sets of agents involved in the process: users, information providers, and network providers. We consider the effects of the network constraint and of the expectations of the users and suppliers.     

Liquidity needs and vulnerability to financial underdevelopment

This paper provides evidence that financial development has a large causal effect in the reduction of macroeconomic volatility resulting from the role of the financial system in liquidity provision. In particular, financial system development leads to a comparatively larger reduction in the volatility of output in sectors with high liquidity needs. Most of this decline results from the stabilization of the output of existing firms, although the volatility of the number of firms also drops significantly. Among different aspects of the financial system, the depth of financial intermediaries plays the main role in the reduction of volatility.     

STUDYING INEQUALITY IN INCOME DISTRIBUTION OF SINGLE-PERSON HOUSEHOLDS IN FOUR DEVELOPED COUNTRIES

The increasing frequency of single-person households has become a major economic phenomenon, and is likely to become an important political force. This paper focuses on differences related to inequality of income distribution among single-person households in Europe's four largest economies, i.e. France, Germany, Italy and the U.K. Income distribution was modeled in terms of individual characteristics using a parametric model with heterogeneous model parameters. Poverty differences were also broken down using the results of Biewen and Jenkins (2005 ) in order to understand the relationship between poverty and individual characteristics among countries.     

Can price regulation increase cost-efficiency?

This paper examines the possibility that price regulation increases a monopolist's cost-efficiency. When the firm's choice of cost-reducing effort depends on the output supplied, a binding price-cap, by compelling the monopolist to produce more, results in lower costs. On the basis of a two-period asymmetric information model, the paper demonstrates that price regulation increases efficiency when the elasticity of demand is sufficiently low, even assuming very conservative preferences of the regulator and asymmetric information. Moreover, contrary to previous findings and conventional wisdom, we find that a periodical rate base review may increase productive efficiency through the positive effect on future cost-reducing effort, counterbalancing its well known adverse effect on the current level of effort.     

Sequential vs. single-round uniform-price auctions

We study sequential and single-round uniform-price auctions with affiliated values. We derive symmetric equilibrium for the auction in which k₁ objects are sold in the first round and k₂ in the second round, with and without revelation of the first-round winning bids. We demonstrate that auctioning objects in sequence generates a lowballing effect that reduces the first-round price. Total revenue is greater in a single-round, uniform auction for k=k₁+k₂ objects than in a sequential uniform auction with no bid announcement. When the first-round winning bids are announced, we also identify a positive informational effect on the second-round price. Total expected revenue in a sequential uniform auction with winning-bids announcement may be greater or smaller than in a single-round uniform auction, depending on the model's parameters.     

International stock markets comovements: the role of economic and financial integration

The contribution of economic and financial integration to international stock markets comovements are investigated by means of a large scale macroeconometric model, set in the factor vector autoregressive framework (F-VAR). The findings point to a relevant role for both economic and financial integration in explaining international stock markets comovements for the G-7 countries. While economic integration would exercise its effects through the common response of stock markets to global economic shocks, financial integration would operate through financial shocks spillovers, particularly at the regional level.      

Economic impact of contrast-induced acute kidney injury associated with invasive cardiology: role of iso-osmolar contrast media in Germany,Italy, Poland,and Spain

Objective:

Iso-osmolar Iodixanol is associated with a lower rate of contrast-induced acute kidney injury (CI-AKI) in patients at increased risk compared to low-osmolar contrast media (LOCM). The aim of this study was to assess the financial consequences of CI-AKI risk reduction in patients undergoing coronary angiography (CA) with or without percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in German, Italian, Polish and Spanish hospitals.

Methods:

This budget impact analysis (BIA) compared a scenario with iodixanol to a scenario without, where only LOCM were used, in patients at increased risk of CI-AKI over a 3-year horizon. A meta-analysis based on a systematic review observed a lower rate of CI-AKI with iodixanol compared to LOCM (Risk Reduction?=?0.46) in patients with underlying impaired renal function (serum creatinine ≥1.6?mg/dl and estimated glomerular filtration rate ≤50?ml/min/1.73 m²). Contrast media and CI-AKI hospitalization costs were included in the analysis and unit costs were obtained from published literature, official sources or, when available, from hospital data. In the absence of country-specific data, resource utilization for a CI-AKI hospitalization was obtained by interviews with local clinicians in each country. The percentage of patients who received iodixanol was assumed to increase over time.

Results:

Based on a percentage of patients at increased risk of CI-AKI equal to 20% in Germany, 24% in Italy, 23% in Poland and 10% in Spain, results showed that the introduction of iodixanol would bring a 3-years cumulative net percentage saving on the total hospital budget of 29%, 34%, 25%, and 33% in the four countries respectively.

Conclusion:

The results of the analysis for the four countries showed that iodixanol use in patients at increased risk of CI-AKI undergoing CA with or without PCI may bring considerable savings on the hospital’s budget, due to the associated reduction in CI-AKI incidence.     

International diversification of manufacturing operations: Performance implications and moderating forces

The strategic importance of diversifying international manufacturing for firms with global operations has been extensively documented in a series of studies. There is a lack of studies, however, of the performance implications of strategically spreading manufacturing operations across the globe. In fact, most research on international manufacturing to date has generalized from findings by researchers that examine international diversification at the level of the whole value chain, rather than specifically looking at the performance impact of dispersing production operations. Building on the concept of international manufacturing diversification, we show that its relationship with financial performance is inverted U-shaped, and that this relationship is positively moderated by product diversification and co-location of manufacturing and sales activities in the same geographic market. We place the development of international manufacturing diversification processes in the context of the resource based view and transaction costs economics. Hypotheses are tested using data on 38 firms with home base in 15 countries and car and light truck production activities in 45 countries from 2002 to 2008.     

Development and validation of the Remote Working Benefits & Disadvantages scale

The changes that are constantly occurring in the labour sector have led organisations and companies to move towards digital transformation. This process was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic and  conducted to a massive recourse to the practice of remote working, which in this study is understood as the term for the way of performing work outside the usual workplace and with the support of ICT. Currently, there are no flexible scales in the literature that allow measuring the benefits and disadvantages of remote working with a single instrument. Thus, the distinction between the positive and negative consequences of working remotely, substantiated by a solid literature, provides a framework for a systematical understanding of the issue. The aim of the present study is to develop and validate a scale on remote working benefits and disadvantages (RW-B&D scale). For this end, a preliminary Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) with 304 participants, a tailored EFA with a sample of 301 workers and a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) with 677 workers were conducted. Participants were all Italian employees who worked remotely during the period of the COVID-19 health emergency. Data were collected between October 2020 and April 2021. The psychometric robustness of the model was assessed through bootstrap validation (5000 resamples), fit indices testing and measurement of factorial invariance. The statistical analyses demonstrated the bifactorial nature of the scale, supporting the research hypothesis. The model showed good fit indices, bootstrap validation reported statistically significant saturations, good reliability indices, and convergent and discriminant validity. Measurement invariance was tested for gender and organisational sector. The results suggested that the novel scale facilitates the quantitative measurement of the benefits and disadvantages associated with remote working in empirical terms. For this reason, it could be a streamlined and psychometrically valid instrument to identify the potential difficulties arising from remote working and, at the same time, the positive aspects that can be implemented to improve organisational well-being.

     

Euro money market spreads during the 2007–? financial crisis

In the paper we investigate the empirical features of euro area money market turbulence during the recent financial crisis. By means of a novel Fractionally Integrated Heteroskedastic Factor Vector Autoregressive model, we find evidence of a deterministic level factor in the EURIBOR-OIS (OIS) spreads term structure, associated with the two waves of stress in the interbank market, following the BNP Paribas (9 August 2007) and Lehman Brothers (16 September 2008) “shocks”, and two additional factors, of the long memory type, bearing the interpretation of curvature and slope factors, respectively. The unfolding of the crisis yields a significant increase in their persistence and volatility. We also find evidence of a declining trend in the level and volatility of OIS spreads since December 2008, associated with ECB liquidity policies.