Assessing the Italian tax courts system by weighted three-way log-ratio analysis

Deciding on what should be the most suitable reforms of a national judicial system, whether this means reorganising a courts' structure or offering incetives to judges, requires more empirical evidence. The efficiency of the public judicial system is important to any functioning democracy as it affects several aspects of citizens’ life. As a consequence, new statistical methodologies are required for further valuable insights into the issues that affect the effectiveness of a judicial system.The current study attempts to fill this gap by introducing a new statistical method to investigate the heterogeneity among Italian judicial courts. Here we propose a generalisation of log-ratio analysis for the analysis of the association between the variables of a three-way contingency table. Our focus of this investigation will be on the tax court system of the Italian judicial system.Log-ratio analysis presents many advantages, two of which are the computation and the visual representation of the odds ratios on which the analysis is based. For three-way tables, a conditional odds ratio reflects the likelihood that an event (say tax disputes) will take place in a particular geographical area (say North Italy) instead of an another (say South Italy) given a specific condition (type of justice court).Interestingly, the three-way log-ratio analysis presented in this paper allows one to visually describe these conditional odds-ratios in terms of point distances in a biplot between the types of justice court located in different geographical areas of Italy.     

Evaluating the efficiency of Italian public universities (2008–2011) in presence of (unobserved) heterogeneity

In assessing the performance of universities, the most recent literature underlined that the efficiency scores may suffer from the presence of incidental parameters or time-invariant, often unobservable, effects that lead to biased efficiency estimates. To deal with this problem, we apply a procedure developed by [67]; for estimating the efficiency in Italian higher education through a multi-output parametric distance function. We show that models which do not consider unobservable heterogeneity tend to estimate divergent efficiency scores. We also study the determinants of efficiency; the findings provide a clue towards the expansion of pro-competitive policies in the Italian higher education sector, consistently with the interpretation that when market forces operate, there are benefits for university efficiency. When exploring differences in the performance of universities, by geographical areas, we claim that maintaining State-level policies can be detrimental for overall efficiency, and instead special interventions for universities in the South should be designed.     

Colombian higher education institutions evaluation

Over the last twenty years, access to higher education has grown extraordinarily in Latin America. Higher education systems have been challenged to improve their efficiency while strengthening quality assurance processes. In Colombia, the government and the researchers developed models to assess the performance of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). Nevertheless, the current scholarship does not have a model that allows the system to measure multiple efficiencies in a diverse environment. In this study, we address the challenge of evaluating the efficiency of HEIs taking into account different goals of the Colombian education system. To this aim, we extend a cross-efficiency data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach to evaluate the efficiency of Colombian HEIs in the presence of flexible measures. While some HEIs are efficient in terms of teaching or employment, others are efficient in terms of research. Therefore, the model suggests broader policies to achieve the efficiency of the institutions under multiple goals.     

INTEREG: A Twenty-region Input–Output Model for Italy

Since the regional scale turns out to be the scale at which fiscal devolution is likely to be accomplished in Italy, and that at which trade and growth interdependencies as well as regional convergence can be most conveniently investigated, a new 20-region input–output model for Italy seems to be a useful tool of analysis. Although various regional and interregional models have been constructed since the 1950s, none has been implemented for the whole system of 20 Italian administrative regions considered in their tight mutual dependence; also, the pool approach has not been greatly favoured, even in situations where direct information on regional trade is lacking. The main purpose of this paper is to report on the structure of the model, the rather complex procedure used in the model construction and the adopted solution technique. Some space is devoted to the problems encountered in handling regional trade endogenously in an input–output setting and to a comparison between the pool approach, used in the Italian model, and other current techniques. The paper also reports on some preliminary results regarding the regional impact of fiscal policy.     

美国高校法务会计教育现状考察

法务会计提供的调查与诉讼服务构成对传统审计的重要补充。为了培养合格的法务会计人才,美国高校法务会计教育已从单一课程设置向学历与学位教育等多类型系统范式演进。西弗吉尼亚大学主持的全美欺诈与法务会计课程标准化运动积累了丰富经验,可为法务会计高等教育的发展提供借鉴。     

Too few university graduates. Inclusiveness and effectiveness of the Italian higher education system

Despite the absence of formal entry barriers, Italy is lagging behind the majority of the developed countries in the share of young individuals with tertiary education. Exploiting the administrative data of a large public Italian institution, we analyze student academic careers across recent matriculation cohorts. We propose a flexible discrete-time competing risks estimation that allows overcoming some major limitations of conventional competing risks models. We find that student pathways vary tremendously across prior schooling profiles: for example, the within 4-year dropout probability ranges between 10% and 77%. We observe improvements over time in retention and time-to-degree, and by decomposing changes into components related to the composition of the enrolled population, the choice of the field of study and ‘individual behavior’ after enrolment, we find that the latter plays a major role. However, the improvement is limited in size and does not interest students from the vocational track. Since this progress is not accompanied by an increase in the share of students making the transition from high school to university, altogether our results call for great concern over the inclusiveness and effectiveness of the Italian university system.     

Organizing professionals and their impact on performance: the case of public health doctors in the Italian SSN

ABSTRACT

Hybrid professional managers have been associated with improvements in the performance of public sector organizations. However, less attention has been given to differences within this category. Drawing on board human capital theory, we focus on an emerging group of ‘organizing professionals’ with earlier and deeper exposure to management training and education: generalist clinical hybrids drawn from public health in the Italian healthcare system. Specifically, we investigate the impact that these hybrid hospital CEOs have on organizational performance in comparison with other backgrounds. The results indicate that this form of generalist hybrid professionalism has distinct, if not dramatic, consequences for performance.     

校园网络建设与大学生思想政治教育

随着计算机网络技术的发展,互联网已经开始在各高校中普及,并逐渐成为大学生学习、生活中不可或缺的一部分。但是,由此也产生了一些新的问题,如网络的制度问题、道德问题,这些问题不可避免地对高校的教育尤其是对大学生的思想政治教育产生了一定的影响。因此,如何适应网络时代的发展,让校园网络建设为大学生的思想政治教育服务是现今大学生德育工作必须解决的一个重要问题。     

Why Is Italy Doing So Badly?

We analyse the current Italian economic crisis as a phase of a major systemic decline. We argue that ‘Italy's system’ has forced the country to abandon a dynamic view of comparative advantage, crucial for sustained economic growth, in favour of a static view of specialisation. Creative destruction has been hampered and sectoral restructuring has not occurred, resulting in stagnation. The roots of this decline lie in collective action issues and an implicit contract between elites and civil society. We suggest that these issues must be resolved if the Italian economy and society are to revive.     

Fiscal and monetary policy co-ordination: A differential game approach

In this paper the interaction between the Treasury and the central bank is examined in the case of both cooperative and non-cooperative behaviour. Differential games are used in the framework of a continuous-time econometric model of the Italian economy. The Nash and the Stackelberg non-cooperative equilibrium solutions are computed, and the case for cooperation is analysed by considering the Nash and the Kalai-Smorodinsky bargaining models. It is shown that, in the Italian case, the government has a stronger bargaining position than the central bank. A comparison is then made between the different solutions to show that the drawbacks that emerge from non-cooperation are not simply those depending on the players' payoffs. Other features are in fact considered which constitute a further argument for policy co-ordination.     

Infrastructure and Performance of the Italian Economic System

This paper aims to analyze the consequences for the Italian economy of the recently started process of modernization and extension of the country's infrastructure. The planned measures are expected to increase the competitiveness of Italian businesses, and to improve the quality of life. In the short term, investments in infrastructure will increase the construction sector's production and, consequently, activate income and employment multipliers. The Italian economic system being highly differentiated from a territorial viewpoint, the impact of new investments on its economic system has been analyzed by means of a biregional model that accounts for the peculiar productive structure of the 20 Italian regions.     

成人高等职业教育校企办学模式的探索

在社会主义市场经济体制下,职业教育培训体制和发展模式都发生了很大变化。成人高等职业教育的发展趋势也应顺应时代发展的要求,走校企合作的办学模式,这是办好成人高等教育必须遵守的经济法则和为地方经济服务的必由之路。     

The effect of ownership on sustainable development and environmental policy in urban waste management: An explicatory empirical analysis of Italian municipal corporations

This paper investigates the effect of ownership on sustainable development and environmental policy in Italian municipally owned corporations (MOCs) dealing with urban waste management, trying to understand if multiple ownership can generate better performance compared to single ownership and if the presence of private partners could be crucial in this. The research question is answered by analyzing 41 MOCs of the largest Italian cities operating in urban waste management. In this specific sector, public administrations have tried to improve their offer in terms of sustainable development, environmental policy, and efficiency. The paper covers the Italian case study, where urban waste production per capita is higher than the European average figure. The waste cycle management service is operated in Italy at local level through totally publicly owned companies (monoadministration or multiadministration), mixed (public–private) companies, or via a full externalization achieved by means of public tenders. Through a multinomial ordered probit panel, we show that MOCs with multiple owners perform better than those having a single owner and perform much better with the presence of a private partner, confirming those academic findings according to which collaborative arrangements can increase efficiency, do better than public sector bureaucracy, and lower the costs of service provision. The results of this paper can be used by academics, practitioners, and policy makers alike. To the best of our knowledge, this is the only study that applies this perspective to the analysis of the current international waste management scenario with relation to MOCs having multiple ownerships.     

西北工业学校化学工艺专业现状调查及改革思路

西北工业学校化学工艺专业办学历史悠久,但一直沿袭着传统的教学模式。随着职业教育的不断发展,对于化学工艺专业教学,该校在改革方面做出了积极的探索,同时调整了课程设置,进而为职业教育的发展奠定基础。     

Quality as an autonomous body of knowledge. An in-depth survey on Italian higher education

The need of people skilled on quality topics is strongly increased in Italy, in the last 10 years, and new professional figures that are specialized in quality have been recently recognized by the Italian official classification of occupations. However, there seems to be a lack of empirical studies that analyse education about quality supplied by Italian universities and business schools. This paper shows the results of an exploratory survey on the education in quality offered by Italian universities. The research was conducted on a reasoned sample of Italian universities, selected on the basis of the number of students enrolled and the number of supplied degree courses, in the academic year 2005/2006. Thanks to the findings of the survey it is possible to know what (what subjects related to quality concepts and tools are taught), where (within which degree programs they are taught), and when (at which degree level they are taught) Italian higher education is devoted to quality.     

Geography of Italian student mobility: A network analysis approach

Understanding the phenomenon of intra- and international student mobility has become increasingly relevant to the organization of tertiary education systems. Using microdata information provided by the Italian National Student Archive on the cohorts of students enrolled at university in the academic years 2011–12 and 2014–15, we consider a network analysis approach to investigate the incoming and outgoing student flows between territories and universities. More specifically, the paper aims to shed light on the dynamics of Italian student mobility networks at both the bachelor's and master's degree levels by considering attractiveness indicators combined with network centrality measures, clustering techniques for network data and explanatory models. We analyze the partition of the global network structure by means of blockmodeling analysis and we explain the determinants of the differences among universities in attracting students adopting a quantile regression analysis.     

高校在线考试系统的设计与实现

在高等院校或在其他类型的学校,考试工作是学校教育教学工作中重要的组成部分。随着网络技术在教育领域应用,网络在线考试系统展现出越来越多的优越性。本系统结合当前教育形式,利用Microsoft公司提供的VisualStudio2005软件编程平台,采用B/S体系结构,利用ASP技术,设计在线考试系统,完成前台的学生使用模块和后台数据管理模块。     

A system maintenance approach to analyzing the Italian judicial system reform proposal of 2010

In this paper, we analyze the Italian reform of the judicial system proposed in 2010 by using multi-state models. The transitions between states are assumed to be generated by a semi-Markov process. The introduction of the reform is considered as a general system maintenance policy. The effects of the reform are evaluated by computing the system’s transition probabilities, failure rates and odds ratios of failure rates. The introduction of a reward structure measures the impact of the reform from the point of view of costs. An example showing the possibility of implementing a real data application is presented.     

Strategic change of public research units in their scientific activity

The current debate on public sector research in modern economies has generated an increasing interest regarding the scientific activity of research units for external users. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between production of basic research and applied activity of public research units, focusing Italian case-study. The results show an increasing crowding-out effect between applied activity vs. basic research. This effect is due to cuts in research unit budgets and increased push by governments that have obliged the researchers to collaborate with firms and external institutions for getting funds more and more necessary to the economic survival of public research institutes. In addition, to cope with consequential environmental threats, Italian research organizations have been facing a strategic change. In fact, public research institutes now operate as research units market-oriented and researchers focus on applied activity and consultancy, rather than basic research. This strategic change of public research institutions is also present in several countries such as Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Norway, and so on. Because of this worldwide tendency, there is the threat, in public research organizations, of less discovery-based research around longer term needs centred on public welfare that also affect, negatively, long-run economic growth.     

Immigration,socio-economic conditions and crime: a cross-sectional versus cross-sectional time-series perspective

This study purpose is to verify if there is an association between foreign immigration and crime. In doing this, the study investigates also some satellite aspects revolving around this possible association: the range of offences affected by immigration, the relationship between immigrant and native crime, and whether the immigration impact on crime is direct or indirect. The present study has addressed these issues by both a cross-sectional and a longitudinal analysis, the latter including an instrument. The study is based on data of the Italian provinces. Italy represents a critical case for studying the migration–crime relationship, because in this country the rise in foreign immigration has been sudden and its pace feverish. The cross-sectional analysis findings show that crime intensities are affected by time-invariant factors and marginally by immigration. On the contrary, the longitudinal analysis shows that variations in immigration had a positive impact on both the most serious and the most common offences, on property crimes as well as on crimes of violence. There is no evidence of indirect effects of immigration on crime or of a link with native crime. In contrast to previous literature regarding the U.S., Canada, and Australia, these results suggest that a spiralling immigration can affect crime. In terms of methods, these findings show that the standard synchronic analysis models can be biased by non-observed factors and that therefore cross-sectional time-series models can offer significant advantages.