European Regional Development Fund and pro-environmental behaviour. The case of Italian separate waste collection

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) regulations over two programming periods (2000–2006 and 2007–2013) in terms of separate waste collection rates of Italian regions. We analyse longitudinal data for 20 NUTS-2 Italian regions over two EU policy cycles (2000–2006 and 2007–2013), by means of a Difference-in-differences estimation method. The estimates suggest that ERDF regulations in both programming periods had no relevant impact on the achievement of cohesion policy goals for separate collection at the regional level. Subsequently, we analyse data for 103 NUTS-3 Italian provinces over 2000–2013 by means of two statistical tools: The Theil index (TI), and the Moran index (MI), and find that proximity effects at provincial scale cause positive social contagion of pro-environmental attitudes toward separate collection. Our results make a case for the relevance of ‘cultural’ policy measures fostering environmentally responsible attitudes as a possible pre-condition for effective implementation of ERDF-funded separate collection projects in low-performing regions.     

Spatial interdependence in cost efficiency and local government optimal size: The case of Italian municipalities

This study provides an original approach to empirically determine the optimal size of municipalities for efficient social service delivery in Italy, accounting for spatial spillover effects across municipalities as well as endogeneity between the output provided and its cost. A highly disaggregated and up-to-date database of Italian municipalities is used to estimate, through endogenous spatial frontier of Kutlu et al. (2020), the minimum costs. In municipalities with population ranging from 2000 to 3500 economies of scale in social service provision emerge, exhibiting cost-optimality. This outcome is completely ignored in some Regional government where financing criteria are based on historical, non-public, and ex-post repayment criteria.     

Herding in Open-end Funds: Evidence from China

This paper aims to detect the herding of Chinese open-end fund managers and examine the role that structural features of their industry play in their herding. The herding behaviour is investigated by employing the cross-sectional absolute deviation (CSAD) model, drawing on the Chinese open-end fund market for the 2007–2020 period. Our findings suggest that the presence of herding has been confirmed in all other types of funds except for income funds, with their herding being mainly driven by non-fundamental factors. Most types of funds show more pronounced herding when the market is rising and the fund flow is positive. Up markets foster positive fund flows, which promote herding to a certain extent. The structural characteristics of fund networks of common asset holdings produce an impact on the fund herding. Herding is observed in the network with larger centrality index and the disassortative network. Moreover, we also find that herding in most types of funds is more pronounced under conditions of high volatility and high economic policy uncertainty, and the fund herding tends to grow inversely with fund-size.     

Electoral accountability and local government efficiency: quasi-experimental evidence from the Italian health care sector reforms

This paper evaluates the effect of two policy changes on the efficiency of Italian regional governments in the provision of health care services: first a change in the electoral system, second a process of fiscal decentralisation. The paper provides two main contributions: (1) a comprehensive analysis of the two main reforms that involved Italian regional governments and the health care sector during the 1990s, (2) the evaluation of the impact of the electoral reform in a quasi-experimental setting. Final results are in line with recent theoretical predictions that show a positive relationship between government efficiency and the electoral accountability enhanced by institutions such as electoral rules and fiscal decentralisation.     

Collaborative diversity in a nanotechnology innovation system: Evidence from the EU Framework Programme

Collaborative diversity is, arguably, an intrinsic characteristic of research networks built on the emergence of general-purpose technologies such as nanotechnology. European research policy, epitomised in Framework Programmes, creates arrangements that institutionalise the development of internationally and institutionally diverse research networks. Motivated by concerns that a high degree of collaborative diversity may create managerial challenges for network members in sharing knowledge across national and institutional borders, we study the configurations of collaborative research networks and consider their international and institutional diversity. We also explore the influence of European policy mechanisms on the international and institutional diversity of collaborative research networks. We conclude that nanotechnology research networks are indeed characterised by a significant degree of collaborative diversity, which in turn exposes a need for participating members to develop strategic capabilities to manage research within diverse networks.     

The Influence of Stakeholder Engagement on Sustainability Reporting: Evidence from Italian local councils

This study investigates the motivations of local councils for producing a sustainability report. Inter-connecting theories of legitimacy, accountability, and the New Public Management are used to structure an investigation that explains patterns of behaviours by Italian local councils. The project assesses if, and how, stakeholder engagement can influence the local councils’ decision-making process through the adoption of sustainability reporting. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the sustainability report preparers of a sample of Italian local councils. The findings demonstrate that initially sustainability reporting is introduced for accountability and legitimacy reasons. However, over time traditional sustainability reporting was incidental to more sophisticated tools of policy-making and reporting, in which some of the stakeholders were actively involved. The findings highlight the political negotiations in which sustainability reporting finds itself. The stakeholder engagement projects implement legitimizing strategies within the context of the search for an arrangement between political programs and stakeholder demands.     

Housing capital-gains taxation and homeowner mobility: Evidence from the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997

We provide new evidence on the impact of housing capital-gains taxation on homeowner behavior by examining residential mobility before and after the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 (TRA97), which generated the most sweeping reform of capital-gains taxation in the last two decades. In addition to lowering marginal tax rates on long-term capital gains for all assets, TRA97 also eliminated any differential treatment of housing gains above and below age 55, allowing all homeowners to qualify for capital-gains exclusions. Utilizing data drawn from the Current Population Survey (CPS) on either side of the law change (1996 and 1998) on homeowners just above (56–58 year olds) and below (52–54 year olds) the age-55 threshold and a reduced-form, difference-in-difference empirical approach, our estimates suggest that the repeal of the differential capital-gains tax treatment by age embodied in TRA97 had an economically important and statistically significant impact on the residential mobility of under-55 homeowners. Across a variety of specifications, the repeal raised the mobility rate by around 1–1.4 percentage points, which, for a mean mobility rate of 4 percentage points, represented an increase in the mobility rate of homeowners in their early 50s by 22–31%. Furthermore, the bulk of this effect was concentrated among highly mobile homeowners who a priori were more likely to have wanted to trade down (e.g., divorced, empty nesters), those facing higher capital gains tax rates, and those living in states that had experienced higher rates of nominal appreciation.     

Monetary Policy and the Stock Market: Theory and Empirical Evidence

This paper gives a comprehensive review of the literature on the interaction between real stock returns, inflation, and money growth, with a special emphasis on the role of monetary policy. This is an area of research that has interested monetary and financial economists for a long time. Monetary economists have been interested in the question whether money has any effect on real stock prices, while financial economists have investigated whether equity is a good hedge against inflation. Empirical studies show that money can be helpful in predicting future stock returns. Empirical evidence also suggest that equity is not a good hedge against inflation in the short run but may be so in the long run. The short-run negative relation between stock returns and inflation can easily be explained by theoretical models. If the central bank conducts a countercyclical monetary policy this will result in a negative relation between inflation and stock returns, while if it conducts a procyclical policy we could observe a positive relation. According to both theoretical and empirical studies investors receive an inflation risk premium for holding equity.     

Government Engagement,Environmental Policy,and Environmental Performance: Evidence from the Most Polluting Chinese Listed Firms

This study empirically examines the implementation of environmental policies and how government engagement impacts on a firm's environmental performance based on a sample of Chinese listed firms in the eight most polluting industries over a 10‐year period. The findings of the study demonstrate that government engagement, measured as ownership structure, is positively correlated with environmental performance, measured by environmental capital expenditure, for state‐owned firms, but no significant relation is found for non‐state‐owned firms. In addition, non‐state‐owned firms are more likely to perform better in terms of environmental investment after the 2006 enactment of a new policy explicitly linking environmental issues with political incentives to regional governments. This study also reports that corporate environmental performance impairs firm value for state‐owned firms but has no impact on firm value for non‐state‐owned firms, suggesting that investors negatively respond to environmental investments made by state‐owned firms as a result of government engagement/political pressure. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Strategizing Environmental Policy and Compliance for Firm Economic Sustainability: Evidence from Taiwanese Electronics Firms

This study aims to examine whether the compliance of environmental policies can sustain firm economic performance, and whether a timing issue is relevant to firm economic sustainability in pursuit of eco‐friendly efforts. Offering models predominantly based on the institutional theory, this study tests hypotheses using data from 284 companies in the electronics sector in Taiwan during the period from 1997 to 2010. The findings reveal that the execution of environment policies mostly improves firm economic sustainability and some joint green efforts can even strengthen such sustainability; however, firms aiming to sustain their economic performance should not hasten to undertake eco‐friendly efforts, implying that first movers may not be guaranteed firm economic performance. Thus, managers should carefully strategize their green efforts to comply with environmental policies, and execute them in due course to prevent disadvantages, such as market uncertainty and complexity of green practices, while conquering organizational inertia. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Effect of local government decision‐making competition on carbon emissions: Evidence from China's three urban agglomerations

Analyzing the effect of local government decision‐making competition on regional carbon emissions is important for reducing carbon emissions in rapidly urbanizing areas. Taking the energy rebound effect into account, this study analyzes the effect on carbon emissions of competition between local governments in decision making. Focusing on China's three urban agglomerations, this study further discusses how to avoid this influence. The results show that local government decision‐making competition is one of the main causes of the regional “green paradox”; the effect of local government decision‐making competition on carbon emissions has significant regional heterogeneity and spatial dependence, and the short‐term energy rebound effect is greater than the long‐term energy rebound effect; and local government decision‐making competition has three effects on carbon emissions that also have interaction and substitution effects between them: factor market distortion, investment bias, and the “race to the bottom” of environmental policies. However, four measures can reduce the effect of local government decision‐making competition on carbon emissions: one, improving the performance evaluation system of local governments; two, promoting the marketization of factor prices; three, improving both the energy efficiency and upgrading of industrial structures; and four, introducing macro emission reduction policies that allow the central government to intervene directly.     

Silent accounting harmonisation: Towards the presentation of cash flow models in the local government and business fields in Norway

In most countries around the world there are differences in the systems of accounting in the business and non-business sectors. In recent years, however, the governments in some countries have started to apply the accrual-based accounting principles that are used in the business field. In Norway, however, another development can be noted. In the later 1980s business organisations and local governments both started independently to move towards a cash flow reporting system. It is thus suggested here that a silent accounting harmonisation process is taking place in Norway between business and local government. The purpose of the article is to describe and discuss this process, and the harmonised financial statements themselves. Suggestions for further research are also made.     

The policy mix in the US and EMU: Evidence from a SVAR analysis

We use a SVAR approach to the effects of fiscal and monetary policies, as well as their interactions (policy mix) for the US and the Euro Area (EMU). Overall, our results show that these two cases are different from each other. First, while in the case of the US there is evidence of Keynesian monetary policy, the same is not true in the case of the EMU. Second, considering the effects of the global economic and financial crisis, there is evidence of non-Keynesian fiscal policy in the case of the EMU (expansionary fiscal consolidation), while it does not hold in the case of the US. Third, there is evidence supporting the traditional inverse relationship between monetary policy interest rates and inflation in the case of the US, whereas in the case of the EMU there is a price puzzle (frequent in SVAR studies). Fourth, the baseline model seems to be robust in the case of the US, when considering the effects of the economic and financial crisis 2007–2009, while the opposite holds in the case of the EMU. However, in both cases, the policies seem to act as complements. Another similarity appears when analysing the relationship between public spending and taxation, where there is evidence supporting a fiscal retrenchment.     

Anti-corruption,government intervention,and corporate cash holdings: Evidence from China

We use China as an example to examine how anti-corruption and government intervention shape corporate cash holding decisions. The findings show that firms in provinces with less government intervention (weak anti-corruption intensity) hold smaller (larger) cash reserves than those in provinces with more government intervention (strong anti-corruption intensity). Furthermore, we find that the positive relationship between government intervention and corporate cash holdings is alleviated as the anti-corruption intensity increases, and this alleviation effect is more prominent for state-owned enterprises (SOEs), firms in high intervention areas and firms without political connections. These findings support the argument that corruption-free and low intervention governments can benefit firms in making more profitable corporate decisions.     

Entry regulations and labour market outcomes: Evidence from the Italian retail trade sector

The paper analyzes the relationship between entry regulations and employment in the Italian retail trade sector. In Italy the opening of large outlets is regulated at the regional level. First, by using differences-in-differences estimators the paper presents evidence that in regions with less stringent entry regulations, retail trade employment does not decrease. Second, the paper focuses on the effects of the rules implemented in Abruzzo and Marche, two otherwise close and similar Italian regions which adopted very different policies: the first set tight restrictions on the opening of large stores; the second did not impose substantial entry regulations. The results show that in Marche after the inception of the flexible regulations the share of total retail trade employment in total population increased by 0.8 percentage points more than in Abruzzo. Fiercer competition also led to a recomposition of employment in small retail shops. These findings are robust to a number of checks.     

Economic policy uncertainty and capital structure choice: Evidence from China

This paper studies how economic policy uncertainty affects corporate capital structure for Chinese listed firms from 2003 to 2013. We show that as the degree of economic policy uncertainty increases, firms tend to lower their leverage ratios. However, firms that are from regions with lower degrees of marketization, are state-owned or have prior bank-firm relationships mitigate the negative effect of policy uncertainty. Moreover, we provide consistent evidence that this negative effect is sourced from the deterioration of the external financing environment. We also find that firms adjust their financing structures by using more trade credit when economic policy uncertainty increases. Our results are robust to sample selection, data frequency, model specification and endogeneity.     

Economic policy uncertainty and enterprise value: Evidence from Chinese listed enterprises

In this paper, we investigate how economic policy uncertainty (EPU) influences enterprise value based on China’s EPU index and financial data on A-share listed enterprises from 2004 to 2018. Our empirical results show that uncertainty in economic policy has a significant restraining effect on enterprise value in general and that the degree of the impact is closely related to enterprise characteristics, including financial leverage, scale, R&D intensity, the degree of marketization, ownership, and location. More precisely, an increase in financial leverage and scale can mitigate the restraining effect of EPU on enterprise value, while an increase in R&D intensity and marketization degree will exacerbate the restraining effect. In addition, non-state-owned enterprises (non-SOEs) and firms located in first-tier cities are more vulnerable to rising EPU. The evidence indicates that policymakers should pay attention to stability in macroeconomic policy and micro-enterprises should be concerned about the impact of uncertainty in economic policy, plan ahead, and take precautions.     

Regulatory Contracts and Cost Efficiency: Stochastic Frontier Evidence from the Italian Local Public Transport

The main objective of this paper is to investigate the way subsidization mechanisms affect the cost efficiency of public transit systems, taking into account the role played by the environmental characteristics of each network. A cost frontier model is estimated for a seven-year panel of 44 Italian transit companies run under two different regulatory schemes (cost-plus or fixed-price), using the approach proposed by Kumbhakar et al. (1991), Huang and Liu (1994) and Battese and Coelli (1995). The main evidence is that, given network characteristics, transit operators with high-powered incentive contracts (fixed-price subsidies) exhibit lower distortions from the minimum costs. Environmental conditions (network speed levels) also have a significant impact on inefficiency differentials and influence the efficacy of incentive regulation. Overall, these results highlight a scope for transport policy to increase X-efficiency. Furthermore, they stress the importance of incentive theory and modern regulatory economics for the production analysis of regulated utilities.     

Political ideology,social capital,and government innovativeness: evidence from the US states

We use the number of finalists and winners recognized by the Innovations in American Government Awards (IAGA) programme to measure state government innovativeness from 1986 to 2013. The measure is moderately related to two existing state policy innovativeness indexes. The fifty states vary remarkably and persistently in government innovativeness, which is more driven by internal antecedents than external ones. We find that between-state effects outperform within-state effects in explaining government innovativeness. We also reveal that government ideology, citizen ideology, and social capital are positively related to government innovativeness. The index developed in this study can be used in pertinent studies, and the findings contribute to the literature on public sector innovation.