Bootstrapping the Malmquist indexes for Italian airports

This paper uses data envelopment analysis to assess the operational performance of 28 Italian airports during the period of 2000 through 2006. Recent developments in bootstrapping techniques are used to correct total factor productivity estimates for bias and to assess the uncertainty surrounding such estimates. This study found that the Italian airport industry experienced a significant technological regress, with few airports achieving an increase in productivity led by improvements in efficiency. Moreover, the paper shows that the form of ownership (public majority vs. private majority) of an airport management company does not significantly affect performance. In contrast, this type of the concession agreement has positive and significant effects on airport productivity. Finally, the paper highlights the existence of a productivity gap between airports located in the North-Central part of the country and those located in the south.     

R&D competition, absorptive capacity, and market shares

This paper deals with an oligopolistic industry where firms are engaged in cost-reducting R&D activity to maximize their market shares. The existence and uniqueness of a feedback-Nash-optimal R&D strategy for each firm are discussed. Our simulations highlight that variations in spillovers hardly influence the firms' R&D investment, if their absorptive capacities to exploit extramural knowledge depend on their R&D efforts. Moreover, extramural knowledge cannot completely replace in-house R&D. However, a high level of public R&D favors the firm with the most restrictive R&D expenditure constraint and/or with the lowest initial R&D stock, provided it invests in R&D.     

A dynamic model of R&D competition

This study considers a dynamic model of R&D competition in a situation of no uncertainty with identical firms in a perfect foresight. We are going to find out about the effects of firms' absorptive capacity on R&D strategies in the presence of technological spillovers. The conditions for the existence and uniqueness of a feedback–Nash equilibrium on firms' R&D expense will be also discussed. Numerical simulations will show as the introduction of the absorptive capacity reduces the impact of spillovers degree on firms' R&D strategies.     

Restructuring the Alitalia business model

This paper analyzes the performance of the Italian airline company, Alitalia, after the deregulation in the air transport industry in the European Union. Company performance is analyzed using Tornqvist indices. The evidence shows as Alitalia productivity slowdown has been caused by the company failure to support an increase in input with a supply-oriented strategy.     

Non‐parametric Modelling of Spatial Price Relationships

We apply non‐parametric methods to a consideration of price transmission processes within US egg markets at the turn of the nineteenth century. Gordon (National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper 7833, 2000) labelled this as an era of ‘Great Inventions’ which contributed to the subsequent years of significant productivity growth and noted that the development of mechanical refrigeration and transportation technologies played an important role in this growth. Our models present certain advantages relative to parametric models traditionally employed in price transmission analyses. We compare results derived from local polynomial modelling with those obtained using non‐linear threshold models. Both techniques suggest that US egg markets were interrelated at the turn of the nineteenth century. However, non‐parametric techniques often suggest a higher degree of price transmission than that implied by threshold models. Results also suggest that threshold models may have difficulties in adequately capturing price relationship dynamics, especially when these are of a highly nonlinear nature.     

The Italian airport industry in transition: a performance analysis

This paper analyzes the impacts of Italian government actions on the efficiency of 36 airports between 2001 and 2003. The changes have included privatization, enlargement of the services provided directly by airport management companies, through the modification of the concession agreements, and the creation of two hubs. The analysis, using the consolidated two-stage data envelopment analysis with bootstrapping, indicates that airports with a majority public holding are on average more efficient and the presence of two hubs is source of inefficiency.     

Cost Reduction,Competitive Pressure and Firms' Optimal R&D Strategies in a Duopolistic Industry

This paper deals with a duopolistic industry where firms are engaged in cost-reducing R&D activity in order to maximize their market shares. Firms' R&D competition is characterized as a dynamic noncooperative feedback game where the optimal strategies are affected by the extra-industry R&D activity and the degree of intra-industry spillovers. Numerical simulations highlight the importance of the assumptions on the firms' absorptive capacity (to exploit external knowledge) in determining the optimal levels of firms R&D investrnents.     

ICT capital and labour productivity growth: A non-parametric analysis of 14 OECD countries

This paper uses a new set of country data for 14 countries, members of the OECD, and a non-parametric approach to provide new evidence on the impact of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) on labour productivity growth between 1995 and 2005. For the first time, in the present paper a bootstrap approach for the decomposition of labour productivity change, proposed by Kumar and Russell (2002), is employed. This approach permits to conduct statistical inference on the parameters of interest, and to analyse the effects of ICT technologies on capital accumulation. The results confirm the role of ICT as a general purpose technology that needs organisational and business process changes to fully exploit its growth opportunities. The paper also finds out, by applying a non-parametric test, that ICT technologies positively contribute to the generation of convergence clubs in the evolution of labour productivity. Finally, the empirical evidence offers some basic guidance for future policy intervention in supporting ICT capital investments.