Sulla stima della media e del secondo momento di una popolazione tramite campioni con risposta casualizzata

Il campionamento con risposta casualizzata, introdotto da S. L. Warner per la stima di proporzioni ed in seguito applicato dallo stesso autore e da altri alla stima di quantità, è stato oggetto di un recente studio di D. Olivieri che, proposto un semplice metodo di casualizzazione, perviene ad una stima non distorta della media della popolazione oggetto d'indagine.Nel presente lavoro si sviluppa lo studio di Olivieri fornendo una stima non distorta del secondo momento della popolazione e si propone un'altra stima della media e della varianza della popolazione ottenuta tramite un metodo di casualizzazione di più semplice applicazione.

---

The randomized response technique of sampling was proposed for the first time by S. L. Warner for the estimation of proportions and then applied, by Warner himself and other authors, to the estimation of quantities.This technique has been recently the object of an approach by D. Olivieri who suggests an easy randomization method and obtains an unbiased estimate of the population mean.In this paper the approach of D. Olivieri is implemented, reaching an unbiased estimate of the second moment of the population; moreover, an other estimate of the mean and of the variance of the population, obtained by an easier-to apply method of randomization, is proposed.

---

---

Versione definitiva pervenuta il 12-1-81     

HOUSEHOLDS' NON-SNA PRODUCTION: LABOUR TIME, VALUE OF LABOUR AND OF PRODUCT, AND CONTRIBUTION TO EXTENDED PRIVATE CONSUMPTION

This paper first shows, with data from fourteen countries, the potential of time-use studies for measuring, in comparable physical quantities, labour inputs in SNA and in non-SNA production. It then presents the monetary valuations of unpaid household labour and of households' non-market product achieved on the basis of time-use data in a few of these countries. Further elaboration of these valuations illustrates the contribution of households' non-SNA production to extended private consumption. The conclusion suggests desirable future developments.     

Intangible assets as drivers of innovation: Empirical evidence on multinational enterprises in German and UK regional systems of innovation

The sources of value creation are increasingly relying on intangible assets (IAs). IAs are the lifeblood of knowledge-intensive industries where the new value added is disproportionally based on specialized, non-repetitious activities. However, while the role of IAs is recognised as central to sustain the competitiveness of firms and innovation systems, the understanding of the mechanisms through which IAs display their effects has not yet been fully grasped.By focussing on the processes through which investments in IAs occur, this paper aims to explore the key dimensions through which two specific IAs - organisational and network capital - are enhanced and contribute to the innovativeness and embeddedness of Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) in regional innovation systems. On the basis of over forty in-depth interviews to leading staff of German and UK flagship MNEs operating in the automotive, life science and ICT sectors, the paper shows that MNEs adopt rather distinctive strategies to develop IAs; that MNE degree of local embeddedness is strictly related to both the kind of IA strategy and the local environment; and that causation mechanisms are at work between MNE embeddedness and regional creation of IAs.     

Can unbiased be tighter? Assessment of methods to reduce the bias-variance trade-off in WTP estimation

This paper aims at verifying the claim, appeared in recent literature, that it is possible to control for response bias associated to the double bound elicitation method, while keeping gains in efficiency of the WTP estimates. Results from a Monte Carlo analysis lead, in general, to reject the claim; but when initial bids are not correctly chosen, the gains in efficiency are confirmed. An empirical application dealing with WTP estimation for drinking water quality improvements illustrates a case where a flexible modeling approach based on Copula distributions allows relevant gains with respect to the Single Bound estimator.     

The market for lawyers and quality layers in legal services

We study the functioning of the market for lawyers, considering the strategic interaction among litigants, lawyers, and judges. We investigate the value of legal representation and of systems of quality certification, such as the Queen’s Counsel system. In our setting, higher quality lawyers obtain better‐quality evidence and are better able to interpret it. Judges receive information from the lawyers and have reputational concerns. We show that reputational concerns generate a decision bias in favor of certified lawyers and that this causes misallocation of lawyers at the market equilibrium. As a result, whereas a higher quality of lawyers increases welfare, public information over quality may be welfare reducing.     

Tax avoidance in government-owned firms: Evidence from Italy

This paper studies whether and why government-owned firms avoid taxation to a greater extent than wholly privately-owned firms do. By considering a sample of Italian listed corporations for the period between 2006 and 2011, it was found that government ownership had a systematically negative effect on corporate effective tax rate, with a prevalence of tax-planning policies focused on the long term. Managers of local government-owned firms focused on minimizing costs, even if this was to the detriment of national tax-revenue collection.     

Austerity and repressive politics: Italian economists in the early years of the fascist government

The historical forerunners of contemporary austerity are still largely unexplored. This essay considers the “liberal phase” of Fascist Italy (1922–1925) as a case study to explain austerity as a full-blown rationality, that is intrinsically, and simultaneously, theory and practice, encompassing the moral, the economic and the political. My explanation moves beyond the interpretation of austerity as the post-1980, neoliberal recipe of price deflation and budget cuts. The Italian case draws attention to a neglected connection: that between austerity and repression. Austerity was the guiding principle of the Fascist economic agenda during the 1920s. It served to extinguish the effects of the democratisation process of the post-WWI years. The paper examines the work of four distinguished economists, Maffeo Pantaleoni, Luigi Einaudi, Alberto De Stefani and Umberto Ricci, who – in different roles as professors, journalists, advisors, and policy-makers – can be considered the source, the guardians and the enforcers of Fascist austerity.     

Does Branch Religiosity Influence Bank Risk‐Taking?

Using branch‐level data on public and private US banking institutions, we investigate the importance of branch religiosity in shaping bank risk‐taking behavior. Our results show robust evidence that branch religiosity is negatively related to bank risk‐taking. This effect persists after controlling for several bank‐level and county‐level variables that might correlate with religiosity. Moreover, this result is robust to controlling for headquarter religiosity, suggesting that the effect of branch religiosity is additive and not washed out by headquarter religiosity. Overall, our findings document that headquarter religiosity does not capture the full effect of religiosity on bank behavior, as claimed by previous research, but that the religiosity of the geographic area in which the bank operates significantly influences bank behavior.     

Making Italian fashion global: Brand building and management at Gruppo Finanziario Tessile (1950s‒1990s)

Abstract

This paper deals with the role of brands in the emergence of the Italian fashion business. Starting from the mid-1950s, the main Italian clothing manufacturer Gruppo Finanziario Tessile (GFT) managed brands to build a domestic market for mass-produced clothing. In the 1970s increasing competition and changing consumption patterns pushed GFT towards partnerships with leading fashion designers for building new brands and entering international markets. The emergence of strong designers’ brands determined major organisational challenges that resulted in opposite outcomes: the demise of GFT, which failed in its attempt to control the entire value chain, and designers’ achievement of an international standing in the fashion industry thanks to improved brand management capabilities.     

New development: Where there's a will,there's a way—acting beyond cutbacks

A sustainable solution to the recent financial crisis requires a sea-change in governments' thinking, rather than just cutting expenses. Governments need to re-examine the managerial and cultural factors that lie beyond the crisis: the way budgets are prepared, the (lack of) strategic management, the limited room left for innovation, and excessive reliance on public entities for the solution of social problems.