The role of venture capitalist to enhance the growth of Spanish and Italian university spin-offs

The establishment of spin-offs to commercialise university knowledge/technology is a potential mechanism to promote economic and innovative development. Nevertheless, University Spin-Offs (USOs) are usually resource-constrained, especially in obtaining funding, limiting their growth. Venture Capital (VC) investors play an important role in the financing and the improvement of their managerial skills, which are critical for firm growth. This paper aims to explore both the effect of VC partners on the USOs’ growth and the cross-national differences in the role played by them. To study both issues, we empirically analysed 516 Spanish and 904 Italian USOs created by 50 Spanish and 57 Italian universities, respectively, and observed them between 2005 and 2013. The results showed different effects in the Spanish and Italian cases. While in Spain the presence of VC partners positively affects the USOs’ growth, in Italy there is not a significant effect. This evidence calls for systematic policies by public administrations and universities to foster USO growth.     

Parallel axiomatizations of majority and unanimity

The relative majority rule and the unanimity rule are characterized in the two alternatives case. The main axioms rely on the idea of determining the preference of a group by partitioning it into two subgroups and aggregating next their preferences.     

Possibility of the Implementation of the Principle of Sustainable Development in the Sphere of Coal Processing

High-sulphur coals processing generates a great number of pollutant substances in atmosphere. This study was undertaken to obtain more definite information about the composition of sulphur coal extracts, i.e., on the quality and quantity of dormant Volatile Organic Emissions （VOCs）. Analysis of the liquid products was carried out by different protocols of extraction, adsorption chromatography, and GC/MS identification. It should be pointed out that the basic components of coal extracts are polyaromatic hydrocarbons, sulfur-containing compounds and phenols act as a basic factor of environment pollution with carcinogenic products. The complex treatment of these components will permit not only to obtain some valuable chemical products, but also to improve the ecology in the industrial regions.     

Power politics and the expansion of US exports, 1879–1938

In this article, we present quantitative evidence for the first time of the effect of US power politics on the expansion of its export market from the late nineteenth century to the eve of the Second World War. Like other empires, US imperial policy was expressed through annexation, gunboat policies, and asymmetrical trade agreements. We find that US exports to territories that became colonies or protectorates and those involved in other US military interventions grew more than three times faster between 1880–5 and 1934–8 than in the rest of the world. Our most relevant contribution to this discussion relies on a new geographically extensive database with information on bilateral trade flows, market size, trade costs, and variables that capture US political and military power. We first estimate a gravity equation to see the relationship between our power politics variables and US exports. Then, we present causal evidence of the role played by the colonies and protectorates in the expansion of US exports through an event study and the estimation of a generalized difference-in-differences model.     

Cross-Country Polarisation in CO2 Emissions Per Capita in the European Union: Changes and Explanatory Factors

We analyse the degree of polarisation in the international distribution of CO₂ emissions per capita in the European Union. It is analytically relevant to examine the degree of instability inherent to a distribution and, in the analysed case, the likelihood that the distribution and its evolution will increase or decrease the chances of reaching an agreement on climate policy. Two approaches were used to measure polarisation: the endogenous approach, in which countries are grouped according to their similarity in terms of emissions, and the exogenous approach, in which countries are grouped geographically. Our findings indicate a clear decrease in polarisation since the mid-1990s, which can essentially be explained by the fact that the different groups have converged (i.e. antagonism among the CO₂ emitters has decreased) as the contribution of energy intensity to between-group differences has decreased. This lower degree of polarisation in CO₂ distribution suggests a situation more conducive to the possibility of reaching EU-wide agreements on the mitigation of CO₂ emissions.     

The heterogeneity of carbon Kuznets curves for advanced countries: comparing homogeneous,heterogeneous and shrinkage/Bayesian estimators

We investigate Carbon Kuznets Curves (CKC) relationships for advanced countries grouped in policy relevant groups – North America and Oceania, South Europe, North Europe – by means of various homogeneous, heterogeneous and shrinkage/Bayesian panel estimators. We try to provide an answer to the question ‘how sensitive are the CKC estimates to changes in the level of parameters' heterogeneity?’. We do find that in coherence with their ‘policy and economic’ commitment to carbon reductions and environmental market-based instruments implementation, bell shapes are present only for northern EU, which leads the group of advanced countries. The other two lag behind. We show for the first time that CKC shapes are present if we net out Europe of the southern and less developed countries. This is coherent with the Kuznets paradigm. The negative side of the tale is that they characterize a bunch of few countries. Other advanced countries lag behind and are far from reaching a CKC dynamics. Heterogeneous and Bayesian estimators clearly show this, with the EU presenting turning points closely around $13?000 per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Heterogeneous panel estimates also show that for lagging countries presumed bell shapes turn into linear relationships. The stability of outcomes across models is stronger when we compare heterogeneous rather than homogeneous models. If it is compared with other studies, our analysis highlights a relative lower variability across specifications.     

Rule-based frameworks in historical perspective: Keynes’ and Friedman's monetary policies versus contemporary policy-rules

Abstract

This note suggests that Fazio's re-interpretation of Ferrara's discussion of distribution as a bilateral monopoly is incorrect. A more natural formalization of the work by Ferrara is proposed.     

Pareto optimality in continuous-time OLG economies

The aim of this paper is the achievement of a complete characterization of the Pareto optimality of competitive equilibria for deterministic, pure exchange, continuous-time economies with a countable number of overlapping generations, where each consumer’s life-span consists in a bounded interval of time. For such an environment, we obtain separate sufficient and necessary conditions for Pareto optimality in the form of the Cass’ criterion, that is, in terms of the equilibrium prices. However, these conditions are not equivalent in general. Therefore, in order to get that equivalence we are compelled to impose certain restrictions, either on consumers’ lifetimes, assuming that all of them have the same longevity, or on the dynamic behaviour of relative intertemporal equilibrium prices. In both cases, we are able to derive a single condition that is sufficient and necessary for efficiency, thus achieving full characterizations.