The EU policy for a plastic economy: Reflections on a sectoral implementation strategy

After reviewing the main EU policy documents on the plastic waste issue, this work conceptualises an analysis framework to investigate farmers' attitudes to market‐based tools (i.e., subsidies, tax‐credits, and payback mechanisms in extended producer responsibility schemes) through which the introduction of an operational scheme for a better management of their plastic waste can be incentivised in line with the 2018 European Strategy for Plastics in a Circular Economy. A total number of 1,783 farmers responded to a purpose‐built questionnaire. Results show that most of the plastic waste they produce is piping and packaging and that tax credit represents their most favoured incentivising tool.     

Why East Germany did not become a new Mezzogiorno

Economic integration is generally thought to favour convergence in the economic performance of previously separated regions; but this is far from universally true, as the experience of the members of the Eurozone testifies. The paper considers the two sharply contrasting cases of East and West German convergence following reunification and the enduring poverty of the Italian Mezzogiorno since Italian unification a century and a half ago. In both countries, political integration delivers much higher consumption in the lagging relative to the leading region than of per capita GDP. Consumption convergence can be supported by transfers but ‘production’ convergence ultimately requires catch-up in the production of tradeables. The paper demonstrates the radically different performance of the tradeable sector in the two cases, and suggests that this may be the result of differences in labour market flexibility, in investment performance and in the social norms required for the production of complex manufacturing.     

Price distortions,joint production and some international trade theorems

Zusammenfassung Preisverzerrungen, verbundene Produktion und einige Theoreme des internationalen Handels. — In diesem Aufsatz werden Faktorpreisunterschiede in ein Modell mit Kuppelprodukten eingefügt. Im Fall verbundener Produktion ohne Marktunvollkommenheiten fanden Chang, Ethier und Kemp heraus, da\ die folgenden vier Theoreme im gro\en und ganzen die Einführung von Kuppelprodukten überstehen. Die vier betrachteten Theoreme sind das Rybczynski-, das Stolper-Samuelson-, das Faktorpreisausgleichs- und das Heckscher-Ohlin-Theorem. Wenn es Unterschiede in den Faktorentgelten gibt, dann zeigt sich, da\ — abgesehen vom Rybczynski-Theorem — diese Theoreme im allgemeinen nicht mehr gültig sind. Es werden Bedingungen genannt, unter denen die Theoreme so-wohl bei verbundener Produktion als auch bei Marktunvollkommenheiten anwendbar sind.

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Résumé Les distorsions de prix, la production conjointe et quelques théorèmes du commerce international. — Dans cet article des différences dans la rémunération des facteurs sont introduites dans un modèle de la production conjointe. Au cas de la production conjointe et en l’absence des imperfections sur les marchés des facteurs Chang, Ethier et Kemp ont trouvé que les quatre théorèmes suivants, en majeure partie, survivent l’introduction des produits conjoints. Les quatre théorèmes discutés sont ceux de Rybczynski, de Stolper-Samuelson, d’équalisation des prix des facteurs et de Heckscher-Ohlin. Si les rémunérations des facteurs diffèrent le modèle montre que — le théorème de Rybczynski à part — ces théorèmes ne sont pas valables en général. Il y a présenté des conditions sous lesquelles les théorèmes peuvent être généralisés au cas de la production conjointe aussi bien que des imperfections sur les marchés des facteurs.

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Resumen Distorsiones de precios, producción conjunta y algunos teoremas del comercio internacional. — En este artículo se han introducido diferenciales en la retribución a factures en un modelo de producción conjunta. En el caso de producción conjunta sin imperfecciones en el mercado de factores, Chang, Ethier y Kemp encontraron que los siguientes cuatro teoremas subsistieron en gran medida gracias a la introducción de producción conjunta. Los cuatro teoremas investigados son los de Rybczynski, Stolper-Samuelson, Igualación de Precios de Factores y los teoremas de Heckscher-Ohlin. En presencia de diferenciales en la retribución de factores encontramos que, aparte del teorema de Rybczynski, estos teoremas en general no subsisten. Se presentan las condiciones bajo las cuales los teoremas son generalizables con respecte a producctión conjunta e imperfecciones del mercado de factores.

     

Bids for the UMTS system: An empirical evaluation of the Italian case

The aim of this paper is to analyze the licensing of the telecommunication spectrum as a public good and the search for equilibrium prices through bilateral bargaining and multilateral bidding. It develops a general model of price setting under dynamic uncertainty and applies it to the Italian auction for Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). The empirical application shows that the model can be used both to determine the base price as well as other desirable characteristics to organize an auction and to better understand, after the auction is closed, what really happened in terms of the critical factors involved. After recalling some basic concepts on spectrum rights and reviewing the general experience with UMTS auctions in Europe, the formal model and its application are presented. The results confirm certain views on the Italian auction, which are widely shared but were never tested before, namely that: (i) given the initial price, the number of licenses offered for the bidding should have been fewer, or alternatively, (ii) given the number of licenses, the base price should have been higher and (iii) the main bidder underpaid for the license. The model also allows us to quantify the bidders’ reservation price and the State and the bidders’ implicit bargaining powers.     

Illegal Migration, Border Enforcement, and Growth

This paper analyzes the economic consequences of illegal migrants in the context of a model of trade and growth. In the model, capital and domestic labor are mobile sectors while illegal migrants are sector-specific. These assumptions give rise to a production possibility curve (with migrants) that lies partially inside the zero migration production possibility frontier. It is this feature of the model which generates ambiguous results regarding the relation betweendomestic welfare, illegal migrants, and enforcement. The steady-state growth path with migrants may lie above or below the balanced growth path without migrants.     

Special issue: Qualitative and quantitative methods in tourism research

Quality & Quantity -     

Does a ‘financial transaction tax’ drive out information mirages? An experimental analysis

Motivated by the debate over the economic implications of financial transaction taxes, the present study involved a thorough investigation of the impact of such taxes on a financial market of the type described by Camerer and Weigelt (J Bus 64:463–493, 1991), whereby noise traders are unaware of whether privileged information is fluctuating in the market. Two treatment conditions were opposed to a baseline condition in which no tax was levied. The two treatment conditions imposed a transaction tax equal to 0.5% and 1% of each transaction’s market value, respectively. The findings show that: (1) the introduction of a tax did not affect the occurrence of a mirage, (2) the introduction of a tax did not improve market efficiency and (3) the introduction of a tax did not reduce the number of transactions.

     

Is there a trade-off between free capital mobility,financial stability and fiscal policy flexibility in the EMU?

The recent dynamics characterizing the Eurozone economy suggest the existence of a new policy trilemma faced by its member countries. According to this policy trilemma, there is a trade-off between free capital mobility, financial stability and fiscal policy flexibility. In this paper, we analyze the foundations of such a trade-off and, based on the data for 11 Eurozone countries, present an empirical investigation on the existence of the trilemma. The results highlight the existence of the trade-off, with some differences between member countries. The existence of this trilemma in the Eurozone provides arguments for implementing centralized financial supervision together with fiscal and monetary reforms that should strengthen the currency union.     

Culture and the demand for non-life insurance: Empirical evidences from middle-income and high-income economies*

This paper investigates the impact of culture on non-life insurance expenditure using a panel dataset covering 27 middle-income countries and 40 high-income countries in the period 1980–2014. Based on the two-step system GMM estimator, it is found that several cultural dimensions such as masculinity, uncertainty avoidance and power distance significantly explain the spending on non-life insurance in middle-income countries, while masculinity is the only cultural factor that significantly explains spending on non-life insurance in high-income countries. Traditional drivers of the demand for non-life insurance, such as per capita income, economic freedom and urbanization, also behave differently comparing between the two income-based groups of countries. These findings provide useful recommendations for business firms and policymakers around the world, especially transitional economies, to promote and sustain the development of the non-life insurance sector, which is an important engine for growth and prosperity.