Advertising effect on primary demand: a cointegration approach

This paper addresses the question of the effects of advertising on the primary demand for whisky in Italy. In contrast to previous works, this issue is investigated in a multivariate framework by referring to Johansen's cointegration technique; this choice allows the non-stationary dynamics of aggregate marketing data to be taken into account, as well as their short-term and long-term relationships. Even if advertising is linked to real prices and sales in the long run, our analysis reveals no evidence supporting the effectiveness of advertising on the aggregate demand for whisky, which is essentially determined by the real price, both in the short and the long term.     

Directed hypergraphs as a modelling paradigm

We address a generalization of graphs, the directed hypergraphs, and show that they are a powerful tool in modelling and solving several relevant problems in many application areas. Such application areas include Linear Production Problems, Flexible Manufacturing Systems, Propositional Logic, Relational Databases, and Public Transportation Systems.     

The effect of a law limiting upcoding on hospital admissions: evidence from Italy

Policy makers have made several attempts to limit hospitals’ upcoding. We investigate the impact of a law introducing a minimum length of stay for discharges with complications. We analyze its effects on the probability of a discharge with complications, on its length of stay and on its reimbursement. We show that the policy has been effective in limiting upcoding, since, after the law, (1) the probability of a discharge with complications has decreased by 3%; (2) its length of stay has risen by 0.17 days more than the observed corresponding variation in the length of stay of a discharge in the control group; (3) the hospital’s revenue on a discharge with complications has decreased by 8.5% more than the observed revenue change on a discharge in the control group. Furthermore, we find evidence of an ownership effect on upcoding, since not-for-profit and for-profit hospitals have been more affected by the law than public hospitals.     

A comparison of the Beveridge curve dynamics in Italy and USA

In this article, we investigate the Beveridge curve dynamics in the USA and Italy by means of a cointegrated structural VAR model. A simple economic model is introduced to motivate the identifying assumptions of the empirical analysis. A stable long-run relationship is found for both countries. In order to study the dynamic behaviour of the model, and to decompose unemployment and vacancy fluctuations, we identify three common stochastic trends. The empirical results suggest that there are some sources of hysteresis in unemployment in both countries. Transitory shocks are also identified to account for the short-run dynamics of the model. The approach allows us to detach the long-run from the short-run dynamics, in order to provide information on the cyclical and structural Beveridge curve.     

The Bologna Process and widening participation in university education: new evidence from Italy

This paper extends previous work on the effect of the Bologna reform on university enrolment in Italy. The analysis considers more recent data and also attempts to disentangle the effect of the reform from the influence on enrolment exerted by time-varying confounding factors. The empirical findings consistently show that the “Bologna Process” had a positive impact on university participation, though the magnitude of this impact is smaller than previously concluded. One main reason for our lower estimates lies in the use of a difference-in-differences methodology, which allows us to control for the influence on enrolment exerted by unobserved factors that could have changed coincidentally at the same time as the reform.     

The international-trade network: gravity equations and topological properties

This paper begins to explore the determinants of the topological properties of the international-trade network (ITN). We fit bilateral-trade flows using a standard gravity equation to build a “residual” ITN where trade-link weights are depurated from geographical distance, size, border effects, trade agreements, and so on. We then compare the topological properties of the original and residual ITNs. We find that the residual ITN displays, unlike the original one, marked signatures of a complex system, and is characterized by a very different topological architecture. Whereas the original ITN is geographically clustered and organized around a few large-sized hubs, the residual ITN displays many small-sized but trade-oriented countries that, independently of their geographical position, either play the role of local hubs or attract large and rich countries in relatively complex trade-interaction patterns.     

Price Regulation and Public Service Obligations under International Arbitrage

National regulation generates price differentials between countries stimulating arbitrage by international distributors. Harmed manufacturers counteract using vertical price-squeeze or non-price discrimination. We show that: (i) either under regulatory commitment or discretion, there are non-linear relationships between technology/market conditions and the first-movers pricing strategy; (ii) public service obligations on distributors allow regulators to manipulate parallel exports so as to improve national welfare; (iii) to prevent sabotage, regulation should provide manufacturers with adequate countervailing incentives; (iv) coordinating national agencies alleviates negative regulatory and market externalities. Therefore, static and dynamic efficiency concerns may arise within a regional exhaustion regime of intellectual property rights.We are grateful to the Editor Michael A. Crew, an anonymous referee, and Luigi Buzzacchi for valuable comments and suggestions. We have benefited from financial support granted by MIUR-FIRB Project MAIS.     

Random utility demand models and service location

This paper considers the problem of the optimal location of facilities when the demand behavior is described by a random utility choice model. By means of duality theory of mathematical programming, it is shown how a wide family of such problems can be mapped into an entropy maximizing problem, which is usually easy to solve numerically. Theory and methods are discussed in details for the problem of locating a single type of facilities, and the extension to some kinds of systems with many types of facilities is outlined.