Insurance and opportunities: A welfare analysis of labor market risk

Using a model with constant relative risk-aversion preferences, endogenous labor supply and partial insurance against idiosyncratic wage risk, this paper provides an analytical characterization of three welfare effects: (a) the welfare effect of a rise in wage dispersion, (b) the welfare gain from completing markets, and (c) the welfare effect from eliminating risk. The analysis reveals an important trade-off for these welfare calculations. On the one hand, higher wage uncertainty increases the cost associated with missing insurance markets. On the other hand, greater wage dispersion presents opportunities to raise aggregate productivity by concentrating market work among more productive workers. Welfare effects can be expressed in terms of the underlying parameters defining preferences and wage risk or, alternatively, in terms of changes in observable second moments of the joint distribution over individual wages, consumption and hours.     

Wage-setting patterns and monetary policy: International evidence

Systematic differences in the timing of wage-setting decisions among industrialized countries provide an ideal framework to study the importance of wage rigidity for the transmission of monetary policy. Synchronization in wage-setting decisions is prevalent in Japan and the United States, yielding varying degrees of wage rigidity within the year; instead, in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom decisions are more uniformly spread over time. Exploiting within-year variation in the timing of wage-setting decisions in these economies, we find support for the long-held but scarcely tested view that wage rigidity plays a critical role in the transmission of monetary policy.     

Constructing performance measurement in the public sector

This article investigates the process of translating Performance Measurement Systems (PMSs) into operational use, in the context of public sector reforms. Drawing on Actor-Network Theory, the article examines the Good Practice project, an 11-year PMS implementation in Italian universities. Analysing this experience, the article shows how controversies play a central role in the process of translation, as essential risks for revitalising the PMS. Furthermore, it underscores the heterogeneity of actors’ stratagems, giving voice to louder as well as weaker participants, who all proved crucial to the vitality of the PMS, by raising unexploited and unresolved issues within the network.     

Contracts with Wishful Thinkers

In a setting with a wishful thinking agent and a realistic principal, the paper studies how incentive contracts should be designed to control for both moral hazard and self‐deception. The properties of the contract that reconcile the agent with reality depend on the weight the agent attaches to anticipatory utility. When this is small, principal and agent agree on full recollection. For intermediate values the principal bears an extra cost to make the agent recall bad news. For large weights, the principal gives up on inducing signal recollection. We also extend the analysis to the case in which the parameter of anticipatory utility is private information.     

End-of-life care in United States: current reality and future promise--a policy review

Data collection and analysis of that data are vital to developing effective outcome measures when it comes to improvements in the cost and quality of delivered health care. The present state of end-of-life care in the United States is evaluated, focusing on statistics of disparities in access to and type of care provided across the country. Although only a few portions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act deal with end-of-life care reform, the multiple innovative efforts occurring at state and local levels are proving very effective in improving end-of-life care. Possible improvements and obstacles to those improvements, and the involvement of the profession of nursing are highlighted. The focus of this investigation is to determine if the evidence supports the following imperative: that the money spent for end-of-life care be spent in a manner that benefits the patient and complements his or her wishes.     

The asymptotic distribution of Nagar's bias-adjusted TSLS estimator under partial identification

The asymptotic distribution of the Nagar bias-adjusted two-stage-least-squares estimator is studied under the assumption of partial identification when the number of instruments increases at the same rate as the sample size and the errors are normally distributed.     

Network of Collaborations for Innovation: The Case of Biotechnology

The ‘life science’ revolution related to the development of biotechnology affects many different markets. In the pharmaceutical business new drugs are continuously developed, tested, and submitted to governmental institutions for the required approval. In the agricultural business the so-called ‘green revolution’ is well under way with many new products designed in order to appeal to farmers or to consumers. The increasing pace of introduction of new biotech products—particularly drugs and agrochemical (Ag) foods—leads firms to look for collaborations in the different phases of the introduction process. Basing on an empirical study conducted on a sample of 27 organisations involved in the process of introduction of biotech products, the paper aims at comparing and contrasting the nature and the processes involved in inter-institutional collaborations occurring at various stages of new product development and commercialisation of new biotech products (particularly drugs and Ag foods).     

Search Channel Use and Firms' Recruitment Behaviour

In the present paper we examine the impact of firms' attitudes towards key aspects of the recruitment process on the number of search channels activated. Furthermore, we address the issue of the timing of the activation of additional search channels. It is found that firms that attach importance to search effort and to applicants' motivation generally use more search channels than firms that do not attach any importance to the aforementioned aspects of recruitment. Furthermore, it appears that employers generally use fewer search channels for permanent positions. However, firms with a personnel department which are hiring for a vacancy requiring specific work experience usually activate multiple search channels. Finally, the choice of advertising as the first search channel appears to negatively affect the chances of considering additional channels.     

Stability of Risk Premia in the Italian Stock Market

In this work, we estimate the arbitrage pricing theory (APT) on the Italian Stock Market using the reduced-rank regression technique recently propossed by Bekker et al. (1996). Due to its computational simplicity, this technique allows extensive empirical analysis of the properties of the estimator employed. In this work, we carry out an initial exploration of the cross-sectional stability of the risk premia estimates in relation to the stocks' sample composition. We show that, by choosing an appropriately diversified sample, some acceptable degree of stability may be obtained. We also investigate, using the bootstrap method, the small sample properties of the estimator. (J.E.L.: G11, G12).     

The International Financial Crisis Viewed by Experts

The occurrence of the international financial crisis and the spread out of its effects on the global economy prompted experts around the world to think about how to manage the crisis and which measures to implement in order to restore normal economic and financial conditions. In this paper, we present and discuss the results of an international expert survey. We use these experts' perceptions to pursue a twofold target to understand their perceptions about the causes of the crisis, and of the policies to solve it. Interestingly, experts seem to broadly concur on what caused the crisis but their perceptions diverge regarding the policies. Furthermore, substantial differences in perceptions emerge between the Euro Area and the United States. We also find that the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank monetary policies during the crisis are judged barely adequate. Finally, different views distinguish academicians from other experts .