Environmental Economics and Modeling Marketable Permits

This paper reviews fundamental concepts in environmental economics and explores theoretical results regarding the choice of the key policy instruments for the control of externalities: taxes, subsidies and marketable permits. The paper explains why today market mechanisms are increasingly being used as a tool for allocating unpriced rights and scarce resources. We survey how significant market imperfections, a pre-existing regulatory environment and concentration in both permit and output markets can impede the proper functioning of a permit system. The main factors that affect the effectiveness of marketable permits are then discussed. Given the importance of understanding the emission permit price formation, we overview recent attempts at developing valid price models for emission permits, taking into account banking and borrowing opportunities, pollution abatement measures, strategic trading interactions and the presence of asymmetric information in the permit market.     

The Principle of Subsidiarity and the Ethical Factor in Giuseppe Toniolo’s Thought

In this work, we present some traits of the socio-political and economic thought of Giuseppe Toniolo, who lived in Italy at the turn of the XIX and XX century, with special reference to the contribution that the Italian economist and sociologist gave to the definition and implementation of the principle of subsidiarity and to the ethical foundation of economic science. After outlining the definition of the subsidiarity principle in the first paragraph, we sketch the historical background in which Toniolo lived and operated. We then focus on the ethical factor and on the concept of subsidiary State emerging from Toniolo’s writings. Finally, we present some of the main elements of Toniolo’s legacy with reference to the current economic and socio-political debate.     

Corruption in transition economies: Socialist,Ottoman or structural?

Using data from 64 countries in Eastern Europe and MENA, I study the long-run effects of Ottoman and socialist rule on the incidence of corruption. To proxy Ottoman legacies, I estimate the length of Ottoman rule across all Ottoman successor states. Conditioning on income per capita, I find a robust adverse effect of both socialist and Ottoman legacies on present day corruption – a finding which reconciles two rival accounts of post-socialist corruption from the transition literature. The results are robust to controlling for potential confounders and instrumenting for both per capita income and the length of Ottoman rule. However, the explanatory power of long-run historical determinants of corruption is lower than the contribution of short-run factors. While present day income explains about half of the total variation in corruption across post-socialist countries, Ottoman and socialist legacies jointly account for about one third. Although history does matter, these findings suggest that most of the corruption observed in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Balkans today may not be inherently ‘eastern’ or socialist. Rather, the data are consistent with an interpretation of corruption predominantly as a manifestation of persistent economic under-development.     

Exploring factors motivating entrepreneurial intentions: the case of Italian university students

This study aims to identify the factors motivating the intentions of university students to become entrepreneurs. Leveraging data from a survey of 941 Italian students and adopting Ajzen's theory of planned behaviour, this paper employs the structural equation model to identify factors explaining students’ entrepreneurial intentions. The findings show that attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control positively shape Italian students’ intentions. Moreover, the findings signal that the skills acquired during the university pathway play a crucial role in encouraging students to consider entrepreneurial choices. The paper extends and complements the academic and policy debate in the field of entrepreneurship offering a comprehensive investigation of the factors affecting entrepreneurial intentions. It also allows us to contend that higher education may have an important role to play in fostering the entrepreneurial intentions of young people. This is especially significant given current global economic conditions and the renewed importance of self‐employment strategies.     

Further Evidence on the Effect of Clean Indoor Air Laws on Smoking: The Italian Case

The evidence about the effectiveness of anti-smoking legislation on smoking behavior is mixed. We provide new estimates for Italy using unexplored data drawn from the Household Budget Survey. We show that the smoking ban introduced in 2005 has a significant effect on smoking incidence. According to our baseline specification, the ban reduces household-based smoking prevalence by 1.3 percentage points. Results are robust to the various empirical strategies proposed in the literature, even accounting for seasonality.     

Adapting supply chain management strategies to security – an analysis of existing gaps and recommendations for improvement

The purpose of this paper is to determine the main security threats in supply chains, to understand gaps in today’s supply chain management strategies and to make recommendations to enhance security in the context of supply chain management. Previous research lacks comprehensive studies and recommendations about how supply chain managers deal with security issues in line with the business visions and strategies of their companies. The study methodology is based on an exploratory approach. Data were collected from 20 managers from international companies by means of self-administered surveys, one-to-one interviews and group interviews. Study findings point out risk management as an important tool at the disposal of managers for trading off performance and vulnerability. However, some important challenges also need to be considered, such as lack of data, insiders, IT vulnerabilities, regulatory frameworks, criminal behaviour, etc. Hence, recommendations are made for managers to improve their understanding of supply chain security.     

Neue Ordnung,neues Glück?

The German sports betting market has traditionally been characterised by highly controversial regulation that includes a strong role for public actors and strict limitations for public companies. This paper explores recent developments in the regulation of sports betting in Germany and provides a simple theoretical analysis of its legitimacy. The paper then focuses on the taxation of sport betting, one of the most disputed matters, and provides an overview of the consequences of the new taxation regime introduced in 2012 as well as a comparison of the German situation with that of other European countries.     

Toward a political budget cycle? Unveiling long-term latent paths in Greece

Quality & Quantity - Empirical studies demonstrated the existence of political budget cycles in many countries, although mechanisms underlying such cycles remain substantially unclear. The...     

The impact of successful cross-competencies on a career in tourism in Italy: the meeting point between the students’ perceptions and the requirements for professionals

ABSTRACT

The paper aims to understand how the changes occurring in the tourism sector are affecting the labor market in Italy, with a special focus on the relevance of successful cross competences (SCC). It focuses on comparing the relevance of these competencies in the perception of both students preparing to enter the tourism field and tour operators. The two-step study combined qualitative analysis that put forth specific characteristics of the tourism labor market in Italy through interviews with experts, and quantitative analysis that correlated the requirements of the tour operators to the ideas students have of what competencies tour operators entering the field should have. The results evinced differing perceptions of SCC and their relative importance in professional fields. Students manifest to miss awareness of the importance of SCC for their future careers. Furthermore, organizational ability, self-control and self-esteem were perceived by tour operators as the most important competencies to be acquired.