Ownership, Scale Economies and Efficiency in the Italian Water Sector

The Italian water sector is characterized by the presence of several water companies, with different ownership types; Fabbri and Fraquelli (Empirica 27:65–82, 2000) and Antonioli and Filippini (Util Policy 10:181–187, 2001) have analyzed the presence of economies of scale and scope in the sector while Abrate et al. (Journal of Productivity Analysis 35:227–242, 2011) have assessed the role of the heterogeneity in this sector. In recent years, the Italian water sector has been subject to a large reorganization, following the implementation of the EC Directive 60/00 for the harmonization of the pricing rules and polluting principles of the Member States. However, the reorganization of the sector is far from being accomplished, and the Italian water companies still face strong regulatory uncertainty associated with the absence of an independent authority. The lack of clear regulatory principles and the presence of almost 100 different companies managed differently across the territory requires the re-analysis of the possible sources of inefficiencies, in order to understand what kind of policy measures might be implemented to improve the performance of the water utilities and take them into account when the final tariff is fixed. This paper estimates a stochastic frontier to empirically investigate the main sources of inefficiency for a sample of 65 Italian water companies. First, this paper investigates whether a positive relationship exists between the firm’s ownership type and efficiency by using different estimation methods; second, this paper investigates whether the presence of economies of scale in the Italian water sector still exist after the merging process that recently took place as part of the sector reorganization. The estimation results show that ownership is not related to the firm’s performance and that the Italian water sector is still characterized by the presence of economies of scale. This result indicates that local communities may benefit from merging into larger water districts.     

Tribal Identity in Times of Peril

ABSTRACT

Jordan is a country of contrasts. Few people can boast of being a hundred percent rooted within the boundaries of the actual Kingdom. Almost everyone has relatives across several borders. The aim of this article is to explore the extent to which tribalism in Jordan acts as an identity source or the extent to which it is politicized and instrumentalized to protect economic and social benefits. My literature framework is the instrumentalist theory of ethnicity and the border studies literature. The extent to which ethnicity guarantees a return to the people determines people’s adherence to it. Some scholars regard ethnicity as a tool of political mobilization because ethnic groups could be considered also as interest groups. This theory provides an explanation of tribal behavior regarding the role of identity. As an example, I describe how East Bankers have reacted to challenges from the Palestinian population since 1948. In particular, the present-day delicate equilibrium among East Bankers and Palestinians is deeply decisive in regard to the Jordanian response to the regional crisis.     

Traditiovations: Creating innovation from the past and antique techniques for rural areas

Many agricultural activities are today considered unsustainable for the presence of a large number of externalities involving environment and human health. Almost paradoxically, the future of a modern agriculture seems to be linked also to a return to the past and to a re-appropriation of marginalized, ignored or lost traditions on the base of local cultural heritage and traditional knowledge. These clusters of traditions may represent a precondition to innovate and foster local development generating, thanks also to the support of science and research, innovative practices and techniques deriving from past traditional knowledge or re-invented techniques. Critical analysis and validation of these antique practices by science and research are the prerequisite for the development of Traditiovations: in this article two examples of such Traditiovations are identified and described in which practices and techniques, deriving from historical or past traditional knowledge, show the capability to operate as innovations, despite their apparently obsolete and out-of-date features, in production and management.     

Banks' business strategy and environmental effectiveness: The monitoring role of the board of directors and the managerial incentives

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how banks' climate strategies affect environmental performance. To extend this line of research, the carbon disclosure of worldwide banks is examined. In particular, we focus on specific governance strategies: board of director monitoring and managerial incentives. Panel data are employed on a sample taken from 330 bank-year observations in the period after the financial crisis. The results show an increase in environmental performance through the implementation of managerial incentives related to climate change, associated with the highest level of responsibility of the board of directors. Overall, the present study contributes to both the academic literature and corporate governance, highlighting the importance of banks' business strategy on climate change risks and opportunities with respect to environmental performance goals.     

Chinese banking system： Peculiarities in a comparison with Italian case

The analysis of principal data on Chinese banks highlights how they are exposed to credit risk, primarily generated from loans to public companies. Chinese banks have a good capital provision; The analysis of economic data describes a system oriented towards relationship lending; The average profitability per employee shows wide margins of improvement in terms of efficiency and technological equipment. The comparison with the case of Italy, which like China can be considered an economy heavily oriented to banking intermediation, it is useful to highlight some peculiarities of the Chinese banking system.     

Social preferences and lying aversion in children

While previous research has shown that social preferences develop in childhood, we study whether this development is accompanied by reduced use of deception when lies would harm others, and increased use of deception to benefit others. In a sample of children aged between 7 and 14, we find strong aversion to lying at all ages. Lying is driven mainly by selfish motives and envy. Children with stronger social preferences are less prone to deception, even when lying would benefit others at no monetary cost. Older children lie less than younger children and use self-justification to lie.     

International supply chains and trade agreements

There is a growing literature that examines the role of trade agreements on the formation of international supply chains. The evidence indicates that in general countries that share trade agreements are more likely to develope cross-border supply chains. In this analysis, we argue that in order to examine the effects of trade agreements on the formation of supply chains between two countries, it is not enough to analyse the impact of the trade agreements that the two countries share but it is also important to assess the impact of the trade agreements that they share with third countries. Using data on trade in value added for 129 countries, we show empirically that about 40% of the potential increase in trade in value added induced by a trade agreement between an importing country and a sourcing partner is wiped out by each additional trade agreement signed by the importing country with third nations in which the sourcing partner is not a member. The result has important implications for regions seeking to develop international supply chains but in which the process of integration is highly fragmented.     

Chinese Migrant Farmers in the Russian Far East: Impact on Rural Labor Markets

The close proximity of China and Russia, the activities of Chinese farmers, and the reduction in Russian labor resources have created job opportunities for Chinese workers in the Russian Far East (RFE). Chinese workers fill a labor shortage in agriculture, but little research has been done on them. We developed an econometric model to test the effects of Chinese intermittent migration on labor markets in the RFE. We found the proximity of Chinese to Russian farms reduces wages for both Russian and Chinese workers and increases their part-time employment on Russian farms. The greater availability of Chinese workers in the region results in lower number of family members working on Russian farms. Thus, the influx of Chinese workers may contribute to demographic shifts in the Russian population.