A case-control study on risk factors of domestic accidents in an elderly population

The aim of this study was to evaluate the combined influence of several lifestyle, health and housing factors in the occurrence of home injuries (HIs) among the elderly. The subjects were recruited from 10 hospitals in Rome, Italy. This study is a paired case-control study. Cases included subjects, aged 65-85 years, who visited the Emergency Department for an HI and were subsequently hospitalised (15 September 2004-30 June 2005). Controls were the subjects of the same gender, age (±3 years) and area of residence of cases. A conditional logistic regression model was used for analysing the variables obtained. In this study, we enrolled 107 hospitalised cases. It was found that the living room was the place where 33% of the accidents occurred. Eighty-seven per cent of the accidents were falls, and 33% of the accidents were the immediate consequence of sudden malaise. One-half of the cases reported one or more leg fractures. The variables that were independently associated with HI were poor household illumination, poor emotional status, regular physical activities and housekeeping activities. We conclude that this study shows the areas of intervention to target HI prevention activities.     

Anti-Waste Labeling and Consumer Willingness to Pay

ABSTRACT

Food waste is an important topic in the general context of food consumption sustainability and ethical consumption. Several studies have focused on environment-friendly labeling schemes based on different “ethical attributes,” such as organic, fair trade, and locally grown. However, the effect of a labeling scheme based on food waste prevention has never been studied. In the current work, experimental auctions were used to investigate the effect of a certification about containing food waste within a certain threshold on participants’ willingness to pay. The product chosen for the auctions was the French baguette (500 g) packaged with a paper wrapper. Furthermore, we examined whether the effect would be moderated by different communication strategies about the consequences of wasting. Specifically, two different frames of reference were used: the first is based on the carbon footprint, the other on the water footprint. Our results showed that waste prevention–based labeling positively affected participants’ willingness to pay and that this effect was enhanced by the carbon footprint frame of reference.     

Improving rural livelihoods through the conservation and use of underutilized species: evidence from a community research project in Yemen

The aim of this paper is to analyse the impact of a set of interventions related to conservation and use of neglected and underutilized species (NUS) on people's livelihoods. Specifically, a simultaneous three-equation model of households' participation on underutilized crops conservation and income generation activities is applied to evaluate the outcome of a pilot research project implemented by Bioversity International in Yemen between 2002 and 2005. Results generated show a relation between project participation and the perceived yield increase demonstrating the importance for farmers to actively participate in the project's activities and subsequently apply agronomic practices learnt to improve their livelihood. The generated benefits incentivized farmers to continue to apply the interventions beyond the lifetime of the project ensuring thus a sustainable process in which exogenous interventions, once adopted by farmers become integrant part of farmer's agronomic practices.     

Structural Change and Growth in a NEG Model

This paper presents a New Economic Geography model of structural change, agglomeration and growth. Assuming a non‐homothetic preference structure, our results show that a progressive reduction of trade costs allows the economy to pass from a pre‐industrialized to an industrialized stage and then, within the latter, from a dispersed to an urbanized regime. However, the introduction of capital accumulation and the dynamic setting of our model opens the door to a richer set of implications. First, an additional stage is introduced as, for some intermediate values of trade costs, a multiple equilibria regime emerges with simultaneously stable symmetric and core‐periphery equilibria. Second, the introduction of non‐homotheticity introduces a new channel through which growth is affected by trade costs and agglomeration. In particular, integration is always growth‐enhancing while agglomeration is growth‐detrimental.     

Tax morale and tax evasion reports

The study proposes a new measure of tax morale for Italy based on voluntary tax evasion reports. Using this measure, I detected a positive relationship between tax morale and social capital, political participation, and immigration, but a negative relationship between tax morale and the dissatisfaction with public services and unemployment.     

Coordination in evolving networks with endogenous decay

This paper studies an evolutionary model of network formation with endogenous decay, in which agents benefit both from direct and indirect connections. In addition to forming (costly) links, agents choose actions for a coordination game that determines the level of decay of each link. We address the issues of coordination (long-run equilibrium selection) and network formation by means of stochastic stability techniques. We find that the long-run behavior of the system depends on a fine interplay of the link cost and the trade-off between efficiency and risk-dominance.     

Profits persistence and ownership: evidence from the Italian banking sector

The hypothesis that ownership structure affects persistence of profits in the Italian banking industry is tested. The time-invariant components of ROA and ROE are regressed against ownership concentration and the fraction of shares held by the major shareholders. The results show that abnormal profits increase if ownership is concentrated in foundations and banks, and decrease if market forces are allowed to operate.     

The determinants of innovation in green supply chains: evidence from an Italian sectoral study

Innovation processes are increasingly spreading through the unbounded universe of European small and medium enterprises (SMEs). It represents a fundamental opportunity especially for those SMEs operating in the so‐called ‘green economy’ sectors, in order to be competitive in a National, European and International market with their sustainable products and services. Drawing upon a database of over 300 enterprises operating within the eight defined green sectors, this paper assesses the determinants and drawbacks of innovation. In particular, by using an econometrical approach, we tested the following propositions: (1) small dimension of enterprises is not an obstacle to their innovation capabilities; (2) the adoption of an internationalisation strategy is an opportunity and a stimulus to innovation for SMEs; (3) cooperation with research centres, financial partners, trade association and public entities can help SMEs to overcome difficulties and help them to develop and offer innovative products and services, so to be competitive at an international level. The econometric analysis shows a positive impact of the variables ‘dimension’ and ‘level of internationalisation’ on innovation capabilities. In addition, cooperation with research centres and access to capital market are positively related with effective innovations.     

The Crisis of Companies from an Italian Perspective: Reorganization and Fresh Money

Today, the role of fresh money in the reorganization of companies is a central matter in the Italian crisis law. The analysis comes from the recent reforms of the Italian Bankruptcy Law, aimed at revitalizing the pre‐insolvency procedures for overcoming the crisis of companies. These reforms draw inspiration from Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. In particular, three new rules have been introduced in the Italian Bankruptcy Law in order to facilitate the obtaining of credit by companies in crisis. These rules recognize priority in reimbursement for claims related to financing. Their target is to incentivize those (not only banks) who want to grant new finance to enterprises in crisis. The target is so important for the legislator that the rules permit the discrimination of companies' creditors on the basis of a judicial valuation of the conditions required for priority by the law in specific cases. The traditional and important principle of equal treatment of unsecured creditors is even more neglected. But the specific meaning of the rules and their inclusion in a sort of company crisis law in time of crisis induce to confine the forms of credit to which the rules refer to and to limit the space for extensive interpretations or applications by analogy. Copyright © 2016 INSOL International and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.