BUFFER-STOCK SAVING AND HOUSEHOLDS' RESPONSE TO INCOME SHOCKS

We exploit information on the joint dynamics of household labor income, consumption, and wealth in the Italian Survey of Household Income and Wealth to structurally estimate a buffer-stock saving model. We compare the degree of consumption smoothing implied by the model to the corresponding empirical estimates based on the same data set. We estimate that Italian households smooth 12% of permanent income shocks in the data that is comparable to the model counterpart of 11% . This result contrasts with existing evidence, and our own findings in this article, of substantially more consumption smoothing in U.S. data.     

3 pillars and 1 beam: Quality of river basin governance processes

This paper suggests a framework that may enhance quality assurance of evaluation of river basin planning and governance processes based on 3 pillars and 1 beam: inclusive governance, transparent assessment, socially robust knowledge and extended peer review. It was developed based on past evaluation experiences from 5 cases of European river basin governance processes, entailing analysis of emergent patterns and linkages among the 4 vertices of the ADVISOR tetrahedron (context, information, assessment and participation), looking into justifications of past practice according to 4 types of context: institutional, societal, knowledge and methodological. The paper also hints on quality requirements that could be recommended for future practice of river basin governance evaluation activities.     

Consumer mistakes and advertising: The case of mortgage refinancing

Quantitative Marketing and Economics - Does advertising help consumers to find the products they need or push them to buy products they don’t need? In this paper we study the heterogeneous...