The aim of this paper is to explore the use of administrative data to study the choices of firms relating to the utilization of regular and irregular workers. The data are collected by the INPS (National Social Security Administration) during inspection activity aimed to catch irregular workers...

Explicit economic incentives designed to increase contributions to public goods and to promote other pro-social behavior sometimes are counterproductive or less effective than would be predicted among entirely self-interested individuals. This may occur when incentives adversely affect...

We investigate the relationship between social participation and the hours worked in the market. Social participation is the component of social capital that measures individuals’ engament in groups, associations and non-governmental organizations. We provide a model of consumer choice where...

Studies in the social capital literature have documented two stylised facts: first, a decline in measures of social participation has occurred in many OECD countries. Second, and more recently, the success of social networking sites (SNSs) has resulted in a steep rise in online social...

We develop a dynamic model to analyze the sources and the evolution of social participation and social capital in a growing economy characterized by exogenous technical progress. Starting from the assumption that the well-being of agents basically depends on material and relational goods, we...

This paper tackles the issue of self-selection in social interactions models. I develop a theory of sorting and behavior, when the latter is subject to social influences, extending the model developed by Brock and Durlauf (2001a, 2003) to allow for equilibrium group formation. Individuals choose...

In this paper I apply stochastic stability to compare local information to global information in terms of welfare. Under global information agents potentially imitate anyone else, while under local information choices are grouped into information sets and agents can observe and hence imitate...

This paper stresses that in order to understand the current restructuring processes in the food system it is necessary to take explicitly into account the role of power as a driving organizational force. Agricultural economics, drawing pervasively on the walrasian model, has mainly analysed...