We show that the use of pooled and panel data in estimating β-convergence across countries (or other territorial areas) may involve some pitfalls, since these techniques cannot properly distinguish between actual convergence and the possibility of decreasing growth rates over time within each...

This work tests precautionary saving theory in Italian regions, examining the relationship between consumption growth and income uncertainty in a panel of five-year averages in the period 1981 to 2000. The analysis used two different measures for income uncertainty. The first is a naive measure...

This paper studies precautionary saving when many small risks are considered. We first introduce two simultaneous risks: labor income and interest rate risks. We show that, in this context, sufficient conditions for precautionary saving are weaker than in similar models. Moreover, we find that,...

This paper identifies a new sufficient condition for a prudent agent to have positive precautionary saving in the presence of labor income and interest rate risks of any size. We also provide three economic interpretations for this condition focusing respectively on the marginal effect of saving...

This note analyzes the effect of a change in the covariance between labor income risk and interest rate risk on the threshold level for prudence ensuring positive precautionary saving, recently derived by Baiardi, Magnani and Menegatti (2014). We show that this effect is different in different...

This note extends the results on the first four derivatives of the utility function by Menegatti (Eur. J. Oper. Res. 232 (2014) 613–617) to the case of high-order derivatives. We show that, under usual assumptions, if the generic derivative of the utility function of order n is sign invariant...

This note studies the relationships between different aspects of agent’s preferences toward risk. We show that, under the assumptions of non-satiation and bounded marginal utility, prudence implies risk aversion (imprudence implies risk loving) and that temperance implies prudence...

This paper empirically estimates a micro-founded model which studies the macroeconomic impact of environmental and financial risks on consumption choices in the Mediterranean Region. The analysis is carried out using time series aggregate data for fourteen Mediterranean countries over the period...

This paper empirically estimates a micro-founded model which studies the macroeconomic impact of environmental and financial risks on consumption choices in the Mediterranean Region. The analysis is carried out using time series aggregate data for fourteen Mediterranean countries over the period...

This paper studies choices on prevention and cure in a context where an agent bears a health risk. In this framework we first analyze interdependence between the optimal levels of prevention and cure. Second, we study the effects on optimal choices of a change in the cost of one of the two...