A simple dynamic general equilibrium model of savings and investment is populated by agents with Kreps-Porteus preferences. Households are heterogeneous in their risk aversion, which explains the negative relationship between aggregate investment and aggregate uncertainty. Agents trade a...

We consider the strategic choice between product innovation and logistic optimization in a novel urban framework where consumers are distributed across the city and have different incomes depending on their location in the town. Depending on the relative efficiency of the product innovation...

In a paper prepared as part of the 1992 draft Formez-Istat "The regional distribution of state expenditures: determinants, impact, equity and efficiency," the author had used the data, made available only for 1985 and 1986, in order to understand the determinants and the logic of the...

The aim of this paper is to explain the economic causes and consequences of the sharp decline in Italy’s fertility rate, the most dramatic decline in the world together with that in Japan. The main cause is shown to originate in the mid-seventies: a sudden increase in the unemployment rate...

We analyze households’ economic freedom to determine their standard of living, characterized by their capacity to spend on housing, utilities, food, and transport: economic poverty is a lack of freedom due to budgetary constraints. We propose three new measures. The first is the classical...

The aim of this paper is the analysis of vulnerability within families in nine regions of Italy and represents the second part of a research on regional inequalities in income distribution. Poverty tends to be a multi-dimensional concept and the use of monetary income as a single measure of...

We study optimal licensing contracts in a differentiated Bertrand duopoly, and show that per-unit contracts are preferred to ad valorem contracts by the patentee, while welfare is higher under the ad valorem contract. The difference between Cournot and Bertrand case is explained in terms of...

This paper provides new evidence on cross-country comparison of intergenerational mobility using the eight waves of the European Community Household Panel. I estimate intergeneration earnings elasticity for sons and daughters father pairs in seven European countries. Data comparability across...

In this paper we provide evidence on the effects of temporary employment on job flows, labour productivity and investment. As a source of identification, we exploit reforms in the legislation of fixed-term and apprenticeships contracts whose implementation varied over regions and industries....

We investigate the effect of social interactions on labor market outcomes using a direct measure of social contacts based on information about individuals’ three best friends and their characteristics. We examine the effect of the number of employed friends on the transition from...