Questo lavoro ripercorre le diverse fasi dello sviluppo della teoria delle fluttuazioni economiche in prospettiva storica. L'obiettivo è di mostrare come le idee sulla natura e le cause delle fluttuazioni economiche si siano sviluppate nel corso del tempo, e come questo processo di sviluppo...

The availability of appropriate empirical measures to represent political and institutional factors is a crucial issue in the applied political economy research. This paper is intended as a contribution to the collection and circulation of political data. Having been involved for quite a...

On January 1st, 1998, “full competition” in telecommunications will be implemented, according to the deadlines set by European Union (EU) Directives. In the last few years, all Member states have deeply reformed their regulatory frameworks for telecommunications, in order to adapt national...

This paper studies the impact of reputation on the reporting strategy of experts that face conflicts of interest. The framework we propose applies to different settings involv- ing decision makers that rely on experts for making informed decisions, such as financial analysts and goverment...

This paper applies incentive theory to the context of the European Union (EU) Regional Policy. The core instruments of the policy are the Structural Funds, capital grants that ?ow from the European Commission (EC) to Mem- ber States and regional authorities to promote investment and growth at...

In this paper we study the delegation of a production process in a three-tier hierarchy. The principal contracts directly only with the supplier that produces the ?rst input leaving him in charge of the contract for the production of the second input. We allow the principal to costlessly monitor...

We find that both the aggregate issuance of bonds, and the volume of commercial and industrial loans outstanding in the US, respond to fluctuations in industrial production and interest rates, but in opposite directions. This empirical result suggests that universal banks can reduce the cyclical...

In this paper we study the assimilation of immigrants into the Italian labour market using over-education as an indicator of labour market performance. The main objective is to assess the extent to which work experience in the host country’s labour market favours the international...

This paper explores Scitovsky’s contribution to behavioral economics and examines in particular the changes his theory based on the findings of human brain psychophysiologists has brought to choice theory. The evidence here gathered points out how Scitovsky was making his suggestions for an...

We analyze competition between firms engaged in R&D activities in the choice of incentive contracts for managers with hidden productivities. The equilibrium screening contracts require extra effort/investment from the most productive managers compared to the first best contracts: under...