We study Ramsey policies and optimal monetary policy rules in a model with sticky prices and unionized labour markets. Collective wage bargaining and unions monopoly power dampen wage fluctuations and amplify employment fluctuations relatively to a DNK model. The optimal monetary policy must...

This paper conducts an empirical analysis of the determinants of airline alliances. Well established airlines with large passengers' volumes are more likely to participate in an alliance and are also essential for alliance survivability. In line with this finding, older air-lines have a higher...

Scarce storage capacity and distortions in access to gas storage are considered causes of market foreclosure in liberalized gas markets. We consider rules currently adopted in Europe for storage rationing and propose efficient rationing mechanism based on the value of storage, when other...

This paper aims to construct a high-frequency coincident indicator of economic activity for Lombardy and for the provinces of Milan and Pavia, by using the dynamic factor model approach introduced by Stock e Watson (1998a e 1998b). The principal component technique is first used to summarize the...

This paper aims to construct a high-frequency coincident indicator of economic activity for Lombardy and for the provinces of Milan and Pavia, by using the dynamic factor model approach introduced by Stock e Watson (1998a e 1998b). The principal component analysis is first used to summarize the...

A necessary and sufficient condition for an input to be inferior is that, taking into account the input adjustment, an increase of its price raises the marginal productivity of all inputs. Contrary to a widespread opinion, it is not necessary that (some) inputs are “rivals” (i.e., that some...

We compare two widely used pricing assumptions in the New-Keynesian literature: the Calvo and Rotemberg price-setting mechanisms. We show that, once trend in?ation is taken into account, the two models are very different. i) The long-run relationship between inflation and output is positive in...

We combine an estimated monetary policy rule featuring time-varying trend inflation and stochastic coefficients with a medium scale New Keynesian framework calibrated on the U.S. economy. We find the impact of variations in trend inflation on the likelihood of equilibrium determinacy to be both...

In this paper we investigate tax/subsidy competition for FDI between countries of different size when a domestic firm is the incumbent in the largest market. We investigate how the nature (public or private) of the incumbent firm affects policy competition between the two governments seeking to...

This paper addresses the gender pay gap among Italian university graduates on entry to the labour market and stresses the importance of gender stereotypes on subjective assessment of individual productivity. Our data show that in contexts where the stereotype is most likely to occur, the...