We compare health system responses to the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic in Italy and Spain. In both countries, healthcare is managed at the regional level, but the central government behaved differently in the uncertainty surrounding the first wave, leaving more autonomy to regional...

The healthcare sector is one of the fastest growing areas of social and public spending worldwide, and it is expected to increase its government shares of GDP in the near future. Truly global in its scope, this book presents a unified, structured understanding of how the design of a country's...

This paper studies the effect of multigrading—mixing children of differentages in the same classroom—on students’ short- versus long-term academicachievement in Italy. We cope with the endogeneity of multigrading (andclass size) through an instrumental variable identification strategy...

In this paper we consider the institutional arrangements needed in a decentralised framework to cope with the potential adverse welfare effects caused by negative shocks (like natural disasters, clinical errors, or terrorist attacks), that can be quot;limitedquot; (in their probability of...

In a career-concern model of politics with endogenous candidacy and different types of politicians, following a decentralization reform, politicians with different skills are elected in municipalities characterized by different levels of autonomous resources. As an effect, consumer welfare...

This paper investigates the determinants of time and money gifts. We first develop a behavioural model which accounts for both types of donations, as well as for decisions about domestic and market hours of work. We then investigate the issue empirically, using survey data for Italy. Results...

In this paper we propose a simple model of bailing out that closely describes the intergovernmental relationships between the Central government and the regional governments in the Italian public health care sector. The theoretical model suggests that bail out expectations by regions can be...