IDENTIFYING THE SOURCES OF LOCAL PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH

Using firm‐level based TFP indicators (as opposed to employment‐based proxies) we estimate the effects of alternative sources of dynamic externalities at the local level. In contrast to previous empirical work, we find that industrial specialization and scale indicators affect TFP growth positively, while neither product variety nor the degree of local competition have any effect. Employment‐based regressions yield nearly the opposite results, in line with most of previous empirical work. We argue that such regressions suffer from serious identification problems when interpreted as evidence of dynamic externalities. Our results question the conclusions of most of the existing literature on dynamic agglomeration economies. (JEL: R11, O47)     

Reducing waiting times in the Italian NHS: The case of Emilia-Romagna

In 2015, the Emilia-Romagna Regional Government implemented a plan to reduce waiting times for elective outpatient procedures. The objective set by the regional government establishes that at least 90 per cent of specialist services are to be provided within the following maximum waiting times: 30 days for the first specialist consultation, and 60 days for diagnostic tests. The plan adopted by the Emilia-Romagna Regional Government is of particular interest because it encompasses a combined strategy. Some of the interventions envisaged in the plan aim at increasing the supply of specialist services. Others address the demand side, seeking to reduce inadequate requests and discourage no-shows by patients. And others focus on combining supply and demand and neutralizing the effects of some perverse incentives. The Emilia-Romagna plan appears to have had a successful outcome. In the first 4 years of implementation, the 90 per cent target has not only been achieved but also widely exceeded.     

Comparative analysis of emergency department patients lost to follow-up after computerized alcohol screening and brief intervention

Many studies have evaluated the effectiveness of alcohol screening and brief intervention (SBI) but most of them have reported substantial loss to follow-up without investigating the characteristics of those lost to follow-up. We examined the association between Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) scores, readiness-to-change scores and the demographic factors with lost to follow-up. This retrospective study compared demographic characteristics, AUDIT and readiness-to-change scores for 190 lost to follow-up patients to 221 completed follow-up patients who participated in SBI in the Emergency Department between June 2006 and May 2007. Comparing the association between baseline characteristics and completed follow-up rate, those 30–39, 40–49 and 50 years and older had 0.46 (95% CI 0.32–0.91), 0.49 (95% CI 0.29–0.90) and 0.58 (95%CI 0.22–0.79) lower odds of completing follow-up, respectively, in comparison to those 18–29 years of age. The loss to follow-up group reported more negative consequences of alcohol and binge drinking than the completed follow-up group (p = 0.04). Using logistic regression, patients who experienced more negative effects of alcohol had 0.87 lower odds of completing follow-up (95% CI 0.79–0.96). The patients lost to follow-up in this study were significantly different in age and alcohol drinking habits compared to those completed follow-ups. It is important to consider differential loss to follow-up in assessing the validity and generalizability of intervention studies. This could help in tailoring methods of approaching patients based on target population characteristics.     

Assessing success and decisiveness in voting situations

In this paper we propose a simple model for measuring success or decisiveness in voting situations. For an assessment of these features two inputs are claimed to be necessary: the voting rule and the voters behavior. The voting rule specifies when a proposal is to be accepted or rejected depending on the resulting vote configuration. Voting behavior is summarized by a distribution of probability over the vote configurations. This basic model provides a clear common conceptual basis for reinterpreting different power indices and some related game theoretic notions coherently from a unified point of view.The authors would like to thank to M. Braham, M. Machover, N. Megiddo and F. Steffen, for their comments, and to J. F. Mertens for pointing out a misstatement, in all cases referring to previous versions of this paper. This research has been supported by the DGES of the Spanish Ministerio de Educación y Cultura under project PB96-0247, by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología under project BEC2000-0875, and by the Universidad del País Vasco under project UPV/EHU00031.321-HA-7918/2000. The first author also acknowledges the financial support from a postdoctoral grant from the Basque Government (2000–2001) and the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología under the Ramón y Cajal Program.     

Monopolistic competition,as you like it

We explore monopolistic competition with asymmetric preferences over a variety of goods provided by heterogeneous firms, and compute equilibria (approximating Cournot and Bertrand equilibria when market shares are negligible) through average Morishima elasticities of substitution. Further results concerning pricing and entry emerge under homotheticity and when demands depend on a common aggregator, as with Generalized Additively Separable preferences. Under additivity we can determine which goods are going to be provided under free entry, as well as the selection effects associated with changes in market size, consumers' income, aggregate productivity, and preference parameters.     

Aversion to inequality in Italy and its determinants

The main goal of this paper is to estimate the preferences of the Italian society towards equity in order to verify whether preferences (i) have changed across the years, and (ii) can be related to specific socio-demographic characteristics. Introducing equity concerns in the implementation of economic policies is a fundamental problem faced by both economists and policy makers. This paper uses a social welfare function à la Jorgenson and Slesnick to estimate society’s aversion towards inequality by implementing a voting scheme for compiling individuals’ equity preferences into a social choice by majority rule. The results show that preferences are highly polarized toward a low and a high concern for equity aversion and that this concern is significantly related with several sociodemographic characteristics. Among them, income plays an important role with richer people tending to favor less equity. Results also show that preferences towards equity have changed across the years.     

Livability of Urban Public Spaces in Northern Swedish Cities: The Case of Umeå

This study explores how winter conditions are taken into accountin urban planning in the city of Umeå in northern Sweden. Snowand harsh winter conditions are to some extent considered in urban planning in most northern towns in Sweden. Besides that, snow and ice could also be elements in the city attracting people and contribute to the design of public spaces. Current plans and interviews with planners were complemented with participatory observations. The results show that public spaces designed for both winter and summer seasons are preferred.     

The Recent Crisis Impact on the Economies of Some Countries of Central and Eastern Europe

Wealth of nations is nowadays something complex depending on democratic processes and debt accumulation. In Europe the EURO introduction provoked even more complexity, as there is no common government to steer the fiscal process, a situation without precedence. New solutions are therefore looked for, based on different schools of thought in order to tackle the problem. The analytical part analyzes the economic behaviour of four recently less studied countries. A comparison between them is based on time series of Real GDP Growth, Consumer Price Inflation, Government Balance.     

POLITICIANS AT WORK: THE PRIVATE RETURNS AND SOCIAL COSTS OF POLITICAL CONNECTIONS

We quantify the private returns and social costs of political connections exploiting a unique longitudinal dataset that combines matched employer–employee data for a representative sample of Italian firms with administrative archives on the universe of individuals appointed in local governments over the period 1985–1997. According to our results, the revenue premium granted by political connections amounts to 5.7% on average, it is obtained through changes in domestic sales but not in exports, and it is not related to improvements in firm productivity. The connection premium is positive for upstream producers for the public administration only, and larger (up to 22%) in areas characterized by high public expenditure and high levels of corruption. These findings suggest that the gains in market power derive from public demand shifts towards politically connected firms. We estimate that such shifts reduce the provision of public goods by approximately 20%.     

Multidimensional item response theory models for dichotomous data in customer satisfaction evaluation

In this paper, multidimensional item response theory models for dichotomous data, developed in the fields of psychometrics and ability assessment, are discussed in connection with the problem of evaluating customer satisfaction. These models allow us to take into account latent constructs at various degrees of complexity and provide interesting new perspectives for services quality assessment. Markov chain Monte Carlo techniques are considered for estimation. An application to a real data set is also presented.