‘All together now!’ Couples and the ontological problem of cohabitation as a form of life

The aim of this essay is that of analysing cohabitation as a form of life, according to its ontological status. This way of investigating leads to a comparison with marriage as a specific institution and with the conversation rules between partners. From the empirical analysis of more than 50 interviews with cohabitating couples comes the idea of a relationship whose intent is reciprocal care and assistance in everyday life. In other words, cohabitation is not a mere refusal of marriage as an institution, in the perspective of the interviewed, but seems to represent the lifestyle that best expresses the political ideal of a liberal-democratic society based on conversation between free and consenting individuals. At first glance cohabitation shows an ontological status of its own, a sort of ‘marriage conversation’. Yet, deploying a deeper way of analysis and following a critical realist and relational epistemology, one can notice that such status is influenced by an abstract expansion of the present as the only possible dimension for the couple. As soon as one thinks about shared future plans, the implied call of a married perfection of one's life experience strikes back, revealing the existence of a hidden rule towards marriage as a form of life. The importance of cohabitation is now conceived as the relevance of contingency and unselected opportunities. This fact reveals the limits of the individualized perspective influencing the everyday life of cohabiting couples. Doubts on ontological independence of cohabitation are still many, with its constant and ambivalent reference to the marriage dimension.     

THE MYSTERY OF THE PRINTING PRESS: MONETARY POLICY AND SELF‐FULFILLING DEBT CRISES

We study the conditions under which unconventional (balance sheet) monetary policy can rule out self‐fulfilling sovereign default in a model with optimizing but discretionary fiscal and monetary policymakers. When purchasing sovereign debt, the central bank effectively swaps risky government paper for monetary liabilities only exposed to inflation risk, thus yielding a lower interest rate. As central bank purchases reduce the (ex ante) costs of debt, we characterize a critical threshold beyond which, absent fundamental fiscal stress, the government strictly prefers primary surplus adjustment to default. Because default may still occur for fundamental reasons, however, the central bank faces the risk of losses on sovereign debt holdings, which may generate inefficient inflation. We show that these losses do not necessarily undermine the credibility of a backstop, nor the monetary authorities' ability to pursue its inflation objectives. Backstops are credible if either the central bank enjoys fiscal backing or fiscal authorities are sufficiently averse to inflation. (JEL: E58, E63, H63)     

Association of Problem Gambling with Type of Gambling Among Italian General Population

The origin of gambling disorders is uncertain; however, research has shown a tendency to focus on specific types of games as a potential important risk factor. The principal aim of this study is to examine the relationships between types of gambling practices and gambling disorder. The data were extracted from IPSAD-Italia^® 2010–2011 (Italian Population Survey on Alcohol and other Drugs), a survey among the Italian general population which collects socio-cultural information, information about the use of drugs, legal substances and gambling habits. In order to identify the “problem gambler” we used the Problem Gambling Severity Index. Three groups are considered in this analysis: no-risk gamblers, low-risk gamblers, moderate-risk/problem gamblers. Type of gambling practice was considered among two types of gambler: one-game players and multi-games players. 1.9 % of multi-game players were considered problem gamblers, only 0.6 % of one-game players were problem gamblers (p < 0.001). The percentage of players who were low and moderate-risk gamblers was approximately double among multi-game players, with 14.4 % low-risk and 5.8 % moderate-risk; compared with 7.7 % low-risk and 2.5 % moderate risk among one-game players. Results of ordinal logistic regression analysis confirmed that higher level of gambling severity was associated with multi-game players (OR = 2.23, p < 0.0001). Video-poker/slot-machines show the highest association with gambling severity among both one-game players and multi-game players, with scores of OR equal to 4.3 and 4.5 respectively. These findings suggest a popular perception of risk associated with this type of gambling for the development of gambling problems.     

Subjective Beliefs and ex ante Trade

We study a definition of subjective beliefs applicable to preferences that allow for the perception of ambiguity, and provide a characterization of such beliefs in terms of market behavior. Using this definition, we derive necessary and sufficient conditions for the efficiency of ex ante trade and show that these conditions follow from the fundamental welfare theorems. When aggregate uncertainty is absent, our results show that full insurance is efficient if and only if agents share some common subjective beliefs. Our results hold for a general class of convex preferences, which contains many functional forms used in applications involving ambiguity and ambiguity aversion. We show how our results can be articulated in the language of these functional forms, confirming results existing in the literature, generating new results, and providing a useful tool for applications.     

Specialization Versus Diversification in EU Economies: A Challenge for Agro-Food?

Much attention has been paid to industrial differentiation versus specialization. In EU, the phenomenon of secondary production is important enough since it absorbs 6.3% of the total output at basic prices. Through the development of new symmetrical indicators, we point out the ability of economic branches to diversify, penetrate and invade others. This analysis is applied both to EU countries and to economic system branches, focusing the analysis on the challenges facing Agriculture and Food and beverage industry. We can assume that the most advanced countries belong to a post-modern or post-industrial stage of development. The only way to continue to stay on the market is to diversify production and to emphasize the search for a quality/price ratio attractive for the consumer. On the contrary, less advanced countries of Central and Eastern Europe are rather in the initial or intermediate stages of industrialization in which agriculture, crafts and traditional services still have a certain importance and, as we know, undertake more differentiated activities. What emerges is a watershed between continental and Mediterranean countries. Eastern Europe is still anchored to a traditional behavior. In synthesis we find three fundamental trends: (a) a long period continuity of those complementary activities that have always characterized agriculture; (b) the different structure of secondary production in the EU countries; (c) different barriers to entry, that explain asymmetries in the behavior of branches otherwise more or less related. Remark that these barriers may be not only physical or economical but also normative, thus introducing more differences in the behavior of different countries.     

Processes of Institutionalization and Differentiation in the Italian Third Sector

The article describes the recent evolution of the Italian third sector, focusing particularly on its changing role in relation to welfare policies and on its contribution to the development of the provision of social services. In contrast with those considering the emergence and development of the sector solely, or mainly, as a consequence of decisions made by external actors, especially public institutions, the article shows a more complex and dynamic picture. The article demonstrates that the Italian third sector, although at the present time largely engaged in contractual services with the public sector, has maintained a level of autonomy that allows for continuous innovation both within and external to the social service sector. The Italian case supports the need for further debate on the role of the third sector in modern society.     

THE INTERNATIONAL DIMENSION OF PRODUCTIVITY AND DEMAND SHOCKS IN THE US ECONOMY

This paper analyzes the cross‐country effects of productivity and demand disturbances in the United States identified with sign restrictions based on standard theory. Productivity gains in US manufacturing increase US consumption and investment vis‐à‐vis foreign countries, resulting in a trade deficit and higher international prices of US goods, despite the rise in their supply. Financial adjustment works via a higher global value of US equities, real dollar appreciation, and an expansion of US gross foreign liabilities as well as assets. Positive demand shocks to US manufacturing also increase investment and cause a real dollar appreciation, but have limited effects on the trade balance and net foreign assets. Our findings emphasize the importance for macroeconomic interdependence of endogenous fluctuations in aggregate demand across countries in response to business cycle shocks.     

Incomplete Contracts and Complexity Costs

This paper investigates, in a simple risk-sharing framework, the extent to which the incompleteness of contracts could be attributed to the complexity costs associated with the writing and the implementation of contracts. We show that, given any measure of complexity in a very general class, it is possible to find simple contracting problems such that, when complexity costs are explicitly taken into account, the contracting parties optimally choose an incomplete contract which coincides with the default division of surplus. Optimal contracts with complexity costs are constrained efficient in our model. We therefore interpret our results as saying that, in the absence of a strategic role for complexity costs, their effect is entirely determined by their size relative to the size of payoffs.