Structural Changes in Economic Growth and Well-Being: The Case of Italy’s Parabola

Social Indicators Research - The controversies on the relationship (called ‘gradient’) between the time trend of GDP and of subjective well-being oppose those who claim that the...     

ASSET DYNAMICS,LIQUIDITY, AND INEQUALITY IN DECENTRALIZED MARKETS

The Kiyotaki and Wright model has exerted a considerable influence on the monetary search literature. We argue that the model also delivers important insights into a broader range of macroeconomic and development issues. The analysis studies how market frictions and the liquidity of assets affect the distribution of income. Experiments illustrate how the economy adjusts to shocks to asset returns and to the matching technology. They also deal with long‐run transition. An experiment interprets the reversal of fortune hypothesis as a situation in which an economy with a low‐return asset takes over a similar economy with a high‐return asset. (JEL C61, C63, E41, E27, D63)     

The role of ostensive and performative routine aspects in dynamic capability deployment at different organizational levels

This study clarifies how dynamic capabilities work in modifying operational capabilities at different organizational levels. While there is good understanding that routines that make up operational capabilities possess ostensive and performative aspects, whether the same applies to dynamic capabilities is unclear. In addition, there is only a limited understanding of how dynamic capabilities link to operational capabilities in terms of these two routine aspects, in general, and at different organizational levels, in particular. Our findings suggest that ostensive and performative routine aspects explain the way in which dynamic capabilities work in modifying operational capabilities. They also reveal that the pattern of the ostensive or performative routine aspects in dynamic capability deployment at a selected organizational level correspond with that associated with operational capabilities at the same level.     

A Bayesian approach for non-homogeneous gamma degradation processes

A Bayesian approach based on the Markov Chain Monte Carlo technique is proposed for the non-homogeneous gamma process with power-law shape function. Vague and informative priors, formalized on some quantities having a “physical” meaning, are provided. Point and interval estimation of process parameters and some functions thereof are developed, as well as prediction on some observable quantities that are useful in defining the maintenance strategy is proposed. Some useful approximations are derived for the conditional and unconditional mean and median of the residual life to reduce computational time. Finally, the proposed approach is applied to a real dataset.     

Prescribing the Families Own Dysfunctional Rules as a Therapeutic Strategy*

The use of paradox-strategy in therapy is motivated by the fact that many families request help but at the same time seem to reject all offers of help. The therapist may be drawn into a game in which every effort on his part to act as an agent of change is nullified by the family group. In systemic terms these contradictory attitudes derive from the dynamic equilibrium existing between the tendency toward change, which is implicit in the request for help at one level, and the tendency toward homeostasis which at another level imposes the repetition of the family's habitual rules of interaction. The coexistence of these forces can entangle the therapist in the family's paradoxical logic of “help me to change, but without changing anything.” By accepting the contradiction facing him and by “uniting” himself with this within the family, the therapist puts himself into a position opposite to that which the family expects. His response to the family's paradoxical request is a paradox, or counterparadox, because it creates the contradictory communication typical of rigid family systems. By prescribing its own dysfunctional rules to the family, the therapist can stimulate the tendencies toward change present in the family system.     

A non linear wavelet based estimator for long memory processes

Two wavelet based estimators are considered in this paper for the two parameters that characterize long range dependence processes. The first one is linear and is based on the statistical properties of the coefficients of a discrete wavelet transform of long range dependence processes. The estimator consists in measuring the slope (related to the long memory parameter) and the intercept (related to the variance of the process) of a linear regression after a discrete wavelet transform is performed (Veitch and Abry, 1999). In this paper its properties are reviewed, and analytic evidence is produced that the linear estimator is applicable only when the second parameter is unknown. To overcome this limitation a non linear wavelet based estimator - that takes into account that the intercept depends on the long memory parameter - is proposed here for the cases in which the second parameter is known or the only parameter of interest is the long memory parameter. Under the same hypothesis assumed for the linear estimator, the non linear estimator is shown to be asymptotically more efficient for the long memory parameter. Numerical simulations show that, even for small data sets, the bias is very small and the variance close to optimal. An application to ATM based Internet traffic is presented.Financial support from the Italian Ministry of University and Scientific Research (MIUR), also in the context of the COFIN 2002 ALINWEB (Algorithms for the Internet and the Web) Project, is gratefully acknowledged.     

Modelling the quality of work in the Italian social co-operatives combining NPCA-RSM and SEM-GME approaches

The objective of this paper is to describe and analyse with appropriate statistical models the links between work quality latent factors. Due to the complexity of the task, the analysis is carried out through a two-step approach:

• In the first step, we construct some multidimensional measures of the subjective quality of work, using nonlinear principal component analysis (NPCA) and Rasch analysis with the Rating Scale Model (NPCA-RSM);

• In the second step, we adopt a Structural Equation Model based on generalized maximum entropy (SEM-GME) to integrate the measures achieved with the previous step and to evaluate the relationships between the subjective work quality latent factors.

Therefore, the novel aspects of this paper are the following: (i) The integration between the NPCA-RSM and SEM-GME, which allows reduction of the variables analysed and evaluation of the measurement errors; (ii) The formalization of a Job Satisfaction Model for the study of the relationships between the subjective work quality latent factors in the Italian social services sector.     

A two-phase optimization method for a multiobjective vehicle relocation problem in electric carsharing systems

A spanning subgraph F of a graph G is called an even factor of G if each vertex of F has even degree at least 2 in F. It was conjectured that if a graph G has an even factor, then it has an even factor F with \(|E(F)|\ge {4\over 7}(|E(G)| + 1)+ {2\over 7}|V_2(G)|\), where \(V_2(G)\) is the set of vertices of degree 2 in G. We note that the conjecture is false if G is a triangle. In this paper, we confirm the conjecture for all graphs on at least 4 vertices, and moreover, we prove that if \(|E(H)|\le {4\over 7}(|E(G)| + 1)+ {2\over 7}|V_2(G)|\) for every even factor H of G, then every maximum even factor of G is a 2-factor consisting of even circuits.     

Labour Mobility in Italy: An Empirical Investigation

ABSTRACT: In this paper the author presents a model of unemployment inflows and outflows for the Italian labour market. The flows that the author attempts to estimate are the unemployment inflows and outflows from and to employment. The aggregate estimation suggests that a crucial role is played by the aggregate demand and wage variables, and by the structural change variable. The paper also presents intersectoral estimations of SURE, which take into consideration the flows between Industry and Services. The results are along the lines of those obtained at the aggregate level. An important factor which should be underlined, however, is the asymmetric pattern of the wage variable in the industrial and services sector.     

Female Immigrant Entrepreneurs: More Than a Family Strategy

This article explores the issue of immigrant women entrepreneurship. It focuses on the emergence of new points of view on self‐employed migrant women and in particular their search for independence. With the support of qualitative research carried on in Italy, it will set out a typology of motivations and strategies to become self‐employed in which, besides a “family strategy” and an “independency strategy”, a “mixed network strategy” also emerges. This last focuses on the role of mixed networks (with other foreigners and/or natives) not only in business management but also in the promotion of transnational social activities. Policies that support associations, creating opportunities for gathering and exchanging with local residents and improving the presence of immigrant women in local institutions, could have the side‐effect of increasing participation by immigrant women in self‐employment, not for lack of alternatives but as a path towards self‐fulfilment and empowerment.