Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Alfredo Del Monte Author-Name: Antonio Acconcia Title: Regional Development and Public Spending: The Case of Italy Abstract: Regional Development and Public Spending: the Case of Italy (by Antonio Acconcia, Alfredo Del Monte) - ABSTRACT: In Italy redistribution and regional policies have been implemented since World War II; poorer regions have been receiving large amount of public funds, namely public consumption and infrastructure investment, to stimulate economic activity or, more generally, to increase welfare. Starting with this premise, the paper analyses the effects of public spending on regional growth in Italy. Taking advantage of both the spatial and the time dimension of the available data, we offer results of two distinct panel analyses which stress the cross-section or the time dimension, respectively. The main results are the following: there is a positive relationship between regional growth and infrastructure capital which mainly holds for the Manufacturing sector; within the Manufacturing sector, the impact of public investment on productivity is noticeably stronger for the low-income group of regions than for the high-income group of regions. No positive impact of public consumption on productivity is detected. Keywords: regional disparities; infrastructure investment; public consumption. JEL Classification: O18, H54 Classification-JEL: Keywords: Note: Pages: Volume: 2000/72 Year: 2000 Issue:72 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=15505&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:steste:v:html10.3280/Ste2000-072001 Number: 1 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Luca Spataro Title: Le scelte di pensionamento in Italia: un'applicazione (ed estensione) del modello Option Value Abstract: Le scelte di pensionamento in Italia: un'applicazione (ed estensione) del modello Option Value (di Luca Spataro) - ABSTARCT: Using the Bank of Italy Survey on the Budget of Italian Households, we adopt the "Option Value" framework to estimate the determinants of retirement choices of the Italian male employees. We find that the model improves the likelihood of the estimations if compared with some Probit models. However, evidence of a "puzzle" involving excess of retirement at age 60 is produced as well. The results suggest that Italians are relatively more risk averse, more patient and more "leisure adamants" than American workers. Finally, a theoretical extension is presented whereby we can obtain a prediction of the retirement age expectations: some tests carried out over the actual and the predicted distributions of the expected retirement ages show that the extended-model fitting improves when older individuals are progressively selected, leading to the conclusion that the decision of retiring is probably "rationally" assessed and taken only after a certain age. JEL Classification: J26, D84 Classification-JEL: Keywords: Note: Pages: Volume: 2000/72 Year: 2000 Issue:72 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=15506&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:steste:v:html10.3280/Ste2000-072002 Number: 2 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Oreste Napolitano Title: Il fenomeno della disoccupazione in Italia negli ultimi dieci anni: alcune risposte da un modello corretto con aspettative razionali Abstract: Il fenomeno della disoccupazione in Italia negli ultimi dieci anni: alcune risposte da un modello corretto con aspettative razionali (di Oreste Napolitano) - ABSTRACT: This study shows, within an insider-outsider model, the persistence of unemployment in Italy in the period 1988-1998. The basic model has been analysed under the rational expectation hypothesis in order to capture the effects on the employment level after a shock. We found the presence of hysteresis in the labour market, that is, the unemployment variable follows a random walk. Moreover, using a Kalman filter approach, we determined a "backward-looking" process for the employment coefficient "at" . The empirical results show that, when the two sub-samples are considered, the insider-outsider model is still valid but the coefficient "at" shows a consistent decrease. An explanation of this decrease is related to the incomes policy pursued by the government since the 1992. JEL Classification: J2 J3 E4 Classification-JEL: Keywords: Note: Pages: Volume: 2000/72 Year: 2000 Issue:72 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=15507&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:steste:v:html10.3280/Ste2000-072003 Number: 3 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Rita De Siano Title: Financial Variables as Leading Indicators: Evidence from the G7 Countries Abstract: Financial Variables as Leading Indicators: Evidence from the G7 Countries (by Rita De Siano) - ABSTRACT: This study analyses the behaviour of financial variables, such as the stock market return index and interest rates, over the business cycle phases in order to ascertain whether they can be used as leading indicators of the real economy. The analysis, applied to the G7 countries, is based on an AR-GARCH model, considered to be the best in modelling the dynamic behaviour of the conditional mean and volatility for high frequency speculative price data. The phase of the business cycle appears to have a considerable effect on the behaviour and predictability of both the conditional moments. Evidence is given that mean and volatility may be better forecasted during expansion than during recession. The regular reaction of financial variables to the approach of any phase implies that they may be considered as appropriate leading indicators of real economic activity. The higher the frequency of the data, the better the accuracy of the analyses and the information they contain. JEL Classification: C5, C8, E3, E4, G1. Classification-JEL: Keywords: Note: Pages: Volume: 2000/72 Year: 2000 Issue:72 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=15508&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:steste:v:html10.3280/Ste2000-072004 Number: 4 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Ferruccio Marzano Title: A proposito di un libro di testo sul settore "non profit"; in particolare, sulla questione della reciprocit? Abstract: A proposito di un libro di testo sul settore "non profit"; in particolare, sulla questione della reciprocit? (di Ferruccio Marzano) - ABSTRACT: The paper is a review-article of a recent textbook by M. Musella and S. D?Acunto on The Political Economy of the Non Profit Sector (Turin, 2000). The article contains a critical assessment of the main thesis of the book according to which the Non Profit Sector is seen as a productive sector with prevailing voluntary labour force and "unilateral transfers" of goods and services to people who need them. Then, the necessary resources for the financing of the productive activity and all costs of production would be derived from public funds and/or private donations. In the author?s view, though, this should be seen as only part of the story, since one cannot say that the entire world of the Non Profit Sector is to be classified on the basis of such a model. In addition, an increasing section of it is a sector with prevailing wage-earning workers and "bilateral transfers", so that goods and services may be assigned by one productive activity (or social group) to another and viceversa. Then, it seems that the Non Profit Sector may be increasingly seen as a properly "competing sector" vis-?-vis both the private (for profit) and the public sectors. JEL Classification: D64; L30 Classification-JEL: Keywords: Note: Pages: Volume: 2000/72 Year: 2000 Issue:72 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=15509&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:steste:v:html10.3280/Ste2000-072005 Number: 5 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Alberto Zazzaro Title: La teoria della moneta e della banca nei primi quarant'anni del novecento: alle radici della teoria del circuito monetario Abstract: La teoria della moneta e della banca nei primi quarant'anni del novecento: alle radici della teoria del circuito monetario (di Alberto Zazzaro) - ABSTRACT: Starting from a critical review of the reconstruction of the debate on the nature of money and banking suggested by Realfonzo in his book "Money and Banking", this paper discusses the importance of the institutional analysis to build up a complete and fully coherent monetary theory of production. Only taking into account institutional aspects it is possible to give a convincing explanation of the origin as well as the working of a monetary economy, where profits, bankruptcy, and social mobility are integral parts of the economic process. JEL Classification: B10; E51. Classification-JEL: Keywords: Note: Pages: Volume: 2000/72 Year: 2000 Issue:72 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=15510&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:steste:v:html10.3280/Ste2000-072006 Number: 6