RISULTATI RICERCA

Distribution and competition in the motor insurance industry: the Italian case, by Luigi Buzzacchi This paper details the use of different insurance distribution systems, analyses key issues in distribution models based on economic theories of market competition and the organization of the firm, and discusses public policy and regulatory issues related to insurance distribution. On the theoretical side, it focuses on the choice of distribution systems by an insurer, the nature of insurer-agent relationships, including compensation structure and resale price maintenance. On the institutional side, it proposes a critical discussion of the opinions illustrated in the fact-finding inquiry on the auto liability insurance industry by the Italian Antitrust Authority (2003), where the prevalent diffusion of exclusive agents is regarded as a key determinant of the poor allocative efficiency of the market. While the Authority aimes for the diffusion of independent agents, I argue that an important improvement could be gained by limiting the use of resale price maintenance, even with exclusive distribution.

This paper illustrates some results emerging from an ongoing research on the industries growing in one of the areas of highest economic development in China, that is Guangdong in the southern part of the People Republic. The aim is to offer a view of the productive capacity and potential of this area in terms of organisation, territory and industrial policy. Moreover, we wish to contribute to the analysis on the nature of the competitive challenge that China poses to the Italian productive systems, particularly those of the most industrialised regions, characterised by a great diffusion of industrial districts. The attention for industrial districts comes also from a number of aspects that characterise the Chinese industrial development, in particular in Guandong. Here, the variety of specialised industries is particularly marked due to the importance both of special economic zones with their heavy foreign investments, and, in addition to the experience of diffused industrialisation, with many specialised towns and villages dedicated to the realisation of a limited range of products, often supported by a vigorous action by local policy makers.