RISULTATI RICERCA

This paper presents an analysis of the efficiency of the University of Venice academic departments. The production of research and teaching is described by two interpretative models that impute in different ways the responsibility for the level of teaching activities. The empirical analysis is performed both with a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and a Deterministic Frontier Analysis(DFA). The outputs used are indicators of the quantity and the quality of teaching and an indicator of fund raising for research, while the inputs are the budget and staff endowments. In the frontier production function approach the outputs are aggregated by means of a department utility function. The results obtained are quite different for the two interpretative models, both with respect to the level of efficiency and the ranking of departments.

The paper deals with the impact evaluation of university scholarships financed by the Tuscany Region during the last years. The data sets collecting the individual data of all the students from the three Tuscany universities - Florence, Pisa and Siena - were used as statistical sources. We used several statistical methodologies (probit models, linear regression models and survival analysis) to compare the performances of students who obtained the scholarship with the ones of a control group. The analysis shows how the scholarship reduces drop-outs and encourage students to pass their examinations. Scholarships’ effects may otherwise vary according to the university or the year of enrolment, but there are no influences related to the number of scholarships given to each student during her/his course of study.

This paper aims at analyzing the effects of tax incentives on Italian newly listed firms. We take into account the period between 1995 and 1998 when two kinds of tax benefits were implemented in Italy (the so called legge Tremonti and the new superDit mechanism). In order to ascertain the importance of the two kinds of benefits we simulate their effects on the effective average tax rate for the Italian newly listed firms in the period. We demonstrate that the superDit mechanism is responsible for only a small part of the tax reduction and that the total tax saving for newly listed firms depends on the new Italian tax regime starting from January 1998 and valid for all the firms (listed and not). In this sense the Tremonti benefit is a more consistent incentive to the listing process. We also discuss the general interest to favour listed firms through fiscal provisions and we characterise the two Italian benefits mentioned above from three points of view: certainty, transparency and incentive. We argue that the second and most recent tax reduction to newly listed firms, the superDit mechanism, since is permanent it is able to guarantee both the firms that have already decided to go public and the firms that will consider the listing process only in the future. In terms of transparency, however, the Tremonti provision permits a simple quantification of the tax benefit because it only consists of a tax rate reduction. On the opposite the superDit benefit depends on the firm’s capital structure, cost structure and profitability.

In the health care sector the buyer aims to pursue two basic ends: to minimize the health outlay, for given levels of effectiveness; to offer a good quality of the service to the patient. Also in the health sector the Tinbergen’s intuition is valid: you need two means to pursue two ends. These are the two tools: the different contract types; and the liability rules to apply when the patient is dissatisfied. If the buyer can impose the patient’s cure to the supplier the fixed price complies with efficiency criterion. The supplier however ought to be relieved from every liability towards the patient. On the contrary, the buyer aiming to preserve the quality of service has to pay a share of the real costs to the supplier. In this case, a share of the liability should be ascribed to the supplier. We analyse both the different contract types and the different liability allotments referring to three cases: a) the buyer is able to impose both the type and the intensity of the cure; b) the buyer can impose type and intensity only partially; c) the buyer is unable to impose either type and intensity.

This paper compares on empirical grounds various poverty indices that have been proposed in the theoretical literature. I have calculated several poverty indices for Italy over the time period 1991-1997 using data from the Bank of Italy survey of Italian households. A particular attention has been devoted to the choice between consumption and income as indicator of poverty; and to the use of different equivalence scales to account for differences in family sizes. I find that most indices display the same qualitative pattern over the time period considered, although there are some minor differences that suggest that on other data sets the choice of the poverty index may matter.