L’évolution de l’institution du préfet en Italie de l’origine à nos jours

L’évolution du rôle et de l’institution du préfet en Italie est addressée en examinant trois facteurs fondamentaux. Le premier facteur est l’évolution du rôle du préfet en raison des changements du contexte juridique et social de l’État italien et, en particulier, en raison des transformations qui ont affecté l’administration italienne du système savoyard à l’adoption de la Constitution républicaine. Le deuxième facteur correspond aux fonctions actuelles du préfet, c’est-à-dire ce que fait le préfet en Italie aujourd’hui, quelles sont ses missions, démontrant la vitalité particulière de l’institution préfectorale, qui a su se réinventer au fil des années, en assumant un rôle de plus en plus soutenu pour les collectivités territoriales, par exemple dans la gestion des urgences environnementales et de la crise migratoire. Le troisième facteur renverra aux perspectives de réforme du préfet au regard de l’évolution du système juridique et du récent débat politique en Italie

AI and XAI second opinion: the danger of false confirmation in human–AI collaboration

Can AI substitute a human physician’s second opinion? Recently the Journal of Medical Ethics published two contrasting views: Kempt and Nagel advocate for using artificial intelligence (AI) for a second opinion except when its conclusions significantly diverge from the initial physician’s while Jongsma and Sand argue for a second human opinion irrespective of AI’s concurrence or dissent. The crux of this debate hinges on the prevalence and impact of ‘false confirmation’—a scenario where AI erroneously validates an incorrect human decision. These errors seem exceedingly difficult to detect, reminiscent of heuristics akin to confirmation bias. However, this debate has yet to engage with the emergence of explainable AI (XAI), which elaborates on why the AI tool reaches its diagnosis. To progress this debate, we outline a framework for conceptualising decision-making errors in physician–AI collaborations

A popular backlash against globalization?

Is there a popular backlash against globalization? When did it start and in which forms? What do we know about its causes? We address these questions in the context of advanced democracies. We see the ‘globalization backlash’ as the political shift of voters and parties in a protectionist and isolationist direction, with substantive implications on governments’ leaning and enacted policies. We discuss the empirical evidence on the backlash. We develop a theoretical discussion within the framework of the crisis of embedded liberalism. We nest within this framework theoretical results from international economics showing how the backlash may arise within standard trade models when considering the ‘social footprint’ of globalization. These theoretical insights are consistent with available empirical evidence pointing to the role of globalization as a driver of the backlash. Yet, globalization is only one of the drivers of the backlash. There are other economic factors playing a similar role, such as technological change, fiscal austerity, and immigration. Moreover, cultural concerns such as status threat, authoritarianism, and nativism do play a relevant role, with a significant interplay with economic drivers. This calls for a broad and comprehensive approach to the backlash, both from an academic and from a policy making perspective

Obesity epidemic in European countries: from an unaddressed risk factor to a medicalized disease?

The editorial/commentary shortly review the current debate about the determinants of obesity and policy to contrast them. It contributes to the hot debate about the use of new drugs to reduce obesit

ESG dynamics: assessing the link between sustainability practices and the cost of capital

This paper investigates the relationships between environmental, social, and governance performance and the cost of capital in the European context. Using data from 489 publicly listed companies in the STOXX Europe 600 index over an 8-­ year period (2015–2022), comprising 3317 firm-­ year observations, we analyze variations in this relationship over time. Our findings indi- cate that companies with strong ESG performance tend to enjoy lower costs of debt, reflecting favorable borrowing conditions perceived by debt financiers. Conversely, we observe a positive relationship between ESG performance and the cost of equity, suggesting higher expected returns for equity investors due to perceived long-­ term risk. Furthermore, temporal analysis reveals that the relationship between ESG performance and the cost of capital became more pronounced from 2020 to 2022, potentially driven by heightened attention to sustainability practices and regulatory interventions. This study contributes to the theoretical understanding of the evolving role of sustainability in financial markets and its implications for corporate finance decision

Commento all'art. 9 della Costituzione della Repubblica Italiana

Commento all'art. 9 della Costituzion

The legitimization of LGBT+ workers in the Italian workplace: the role of social movement organizations, trade unions, and companies

In Italy, heterosexuality has historically been regarded as the ‘norm’ , fostering heteronormativity and heterosexism, which have led to the discrimination of lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals. This chapter examines the workplace conditions for these groups, analysing the role of social movement organizations (SMOs), trade unions, and companies in legitimizing lesbian and gay identities, while also acknowledging opposing forces, such as the Catholic Church

Organizational Responses to Grand Challenges: Policies and Partnerships for Tackling Global Issues

Grand challenges, such as climate change, poverty, and global health crises, are complex societal issues that require innovative, collaborative, and systemic solutions across jurisdictional boundaries. These challenges demand collective action involving governments, businesses, and civil society, as highlighted in frameworks like the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Addressing them necessitates novel organizational approaches that mobilize resources, foster innovation, and integrate diverse stakeholder perspectives. This thesis examines how different organizational forms contribute to tackling grand challenges, focusing on a supranational policy, a global settlement, and a cross-sector partnership. The first chapter analyzes the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), highlighting its role as a supranational regulatory framework for tackling carbon emissions. In particular, the study examines the impact of EU ETS enforcement on local GDP, productivity, and employment, providing evidence of its influence on local european economies. The second chapter explores the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), a global settlement inaugurated alongside the Kyoto Protocol and its role in shaping the evolution of the entire carbon o↵setting field. In particular, this chapter investigates how the CDM influenced the governance of the carbon o↵setting field, highlighting the interplay between governmental and voluntary regulatory frameworks in developing innovative solutions to compensate for carbon emissions. Lastly, the third chapter focuses on cross-sector partnerships in global health, examining the Global Fund’s e↵orts to combat HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria. This chapter investigates how such partner- ships sustain momentum and achieve equitable health outcomes, demonstrating their role in addressing grand challenges. By examining these three initiatives, this thesis provides insights into the mechanisms and practices that enable effective responses to grand challenges, contributing to sustainable development through systemic and collaborative approaches

THE VOLUNTARY CARBON MARKET: A Law and Economics Analysis

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), carbon dioxide removals are considered essential across all pathways to meet the 1.5°C Paris Agreement goal. Nevertheless, scaling up these removals to deliver tangible results requires significant financing. The voluntary carbon market (VCM), supported by private investments, has the potential to contribute to this goal. In recent years, the surge in climate commitments made by corporations has led to a substantial increase in the use of carbon offsets from the VCM to meet these climate goals. This trend has fueled the expansion and growth of the VCM. Despite the increasing relevance of carbon offsets in corporate sustainability plans, legal scholars have often overlooked the VCM and the corporate use of VCM carbon offsets. This thesis aims to fill this gap by exploring the challenges associated with the corporate use of VCM carbon offsets in fulfilling climate pledges, with a particular focus on the risks of greenwashing stemming from over-crediting and misleading advertising. It also evaluates legislative and judicial responses to these challenges, assessing the effectiveness of existing regulations governing climate claims that rely on carbon offsets. Against this backdrop, this thesis proposes a dual-claim framework designed to mitigate greenwashing risks and strengthen the reputational constraints on VCM market players. Specifically, it advocates for the use of nature-based projects in contribution claims and technological carbon removals in compensation claims. On the one hand, corporations willing to invest in nature-based carbon offsets should be permitted to do so by establishing contribution claims based on a “money-for-money” approach. This solution can promote private investment in projects aimed at preserving natural resources while mitigating the risk of over-crediting. On the other hand, the thesis advocates for the use of technological removals in compensatory claims. Although these solutions are more expensive, they provide a more verifiable and reliable pathway for meeting climate targets, effectively addressing the shortcomings of nature-based approaches. This proposed framework seeks to enhance confidence in the VCM by reducing the risk of greenwashing and promoting greater transparency and accountability in corporate climate initiatives. Simultaneously, it refrains from imposing undue restrictions on companies, enabling them to adopt credible and effective strategies to meet their climate commitments

Three Essays on Early Stage Entrepreneurial Teams: Formation, Evolution and Configurations

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in early-stage entrepreneurial team formation.Despite the importance placed by scholars through scientific and anecdotal evidence on the importance of entrepreneurial team formation decisions, team formation decisions are often overlooked in favor of understanding and bettering decisions about business ideas.Moreover, such studies often treat idea and team formation decisions as silos, while in reality, they often interact and could potentially explain differences in startup outcomes.Given the importance of human capital on startup outcomes, it is crucial to understand how entrepreneurial teams are formed and how we could form better teams.The uncertainty inherent in the startup process adds complexity and dynamism to such decisions; the cost of decision errors could be fatal mainly due to the resource constraints that early-stage startups often face. By exploring how entrepreneurs could make better team formation decisions, how decisions about the idea affect team formation, and how the idea and team co-evolve, I aim to contribute to entrepreneurial team formation and, more broadly, to early-stage entrepreneurship literature.In the first paper, A Scientific Approach to Entrepreneurial Founding Team Formation, I conceptualize a process called ‘Team Validation’ by applying a structured decision-making framework called the entrepreneurs-as-scientists approach to entrepreneurial founding team formation.Through a conceptual model, I suggest that implementing this structured process will reduce decision errors in team formation decision-making through a better understanding of team requirements and improved skills-requirements fit, which could enhance the resource efficiency of the team and, thereby, the startup.In the second paper, Scientific Training and Entrepreneurial Team Formation: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Colombia, I investigate if and how scientific training given to make decisions about business ideas affects team formation decisions in early-stage startups.Through statistical modeling and graphical descriptive analyses, I theorize and test these secondary effects and explore the mechanisms and reasons for such ripple effects.In this paper, I find evidence that scientific training in making decisions about ideas affects team formation decisions.Specifically, I find that scientific training on decision-making about entrepreneurial ideas leads to a higher likelihood and a greater number of team changes.This effect is fully mediated by idea pivots by entrepreneurs. My findings are based on data from an RCT conducted in Bogota, Colombia, involving 207 startups.In the third paper, Configurations of Idea-Team Co-evolution in Early-Stage Startups Trained with the Theory-and-Evidence-Based Approach, I explore descriptively how entrepreneurs trained with the theory-and-evidence-based approach impact solo entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial teams differently based on the differences in configurations of idea and team changes.Preliminary evidence of descriptive analysis, based on data collected from an RCT conducted in Colombia, suggests that, while solo entrepreneurs more often engage in change to both teams and ideas at the same time than teams of entrepreneurs, entrepreneurial teams show a higher frequency of not changing either team or idea compared to solo entrepreneurs.These initial findings suggest that solo entrepreneurs make larger, resource-intensive changes than entrepreneurial teams, with all solo entrepreneurs making at least one change, which could mean earlier stabilization of the idea and team. But more entrepreneurial teams exhibit some level of “stickiness” of ideas and teams by making no changes within the entire observational window, which could mean they may miss out on a better idea because they were unwilling to search outside the boundaries of team capabilities or the new idea may be executed inefficiently with a mismatched team