The Portuguese Constitutional Court case law on austerity measures: a reappraisal

In different cases in these last years, the Portuguese Constitutional Tribunal (PCT) has reviewed the legality on some of the austerity measures agreed with (but effectively imposed by) the Trojka – the European Commission (Commission), the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) – as conditions for the release of the loan package granted to Portugal in May 2011. As it is well-known, some of those austerity measures have been declared unconstitutional. This paper tries to shed some light on a number of questions, both theoretical and practical, to which those judgments give rise. The jurisprudence of the PCT raises crucial issues which the constitutional courts of EU Member States will certainly need to address in the future: what is the boundary between judicial activism and the judicial recognition of fundamental social rights as a remedy to the legislature’s minimalism in ensuring the protection of those rights? When can legislative action, insofar as resulting from the democratic process, no longer be regarded as the best way to secure that the rights of citizens are safeguarded? To what extent can judges require the legislature to take social rights ‘seriously’? In this regard, we believe that, even though judges obviously do not create the law, they should be active – rather than activist or creative – agents of change whenever constitutional rights are put at risk by national legislation – whether or not the latter is the result of an international obligation or constraint – in order to behave as guardians of last resort for citizens’ fundamental rights.In different cases in these last years, the Portuguese Constitutional Tribunal (PCT) has reviewed the legality on some of the austerity measures agreed with (but effectively imposed by) the Trojka – the European Commission (Commission), the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) – as conditions for the release of the loan package granted to Portugal in May 2011. As it is well-known, some of those austerity measures have been declared unconstitutional. This paper tries to shed some light on a number of questions, both theoretical and practical, to which those judgments give rise. The jurisprudence of the PCT raises crucial issues which the constitutional courts of EU Member States will certainly need to address in the future: what is the boundary between judicial activism and the judicial recognition of fundamental social rights as a remedy to the legislature’s minimalism in ensuring the protection of those rights? When can legislative action, insofar as resulting from the democratic process, no longer be regarded as the best way to secure that the rights of citizens are safeguarded? To what extent can judges require the legislature to take social rights ‘seriously’? In this regard, we believe that, even though judges obviously do not create the law, they should be active – rather than activist or creative – agents of change whenever constitutional rights are put at risk by national legislation – whether or not the latter is the result of an international obligation or constraint – in order to behave as guardians of last resort for citizens’ fundamental rights.Refereed Working Papers / of international relevanc

La rappresentanza politica nei gruppi del Parlamento europeo: il divieto di mandato imperativo

La storia. L'analisi: requisiti formali e sostanziali. La critica: relazione tra rappresentante e rappresentato. Il quadro del Parlamento europeo. Generalità e disciplina dei gruppi politici. Osservazioni sulla rappresentanza politica nei gruppi del Parlamento europeo.La storia. L'analisi: requisiti formali e sostanziali. La critica: relazione tra rappresentante e rappresentato. Il quadro del Parlamento europeo. Generalità e disciplina dei gruppi politici. Osservazioni sulla rappresentanza politica nei gruppi del Parlamento europeo.LUISS PhD Thesi

Agent based models to simulate social support networks

Uninvited Submission

Essays on economic analysis of competition law: theory and practice

Contiene: The antitrust treatment of loyalty discounts and rebates in the EU Competition law: in search of an economic approach and a theory of consumer harm; The Effectiveness of competition policy: an econometric assessment in developed and developing countries; Cartel detection and collusion screening: an empirical analysis of the London Metal Exchange.Contiene: The antitrust treatment of loyalty discounts and rebates in the EU Competition law: in search of an economic approach and a theory of consumer harm; The Effectiveness of competition policy: an econometric assessment in developed and developing countries; Cartel detection and collusion screening: an empirical analysis of the London Metal Exchange.LUISS PhD Thesi

Living IT infrastructures: designing purposeful artefacts for investigating IT infrastructures and business processes fit

Uninvited Submission

Do rules matter? Party regulation and anti-European political movements

Protest and anti-European parties have recently become very popular in many member States of the EU. Their increasing success can be explained with the economic crisis affecting many countries in Europe, which make the restrictive financial and budget measures requested by the European institutions very unpopular and opposed. Not only countries with economic problems are interested by the anti-Euro parties: together with Greece and Italy, also more stable countries like France or United Kingdom, or even wealthy states like Austria, Finland and Germany registered the recent growth of political movements aiming to abolish austerity measures, the monetary Union or even the European boundaries. Although such populist discourses are pretty much diffused in all these countries, the level of consent these parties are collecting is very different from one state to another. Aim of this paper is to analyze the relationship between the amount of support gained by anti-Euro movements and the legislation on political parties existing in the above mentioned countries. Final goal of this paper is to consider if it is possible to identify a certain mutual influence between party legislation and voters’ preferences for the Anti-Euro parties.Protest and anti-European parties have recently become very popular in many member States of the EU. Their increasing success can be explained with the economic crisis affecting many countries in Europe, which make the restrictive financial and budget measures requested by the European institutions very unpopular and opposed. Not only countries with economic problems are interested by the anti-Euro parties: together with Greece and Italy, also more stable countries like France or United Kingdom, or even wealthy states like Austria, Finland and Germany registered the recent growth of political movements aiming to abolish austerity measures, the monetary Union or even the European boundaries. Although such populist discourses are pretty much diffused in all these countries, the level of consent these parties are collecting is very different from one state to another. Aim of this paper is to analyze the relationship between the amount of support gained by anti-Euro movements and the legislation on political parties existing in the above mentioned countries. Final goal of this paper is to consider if it is possible to identify a certain mutual influence between party legislation and voters’ preferences for the Anti-Euro parties.Refereed Working Papers / of international relevanc

Business model innovation: antecedents of business model innovation and effects on firm performance

Exploring the antecedents to business model reconfiguration: an empirical analysis of pension funds. Does business model reconfiguration lead to better performance in incumbents? An empirical analysis of Australian pension funds. Fund evolution in the Australian superannuation industry: the role of leaders and stakeholders for superannuation funds.Exploring the antecedents to business model reconfiguration: an empirical analysis of pension funds. Does business model reconfiguration lead to better performance in incumbents? An empirical analysis of Australian pension funds. Fund evolution in the Australian superannuation industry: the role of leaders and stakeholders for superannuation funds.LUISS PhD Thesi

A bibliometric study of the literature on technological innovation: an analysis of 60 international academic journals

This paper aims to contribute to the debate on technological innovation, organization and work. Although technological innovation remained a debated topic in the academic literature during the past years, its implications for organizational processes seem still not sufficiently theorized and empirically investigated. By using two complementary journals’ rankings a search in the ISI Web of Science platform from 1985 through 2013 was performed. To analyze the 998 scientific retrieved contributions a bibliometric analysis has been conducted, adopting also Social Network Analysis tools. Our results reveal a significant growth of the technological innovation literature over the investigated period, the multidisciplinarity of the field and, particularly, the relevance of management and business & economics contributions. Overall, this study offers a broad overview of the literature on technological innovation and emphasizes the opportunity to investigate the role of technological innovation within the organizational life.This paper aims to contribute to the debate on technological innovation, organization and work. Although technological innovation remained a debated topic in the academic literature during the past years, its implications for organizational processes seem still not sufficiently theorized and empirically investigated. By using two complementary journals’ rankings a search in the ISI Web of Science platform from 1985 through 2013 was performed. To analyze the 998 scientific retrieved contributions a bibliometric analysis has been conducted, adopting also Social Network Analysis tools. Our results reveal a significant growth of the technological innovation literature over the investigated period, the multidisciplinarity of the field and, particularly, the relevance of management and business & economics contributions. Overall, this study offers a broad overview of the literature on technological innovation and emphasizes the opportunity to investigate the role of technological innovation within the organizational life.Monograph's chapter

An investigation of the role of dependency in predicting continuance intention to use ubiquitous media systems: combining a media system perspective with expectation-confirmation theories

The mobile telecommunications landscape has evolved into a highly competitive and complex ecosystem composed of network operators, mobile device manufacturers as well as software, content and service providers. This major shift has strongly impacted the fundamental nature of mobile devices which have now become complex multi-purpose, multi-context ubiquitous media systems. Such change has engendered an urgent need to revisit our understanding of mobile device usage through the lens of theories that encompass the multifaceted nature of ubiquitous systems. Relying on a media perspective, the paper investigates the role of individual media dependency in predicting continuance intention to use ubiquitous media systems. Data collected from 150 smartphone users were used to test the developed conceptual model. The results confirmed the overall effect of ubiquitous media systems dependency on individuals’ reasoned continuance usage decision. The findings suggest that the level of dependency towards a ubiquitous media system inflates the perceived positive attributes about the system: perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, as well as the cognitive appraisal about the discrepancies between initial expectations and post-use performance. Theoretical and practical implications developed from these findings are then discussed.The mobile telecommunications landscape has evolved into a highly competitive and complex ecosystem composed of network operators, mobile device manufacturers as well as software, content and service providers. This major shift has strongly impacted the fundamental nature of mobile devices which have now become complex multi-purpose, multi-context ubiquitous media systems. Such change has engendered an urgent need to revisit our understanding of mobile device usage through the lens of theories that encompass the multifaceted nature of ubiquitous systems. Relying on a media perspective, the paper investigates the role of individual media dependency in predicting continuance intention to use ubiquitous media systems. Data collected from 150 smartphone users were used to test the developed conceptual model. The results confirmed the overall effect of ubiquitous media systems dependency on individuals’ reasoned continuance usage decision. The findings suggest that the level of dependency towards a ubiquitous media system inflates the perceived positive attributes about the system: perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, as well as the cognitive appraisal about the discrepancies between initial expectations and post-use performance. Theoretical and practical implications developed from these findings are then discussed.Uninvited Submission

Expectations and systemic risk in EMU government bond spreads

This paper explores the determinants of 10-years sovereign bond spreads over the German Bund benchmark in the Euro Zone from 2000 to 2013, relying on cross-country quarterly data panel analysis. The paper focal point is the role of contagion and euro break-up risks in widening the sovereign bond yield differentials among EU member countries. Using a novel synthetic index capable of monitoring the sustainability of currency unions, the paper finds that market expectations of a euro’s break up and contagion from Greece were fundamentals drivers of sovereign risk premia in peripheral countries.This paper explores the determinants of 10-years sovereign bond spreads over the German Bund benchmark in the Euro Zone from 2000 to 2013, relying on cross-country quarterly data panel analysis. The paper focal point is the role of contagion and euro break-up risks in widening the sovereign bond yield differentials among EU member countries. Using a novel synthetic index capable of monitoring the sustainability of currency unions, the paper finds that market expectations of a euro’s break up and contagion from Greece were fundamentals drivers of sovereign risk premia in peripheral countries.Refereed Working Papers / of international relevanc