Essays in microeconomics: opportunities of competitive screening and shortcomings of labor market signaling

This thesis consists of three essays in industrial organization and behavioral economics. The part in industrial organization, consisting of the first two chapters, studies advance selling in an oligopolistic market with heterogeneous firms. Chapter 1 introduces a theoretical model in which asymmetric firms use advance purchase discounts as a competition instrument. The analysis focuses on how the considered heterogeneity influences the firms' profit-maximizing price schemes. Chapter 2 uses the developed framework and applies it to the study of entry in markets with advance selling. Predictions are tested through an empirical analysis of Italian railway pricing. The third chapter analyzes a labor market signaling model under the lense of behavioral economics. The proposed model considers workers characterized by loss aversion who use their parents' income as a reference point in their education choice. All chapters have in common the concept of asymmetric information in the sense that one party (the consumers/the workers) is better informed about their characteristics than the other (the firms/the employers). In the first two chapters, the uninformed part offers a menu of choices from which the informed part self-selects according to their type. In the third chapter it is the informed side that reveals its type by choosing to invest (or not) in a costly signal. Chapter 1, co-authored by Marc Möller, proposes a model of advance selling in differentiated product markets with heterogeneous firms and individual demand uncertainty. We consider two types of asymmetry; firms differ either in their effciency, that is, in their marginal cost of production, or in their prominence, that is, net of prices, a larger fraction of consumers prefer one product over the other. We distinguish two periods: the advance selling period, in which consumers have imperfect information about their preferred product, and the consumption period, in which uncertainty is resolved. In order to attract customers firms offer a discounted price for consumers buying in advance. This strategy, however, increases the competition between the two firms that gain lower profits than when price discrimination is not allowed. The firms' exact pricing strategy depends on which type of asymmetry is considered. When firms differ in their effciency, they offer the same advance purchase discount in absolute terms. However, because the more effcient firm charges lower prices, its relative discount is higher. This allows for the more effcient firm to sell a higher output in the advance selling period and increase its market share compared to a uniform, time-invariant, pricing schedule. When firms differ in their prominence, the prominent firm sets higher prices, offers a higher advance purchase discount and a lower relative discount. The less prominent firm has an incentive to offer a high relative advance purchase discount to shift the competition to the advance selling period, where due to uncertainty, consumers view the products as more homogeneous. The increase in competition caused by advance selling harms the prominent firm more than the less prominent firm, meaning that the profit difference among the two is smaller under price discrimination than with uniform pricing. In Chapter 2, the model is applied to an entry scenario by considering a more prominent incumbent facing a more effcient entrant. Consistent with the results of Chapter 1, the entrant sets lower prices, offers a smaller absolute advance purchase discount and a larger relative advance purchase discount. Thanks to advance selling, the entrant diverts competition to the first period, where its prominence disadvantage looms less heavily. Advance selling promotes entry in the sense that compared to uniform pricing, it allows the entrant to increase its market share and narrows the profit gap with the incumbent. The model's predictions are then tested with prices from the Italian railway market. The market, liberalized in the early 2000s, currently features two companies active in intercity connections: Trenitalia (incumbent and former monopolist) and Italo (entrant). Prices were collected three, two and one weeks before as well as at the day of departure. The empirical analysis shows significant evidence for the theoretical results. Chapter 3 introduces loss aversion to Spence's (1973) labor market signaling model and explores a new channel through which family background influences education choice. In the presented model, workers derive utility from their own income and from a comparison of their income with their parents' income (i.e. their reference point). Loss aversion implies that the negative effect of an income lower than the reference one is stronger than the positive effect from exceeding the reference income. The workers' education choice depends on their ability level and their reference income. Loss aversion and the weight attached to the reference-dependent utility establish the propensity to follow the parents' footsteps. When this propensity is low compared to the difference in the workers' ability, we obtain an equilibrium in which workers separate by ability. High ability workers choose a higher level of education than low ability workers, independently of their family income. When the propensity to follow the parents' footsteps is high, workers separate by the income of the household of origin. Workers from rich households, independently from their ability, choose a higher level of education than workers from low income households. This result establishes a link between cultural differences in loss aversion and higher (in case of separation by ability) or lower (in case of separation by income) intergenerational mobility. Although higher intergenerational mobility is desirable in terms of equality of opportunity, it is not necessarily beneficial in terms of welfare. In Chapter 3, we see that in a separation by ability equilibrium, the cost of education is better distributed, but separation by income requires a lower level of education. Thus, separation by ability is better in terms of welfare than separation by income only if the difference in ability among workers is high enough

Lost Luggage: A Field Study of Emotion-Antecedent Appraisal

One hundred twelve airline passengers reporting their luggage lost to the baggage retrieval service in a major international airport were interviewed after their interaction with an airline agent. Participants were asked to rate their emotional state before and after the interaction with the agent and to provide information on how they had appraised the situation. The data are interpreted with respect to (1) type and intensity of the emotions felt in this situation, (2) appraisal theory predictions of emotion elicitation and differentiation, and (3) emotional change in the course of the interaction following reappraisal of the situatio

Best Climate Team for a best Financial Performance

Poster presentato alla Giornata di Studio "Metodi qualitativi e quantitativi in psicologia" organizzata dall'Universit\ue0 degli Studi di Urbino Carlo Bo e dall'Associazione Italiana di Psicologia a Urbino il 22 Giugno 201

Scoping out the Common-Sense Perspective on Meaningful Work: Theory, Data and Implications for Human Resource Management and Development

Background/Purpose: Meaningful work is a topic of relevant interest to management and organizational scholars. The study of meaningful work has been heavily characterized by theories from different disciplines, yet the com-mon-sense perspective is often overlooked, i.e., a non-academic perspective of meaningful work. The paper pres-ents a qualitative study on how non-academics define meaningful work. Methods: Adopting the lens of Aristotelian logic, the paper presents a methodological-theoretical approach to explore how non-academics define human resource management concepts. We asked 194 workers to propose ultimate definitions of the concept of meaningful work. The questions were submitted via a short survey collecting demographics. Results: The analysis of the collected definitions led to the proposition of an intensive definition of meaningful work according to which meaningful work is a positive experience associated with a sense of competence, the presence of positive relation with others, significance and purpose of work. Yet, there must be good reasons to experience work as meaningful as the environment may contain barriers to the presence of meaningfulness. Conclusion: Methodologically, the paper advances a novel approach to the study of human resource management and development concepts. Theoretically, the study proposes a novel perspective of meaningful work prioritizing concerns on the common-sense

Psychosocial Interventions for the Enhancement of Psychological Resources among Dyslexic Adults: A Systematic Review

Dyslexic employees are likely to be more at risk of low levels of personal resources because of their cognitive makeup compared to their non-dyslexic counterparts. Low personal resources, in turn, may lead to low employability because of difficulties in positively facing transitions. This research aimed to systematically review evidence on interventions for improving psychological resources in dyslexic adults. We searched Scopus, ERIC EBSCOhost, PsycINFO, Social Science Citation Index Web of Science, and Universe up to May 2020. We also examined the reference lists of published studies. We included studies that compared any intervention format against no intervention, any other intervention considered as a comparator by the authors, or that had no control group. Participants were dyslexic adults aged minimum 18 years old. We included four studies with 278 participants. Studies were run in the UK, Sweden, and Finland. Two studies involved a control group, and two studies were observational. Interventions varied between studies in intensity, duration, and format (individual and small groups). Risk of bias was unclear for most risk criteria. Findings from this review show that there is initial evidence suggesting initiatives can be effective in supporting a set of personal resources, i.e., self-confidence, organization, time, and stress-management, which are important in allowing dyslexic adults\u2019 positive adjustment in the workplace. Yet, more studies are needed to improve outcome assessment and study design

Work–family conflict based on strain: The most hazardous type of conflict in Iranian hospitals nurses

Orientation: Work and family conflicts continuously and negatively affect employees' performance. Previous research has mostly studied the impact of the two distinct dimensions of work–family conflict (WFC) and family–work conflict (FWC) on health outcomes, whereas the impact of more specific dimensions of these two general types of conflict on health outcomes is little known. Therefore, we now need to also measure the impact of more specified types of these conflicts on health outcomes.Research purpose: The purpose of this study was to propose a causal model of the effects of six different types of WFC (time, strain and behaviour) and FWC (time, strain and behaviour) on the mental and physical health of hospital nurses to identify the most hazardous type of conflict they faced.Motivation for the study: This research was conducted to outline which specific type of WFC or FWC is able to act as the strongest antecedent of mental and physical health in nurses.Research design, approach and method: Three hundred and eleven nurses from six hospitals were selected by simple random sampling. Data were collected using a Carlson WFC scale as well as an SF-36 mental–physical health scale based on a cross-sectional research design. The data were analysed using structural equation modelling and SPSS.Main findings: The final model showed that, firstly, the effects of WFC types (time, strain and behaviour) on health outcomes were much greater than the effects of FWC types (time, strain and behaviour). Secondly, WFC and FWC based on strain were stronger predictors of health outcomes. Finally, strain-based WFC was identified to be the most hazardous type of conflict in our study.Practical implications: These findings can be employed by hospital managers to block all the potential factors that may increase strain-based WFC in the workplace. Moreover, this study helps hospitals to use special educational programs directed at reducing strain-based WFC.Contribution/value-add: This research clearly revealed that a specific type of WFC may more likely influence the health situation of nurses.Keywords: WFC-Based on Strain; mental health; physical health; hospital nurse

Proposta di Piano Nazionale Integrato per l'Energia ed il Clima. Analisi critica e commento

Disanima del Piano Nazionale Energia e Clima presentato dal Governo Italiano il 31.12.2018. I principali temi trattati sono le cinque dimensioni contenute nel Piano, e dunque: decarbonizzazione, efficienza energetica, sicurezza energetica, il mercato interno e la ricerca. Il Piano è ricco di obbiettivi, anche ambiziosi ma manca molto sotto il profilo dell'attuazione nel prossimo futuro, manca cioè di programmazione pratica.ope

Implementing Job Crafting Behaviors:Exploring the Effects of a Job Crafting Intervention Based on the Theory of Planned Behavior

This article presents a combined motivational and volitional intervention based on the theory of planned behavior aimed at promoting expansion-oriented job crafting behaviors. Participants were employees working in different companies, assigned to either an intervention (n = 53) or a control group (n = 55). Results of a field study (including premeasure, postmeasure, and weekly diaries) indicated that the intervention enhanced participants’ perceptions of behavioral control referred to job crafting and awareness regarding others’ engagement in job crafting. Latent change growth modeling showed that participation in the intervention led to participants shaping their job crafting intentions during the weeks, which translated into more frequent job crafting behaviors at the end of the study period. Besides, the intervention served to trigger weekly work-related flow experiences in terms of high absorption while working. Findings suggest that job crafting interventions can benefit from the inclusion of self-regulatory strategies complementing goal setting

What makes a workday meaningful? Evidence on the role of task significance, competence and subjective meaningful work

Purpose: The construct of meaningful work is a relevant topic for the managerial literature interested in job design, employees’ motivation, and job performance. The current research seeks to improve our knowledge on meaningful work by exploring the processes by which a workday is experienced as meaningful. Design/methodology/approach: Adopting the lens of the Job Demands-Resources model and Self-Determination theory, we argue that work conditions and psychological conditions are associated with the experience of meaningful work on a daily basis. Moreover, we propose that the experience of meaningful work on a long-term basis (i.e. the evaluation of one’s own work as holding significance per se) intensifies the associations between daily conditions and the experience of meaningful work. We collected data via an event-based longitudinal diary study for a total sample of N = 114 employees from six organizations and N = 545 observations. Findings: Results of the multilevel analysis showed that competence and task significance led to the experience of meaningful work during working days. Moreover, cross-level analyses revealed that these associations are stronger for employees who experience their work to be meaningful in the long-term. Originality/value: The novelty of the present study lies in highlighting the role of specific factors contributing to the experience of meaningful work during a workday. These findings help specify targets and organizational and individual dimensions to be addressed by managerial interventions to ensure employees' meaningful work experience

The role of organized crime in the illicit traffic of artworks

L’articolo analizza il traffico illecito di opere d’arte prendendo in considerazione gli attori coinvolti nell’intera catena commerciale - dai cosiddetti tombaroli ai più importanti musei e case d’asta del mondo. In particolar modo si sofferma sul ruolo della criminalità organizzata ricostruendo sei case studies e sottolineando l’opportunità economica e simbolica che il mercato di opere d’arte offre alle organizzazioni mafiose. The article deals with illicit traffic of cultural goods taking into consideration the actors involved in the entire commercial chain - from the so-called tombaroli to the most important museums and auction houses in the world. In particular, it focuses on the role of organized crime by reconstructing six case studies and underlining the economic and symbolic opportunity that the market of cultural goods offers to mafia organizations