Central banks and information provided to the private sector

This paper examines the information provided to the private sector by central anks. By using the principal component analysis, we investigated the variance of the procedural rules followed by nine major central banks about information reatments. We investigate problems related to the information coming from the entral banks by focusing on the quantity and quality perspectives and highlight the methodological complexity of the investigation. We find that a synthetic uantitative index of transparency is not enough to represent the phenomenon ince it can result misleading in understanding the behavior of institutionally different central banks associated with the same index values.Central bank transparency, principal components, monetary policy.

Central Banks and Information Provided to the Private Sector

This paper examines the information provided to the private sector by central banks. By using the principal component analysis, we investigated the variance of the procedural rules followed by nine major central banks about information treatments. We investigate problems related to the information coming from the central banks by focusing on the quantity and quality perspectives and highlight the methodological complexity of the investigation. We find that a synthetic quantitative index of transparency is not enough to represent the phenomenon since it can result misleading in understanding the behavior of institutionally different central banks associated with the same index values.Central bank transparency, principal components, monetary policy

Dynamic games and growth gycles in unionised economies

In this paper we integrate the dynamic models formulated by the microeconomic theory of trade unions and the differential games approach. We demonstrate that the results of the dynamic monopoly union model, elaborated by Kidd and Oswald (1987) and Jones and McKenna (1994), can be obtained as solutions of a Stackelberg differential game between firms and unions under particular assumptions on union’s membership dynamic. We also develop a Nash differential game whose solutions imply a cycle in wage share of product and employment rate which resembles Goodwin’s (1967) cyclical growth path. This result is obtained by use of the Hopf theorem on local bifurcations, under particular hypotheses on the membership dynamics

Unions, fiscal policy and central bank transparency

In a unionised economy with supply-side fiscal policy transparency has two contrasting effects on economic performance. Uncertainty on central bank's preferences induces unions to reduce wages but also produces a fully-anticipated expansionary fiscal policy which favours the setting of higher wages. Even if the net effect depends on the preference parameters of public entities and on the effectiveness of fiscal policy on aggregate supply: (i) the positive effects of opacity in unionised economies without fiscal policy are confirmed when the central bank is populist; (ii) if it is instead sufficiently conservative, transparency reduces inflation and the output gap, but at the cost of higher macroeconomic volatility.Central bank transparency, Inflation, uncertainty

Central banks and information provided to the private sector

This paper examines the information provided to the private sector by central banks. By using the principal component analysis, we investigated the variance of the procedural rules followed by nine major central banks about information treatments. We investigate problems related to the information coming from the central banks by focusing on the quantity and quality perspectives and highlight the methodological complexity of the investigation. We find that a synthetic quantitative index of transparency is not enough to represent the phenomenon since it can result misleading in understanding the behavior of institutionally different central banks associated with the same index values

I rapporti fra capitale e lavoro nella ricostruzione della vita economica nazionale

- Dedica #9- Introduzione #11- PARTE PRIMA. CAPITALE E LAVORO CONSIDERATI ISOLATAMENTE #15- CAPITOLO PRIMO: IL CAPITALE #17- CAPITOLO SECONDO: IL LAVORO #81- CAPITOLO TERZO: LO STATO ED I SUOI RAPPORTI CON LA CLASSE CAPITALISTICA E CON LA CLASSE LAVORATRICE #117- PARTE SECONDA. I RAPPORTI FRA CAPITALE E LAVORO #137- CAPITOLO PRIMO: L'EQUILIBRIO FRA CAPITALE E LAVORO NEL SISTEMA PRODUTTIVO ATTUALE #139- Sezione prima. Le forme associative di capitale e lavoro #139- Sezione seconda. I sistemi preventivi e successivi di risoluzione dei confini fra capitale e lavoro #179- CAPITOLO SECONDO: IL LAVORO NELLE INDUSTRIE E LA SUA RETRIBUZIONE IN SALARIO #230- Sezione prima. L'organizzazione scientifica del lavoro #230- Sezione seconda. La durata del lavoro #236- Sezione terza. Determinazione del salario #242- CAPITOLO TERZO: ISTRUZIONE - PREVIDENZA E ASSISTENZA SOCIALE #266- CONCLUSIONE #293- Indice #29

Reti sociotecniche e vita quotidiana Uno studio sul malfunzionamento tecnologicoe le dinamiche sociali nell'ospedale Sant'Anna di Ferrara

In this work I will deal with the subject of the society-technology relation by investigating some phenomena associated with a series of information systems' failures that affected an important italian hospital. I will assume (this is my starting hypothesis) that an unexpected system crash is associated with some specific social dynamics so that the failure itself can be seen as a “revealer phenomenon” that is able to show a set of shared practices, representations and rhetorics about the role of technology in everyday life. In order to verify this theory, I paid attention to the case of some serious system failures that happened at Sant'Anna Hospital of Ferrara (Italy) in 2008. By using an ethnographic research approach I interviewed 15 employees of the hospital. In order to have a good set of point of views, I chose some employees belonging to the organizational-administrative side and some others to the health one. The main results can be placed on three main levels. From a micro point of view I pointed out that the system crash was associated with some relevant phenomena concerning the individual and the relational sphere of the employees, even if with important a between the administrative employees and the health ones. Everyone asserted the absolute necessity of computers and information system, however while administrative employees assumed the importance of such technology simply as an exploitable mean, on the other side the health workers considered the same technology and the computerized objects as something more, that is as entities contributing to the construction of their own professional identity and activity. As a result, the system failure generates a greater sense of anxiety and a notable increase of social interactions as the result of the sudden creation of two new patients looking for some treatment: the health worker, assumed as an hybrid entity temporarily crippled, and the computer or the information system itself, that does not work or does not work properly. From a mesoscopic point of view, the workers constantly attempted to locate the cause of the computer crash in the process of innovation that regards the implementation of the computerized infrastructure that occurred in the last 7 years. As the outcome of that innovation process is described as the result of disputes, conflicts and negotiations between many actors, there is a common propensity to underline an association of the computer system failure with an organizational failure. Finally, from a macro point of view, the whole accounts showed to be directed towards a common perspective that assumes computer systems as a characteristic element of modernity, whose management is a prerogative of hi-tech personnel

Supply-side fiscal policy, conservativeness, and Central Bank trasparency

This paper focuses on the “contingent” view of transparency. By introducing endogenous fiscal policy and labour market distortions, it studies the effects the uncertainty in central bank’s (CB) preferences on the behaviour of wage and fiscal authorities and thus on output and inflation. We consider the problem on both positive and normative perspectives. First, we investigate the effects of a given degree of uncertainty in CB’s preferences on inflation and real output. Second, in line with recent literature, by assuming the possibility that information on CB’s preferences may be an endogenous variable, we study the optimal degree of transparency from the CB’s viewpoint. Although a general analysis is presented, we focus on the case of a small-bounded variance of CB’s preference, i.e. we assume that the CB’s power of affecting information disclosure and influencing private beliefs is limited

Using XML as a means to access legislative documents: Italian and foreign experiences

In this paper we describe the goals and the organisation of the ongoing project "Norme in Rete" (NIR --- http://www.normeinrete.it), which involves several important Italian institutions and organisations. This project aims at the production of tools for the access to Italian normative documents, and data formats for the standardisation of the text of laws and rules both national and local. One of its many goals is the conversion of the national law corpus into XML.Within the context of this project, our effort has concentrated on the development of an XML DTD already, and of an XML Schema very soon, to describe Italian national and local laws. We illustrate in this paper the overall structure of the DTDs. They are organised in a stricter, normative set of rules, with normative power, for new law drafts, and of a looser, descriptive set of rules for existing documents over which no rules can be imposed. In this paper we examine both types of DTD (strict and loose), their global organisation, the modules for legal elements, for textual and tabular tags (resembling HTML), and for modular, generic elements, that allow easy extendibility to the DTD. Also the treatment of meta-information is examined in this paper.We produce a short account of several analogous experiences in Northern Europe, carried out by both public institutions and private legal publishers. Mention is also made of the European Union\u27s similar projects