Essays in International Macroeconomics:

Thesis advisor: Peter IrelandThesis advisor: Rosen ValchevThis dissertation consists in three chapters, each making a distinct contribution. Chapter 1 empirically tests classic and new Uncovered Interest Parity puzzle in an innovative way. Findings suggest that government debt is significant and economically relevant for UIP puzzles estimation.Chapter 2 shows that a class of macroeconomic models reproduce the UIP puzzle under a standard parametrization and adding convenience yields exogenous dynamics. Chapter 3 is a theoretical model that links financial crises to the election of populists parties, matching empirical evidence from Europe.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2021.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Economics

Phase II trial of neoadjuvant pemetrexed plus cisplatin followed by surgery and radiation in the treatment of pleural mesothelioma

BACKGROUND: Malignant pleural mesothelioma is an aggressive tumor that has a poor prognosis and is resistant to unimodal approaches. Multimodal treatment has provided encouraging results. METHODS: Phase II, open-label study of the combination of chemotherapy (pemetrexed 500 mg/m(2)+cisplatin 75 mg/m(2) IV every 21 days × 3 cycles), followed by surgery (en-bloc extrapleural pneumonectomy, 3–8 weeks after chemotherapy) and hemithoracic radiation (total radiation beam 54 Gy, received 4–8 weeks post-surgery). The primary endpoint was event-free survival, defined as the time from enrollment to time of first observation of disease progression, death due to any cause, or early treatment discontinuation. RESULTS: Fifty-four treatment-naïve patients with T1-3 N0-2 malignant pleural mesothelioma were enrolled, 52 (96.3%) completed chemotherapy, 45 (83.3%) underwent surgery, 22 (40.7%) completed the whole treatment including 90-day post-radiation follow-up. The median event-free survival was 6.9 months (95%CI: 5.0-10.5), median overall survival was 15.5 months (95%CI 11.0-NA) while median time-to-tumor response was 4.8 months (95%CI: 2.5-8.0). Eighteen (33.3%) and 13 (24.1%) patients were still event-free after 1 and 2 years, respectively. The most common treatment-emergent adverse events were nausea (63.0%), anemia (51.9%) and hypertension (42.6%). Following two cardiopulmonary radiation-related deaths the protocol was amended (21 [38.9%] patients were already enrolled in the study): the total radiation beam was reduced from 54 Gy to 50.4 Gy and a more accurate selection of patients was recommended. CONCLUSIONS: The combination of pemetrexed plus cisplatin followed by surgery and hemithoracic radiation is feasible and has a manageable toxicity profile in carefully selected patients. It may be worthy of further investigation. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinicaltrial.com registrationID #NCT00087698

Analisi LCA di un impianto di produzione di energia elettrica alimentato a biogas prodotto da coltivazione energetica

La tesi sviluppa un'analisi LCA di un impianto di produzione di energia elettrica alimentato a biogas prodotto da coltivazione energetica. Nella prima parte è stato valutato un impianto esistente e gli obiettivi principali sono la valutazione della tecnologia a biomassa e la valutazione degli inquinanti più particolari che vengono misurati con minor frequenza. Nella seconda parte, invece, sono stati considerati dei casi alternativi legati ad un cambiamento della biomassa

Populism, financial crises and banking policies: economics and psychology

Financial crises often seem to be associated with populism, although the populist banking policies introduced to address such crises are far from homogenous. This apparent paradox—a sort of “sight-unseen consensus”—suggests that specific economic drivers coupled with general psychological components can explain populist consensus. We propose a model of populist consensus, which we term “democratic rioting,” in which individuals' decisions to support or resist a specific populist bailout policy after a financial crisis are heavily influenced by psychological group dynamics. Those dynamics, in turn, are driven by general, non-banking-related motivations, such as anti-elite sentiments. In a multiple equilibria setting, the more individuals are unhappy for general economic and/or psychological reasons, the more likely they are to support myopic and redistributive populist banking policies rather than long-sighted public interventions

Doves, hawks and pigeons: behavioral monetary policy and interest rate inertia

tBehavioral bias – loss aversion – can explain monetary policy inertia in setting interest rates. Economicliterature has tended to explain inertia in monetary policymaking in terms of frictions and delays, or hasstressed the role of governance rules. We introduce a new driver of inertia, independent from frictionsand central bank governance settings. While the degree of conservatism doesn’t necessarily producemonetary inertia, we show that introducing loss aversion in individual behavior influences the stanceof monetary policy under three different but convergent perspectives. First of all, a Moderation Effectcan emerge, i.e. the number of pigeons increases. At the same time also a Hysteresis Effect can becomerelevant, whereby both doves and hawks soften their attitudes. Finally a Smoothing Effect tends to stabilizethe number of pigeons. Together, the three effects consistently cause higher monetary policy inertia

A pathological complete response after preoperative chemotherapy with carboplatin and pemetrexed in malignant pleural mesothelioma: A case report.

Malignant pleural mesothelioma is an aggressive tumour with poor prognosis and short duration of response probably due to the high chemo-refractoriness. Multimodality treatment based on preoperative chemotherapy, surgery and adjuvant radiotherapy seems to be a feasible and effective therapeutic option in selected patients.We report on a case of pathological complete response in a patient affected by malignant pleural mesothelioma who was treated with four cycles of preoperative chemotherapy based on carboplatin plus pemetrexed followed by parietal pleurectomy and lung decortication. Carboplatin plus pemetrexed was a well tolerated regimen without grade 3-4 haematological toxicity, and this confirm the feasibility of such a treatment as an alternative to the current golden standard based on cisplatin plus pemetrexed.Complete resection allows the pathologist to better describe biological markers of mesothelioma cells, in order to select patients with different treatment outcome and prognosis

Obsessive-compulsive disorder with comorbid bipolar disorders: clinical features and treatment implications

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms within the context of a bipolar disorder (BD) have been described since the 19th century. Interestingly, the existence of a relevant overlap between the aforementioned psychiatric syndromes has been confirmed by a number of recent epidemiological and family studies

Long-term survival and prognostic factors in thymic epithelial tumours

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to analyze long-term survival and the prognostic significance of some factors after surgical resection of thymic epithelial tumours. METHODS: We performed a retrospective analysis of clinical and histopathological data on 132 patients operated on for thymic tumours, from 1970 and 2001. Histologic diagnosis based on the new WHO classification system was made by a single pathologist. A univariate and multivariate analysis of prognostic factors predicting survival was carried out. RESULTS: There were: 108 complete resections (81.8%), 12 partial resections (9.1%) and 12 biopsies (9.1%). Overall 5, 10 and 15-year survival rate was 72, 61 and 52.5%, respectively. The Masaoka staging system showed 44 stage I, 18 stage II, 52 stage III and 18 stage IV. Histologic results were: 14 subtype A, 31 AB, 20 B1, 28 B2, 29 B3 and 10 C; the respective proportions of invasive tumour (stage II-IV) was 28.6, 58.1, 50, 75, 86.2 and 100%. There were 16 tumour recurrences (14.8%) of 108 radically resected thymomas, 10 were treated with radical re-resection. In univariate analysis, four prognostic factors were statistically significant: radical resection, Masaoka clinical staging, WHO histologic subtype and resectable tumour recurrence. In multivariate analysis, the independent factors predicting long-term survival were WHO histology and Masaoka stage. CONCLUSIONS: The WHO histologic classification seems to be the most significant prognostic factor reflecting the invasiveness of the thymic tumour. Completeness of resection and Masaoka stage I and II assure a better survival. Unresectable recurrence of thymic tumour predicted a worse prognosis

The role of surgery in integrated therapies for non-small-cell lung cancer

Surgery represents the best treatment for early-stage non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In selected cases, even locally-advanced cancers may be suitable for surgical treatment. The combination of chemotherapy (with or without radiotherapy) and surgery has proved potentially useful in improving survival, but pre-operative treatment may represent a risk factor for the onset of post-operative complications. Studies performed to date indicate the need for further multidisciplinary research with a view to identifying more advantageous treatment modalities, particularly for locally-advanced NSCLC