Financial market regulation in the wake of financial crises: the historical experience

The focus of the present volume - which originates from a workshop held at the Bank of Italy on 16 and 17 April 2009 - is the regulatory response given to financial crises in the past, across countries. Alongside the scholarly interest of such a review its aim is also to offer some insights that may be useful in re-designing regulation in the present time of distress. Financial crises have been examined under many perspectives, including that of regulatory failures. The studies assembled in this volume, which touch on a significant array of countries, can be viewed as part of a historical survey on this issue. The basic question is whether regulatory responses form a pattern, and more specifically, whether they tend to be biased with respect to an optimum, however defined. In the end, rather than finding one pattern of response, we were able to identify the "disturbances" which most often enter the post-crisis decisional process. The awareness of such factors, and some knowledge of their functioning, are instrumental in understanding (for academics) and in governing (for policy makers) the response to major financial crises.Financial crises, financial regulation, economic history

Regulators and Innovators Play Tag: The Italian Historical Experience

Between the 1880s and the 1930s, three "regulatory cycles" can be identified in Italy. In the underlying model, each financial crisis gives rise to a regulatory change, which is circumvented in due time by financial innovation, that can then contribute to the outbreak of a new financial crisis. In Italy, overtrading of the banks of issue in the 1880s contributed to the 1888-1894 financial crisis, which yielded regulation concerning only these banks and restricting their activity. The German-type universal banks, created at the turn of the century and unconstrained in their undertakings, were at the core of the 1907 and the 1921-1923 crises. These led to a banking law in 1926 which, however, was born obsolete, in that it was not aimed at regulating universal banking as it had developed until then, but it contained general provisions regarding the whole range of deposit-taking institutions. Finally, the evolutionary adaptation of the universal banks into holding companies, not taken into account by the preceding law, contributed to the 1931-1934 banking crisis, followed by the 1936 bank legislation.

Assicurazioni e sviluppo: lezioni dalla storia

Il volume raccoglie contributi e testimonianze di studiosi sul tema del rapporto tra le vicende del settore assicurativo e lo sviluppo economico e sociale del Paese. Pubblicato in occasione della ricorrenza dei 150 anni dell’Unità d’Italia, documenta non solo il rilevante ruolo sociale svolto da questa importante componente dell’industria finanziaria nel sostenere in vario modo lo sviluppo, e il modello di sviluppo nelle diverse fasi storiche della storia post-unitaria. Testimonia anche come l’andamento del settore si sia adattato e abbia concorso a caratterizzare i rapporti tra pubblico e privato nella struttura economico-industriale, la domanda di protezione e di copertura dei rischi proveniente dalle imprese e dalle famiglie, l’articolazione e il funzionamento dei servizi, delle garanzie pubbliche e delle forme di protezione offerte dallo Stato sociale, lo stato delle tecnologie, della ricerca economica e statistica e dell’efficienza della pubblica amministrazione. L’obiettivo è quello di capire e proiettare sul futuro il ruolo del settore assicurativo di fronte ai grandi cambiamenti in corso e agli scenari di rischio in evoluzione. Tra gli interventi inclusi nel volume quelli di Giuliano Amato, Pierluigi Ciocca, Elsa Fornero, Robin Pearson e Gianni Toniolo)

L'economia politica e l'evoluzione del capitalismo negli ultimi quarant'anni

Convegno in onore di Giorgio Lunghini

Terpolymerisation of 1-olefin and ethene with CO catalysed by the [PdCl2(dppp)] complex in methanol as a solvent [dppp = 1,3-bis(diphenylphosphino)propane]

The catalytic activity of the [PdCl2(dppp)] complex in the 1-olefin/ethene (E)/CO terpolymerisation has been studied in MeOH (containing 1000 ppm of H2O) as a solvent. The 1-olefins tested were propene (P), 1-hexene (Hex), 1-decene (D) and styrene (S). At 90 °C and 45 atm (E/CO = 1/1), the system [PdCl2(dppp)]/TsOH (p-toluenesulfonic acid) = 1/8 catalyses efficiently the reactions leading to 5000 g PECO/(g Pd h), 5600 g HexECO/(g Pd h), 5650 g DECO/(g Pd h) and 4100 g SECO/(g Pd h). In particular, it has been studied deeper the effect of Hex and S concentrations on productivities, average molecular weights and melting temperatures of HexECO and SECO, respectively. A mechanism of reaction has been also proposed and discussed, supported by IR, and NMR characterizations

CMS physics technical design report : Addendum on high density QCD with heavy ions

Peer reviewe

Inconvenient glow: Cliometrics and the "golden age" of capitalism

This paper aims to criticize the recent cliometrics literature on the so-called "golden age" of capitalism. The works of Nicholas Crafts, Gianni Toniolo, and Barry Eichengreen are reconstructed in order to reveal the main characteristics of this research program. Its narrow quantitative focus, its reliance on theoretical propositions borrowed from neoclassical economics, and its auspicious interpretation of the postwar reconstruction are the main focus of the criticism presented. Finally, the cliometricians' attempt to historicize the "golden age" and de-historicize the following decades is related to the ideological understanding of the recent decades as a period of "great moderation."