The Market for Paintings in XVII Century Italy

We study the XVII century market for figurative paintings in Italy, analyzing original contracts between patrons and artists: this is one of the first manufacturing markets for which econometric evidence of the basic laws of economics can be found. Size of paintings, expected quality, type of commissions and aggregate shocks affect prices as expected. We find evidence of contractual solutions to moral hazard problems in the patron-artist relation: since quality was not negotiable, prices were made conditional on correlated variables such as the number of figures depicted. We find evidence of price equalization between high and low demand destinations due to endogenous mobility of the painters (or the paintings). We also provide support for the Galenson hypothesis of a positive relation between age of experimental artists and quality as priced by the market.Art market, Moral hazard, Endogenous market structures, Galenson hypothesis

The Market for Paintings in Baroque Venice

We study the art market in the XVI-XVIII centuries with an econometric analysis of a new dataset on original contracts between patrons and artists for commissions of oil paintings of historical subject in the Venetian Republic. Size of paintings, reputation of the painters as perceived at the time, type of commissions and aggregate demand shocks (the plague) a¤ect prices as expected. We ?nd evidence of contractual solutions to moral hazard problems: since quality was not contractable, prices were made conditional on measurable features correlated with quality as the number of human ?gures. We also ?nd strong evidence of price equalization between high-demand and low-demand towns due to painters?mobility. Finally, we provide support for the Galenson hypothesis of a positive relation between age of experimental artists and quality as priced by the market. The results are con?rmed for other Italian art centres.

The Market for Paintings in Italy during the Seventeenth Century

We study the Seventeenth century market for figurative paintings in Italy analyzing original contracts between patrons and artists. We show that a number of supply and demand factors affected prices. We find a positive and concave relation between prices and size of paintings reflecting economies of scale. We show evidence of a positive relationship between prices and the number of figures depicted. Trade in paintings was sufficient to equalize prices between different destinations. Finally, we provide support for the Galenson hypothesis of a positive relation between age of experimental artists and quality as priced by the market.

Green polities: urban environmental performance and government popularity

Ascertaining whether local election results are driven by incumbents’ performance while in office or mechanically reflect constituencies’ ideological affiliation and macroeconomic conditions is crucial for evaluating the alleged accountability-enhancing property of decentralization. Based on a unique score of urban environmental performance and the results of all elections held in the major Italian cities over a decade, we investigate the role of local (fiscal and environmental) versus national issues in municipal elections. While the empirical evidence points to a strong ideological attachment and a somewhat weaker fiscal conservatism, it reveals that media reported environmental ranking has a considerable impact on the popularity of city governments.Local elections, vote function, environmental performance, property tax

Random Graphs Associated to some Discrete and Continuous Time Preferential Attachment Models

We give a common description of Simon, Barab\'asi--Albert, II-PA and Price growth models, by introducing suitable random graph processes with preferential attachment mechanisms. Through the II-PA model, we prove the conditions for which the asymptotic degree distribution of the Barab\'asi--Albert model coincides with the asymptotic in-degree distribution of the Simon model. Furthermore, we show that when the number of vertices in the Simon model (with parameter $\alpha$) goes to infinity, a portion of them behave as a Yule model with parameters $(\lambda,\beta) = (1-\alpha,1)$, and through this relation we explain why asymptotic properties of a random vertex in Simon model, coincide with the asymptotic properties of a random genus in Yule model. As a by-product of our analysis, we prove the explicit expression of the in-degree distribution for the II-PA model, given without proof in \cite{Newman2005}. References to traditional and recent applications of the these models are also discussed

Vector fuzzy dark matter, fifth forces, and binary pulsars

We study the secular effects that an oscillating background ultralight (fuzzy) cosmological vector field has on the dynamics of binary systems; such effects appear when the field and the binary are in resonance. We first consider the gravitational interaction between the field and the systems, and quantify the main differences with an oscillating background scalar field. If the energy density of such a field is sufficiently large, as required if it is supposed to be all of the dark matter, we show that the secular effects could yield potentially observable signatures in high precision time of arrival measurements of binary pulsars. We then analyse the secular effects that arise when the field is directly coupled to the bodies in the binary. We show that this study is particularly relevant for models where fuzzy dark matter mediates a baryonic force B (or B-L, with L the lepton number), due to the stellar amount of nucleons present in the stars. The constraints we obtain from current data are already competitive with (or even more constraining than) laboratory tests of the equivalence principle.Fil: Lopez Nacir, Diana Laura. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Urban, Federico R.. Czech Academy of Sciences; República Chec

The Labor Market in the Seventeenth-Century Italian Art Sector

We analyze the labor market for painters in Baroque Rome using unique panel data on primary sales of still lifes, portraits, genre paintings, landscapes and figurative paintings. In line with the traditional artistic hierarchy of genres, average price differentials between them were high. We identify supply and demand factors related to prices of paintings. The panel dimension of the dataset and its matched painter-patron nature allows us to evaluate the extent to which price heterogeneity is related to unobservable characteristics of painters and patrons. We find that most of the inter-genre price differential is explained by the variation in average artist heterogeneity across genres. This suggests that the market allocated artists between artistic genres to the point of equalizing the marginal return of each genre. We also explain residual price differences in terms of efficiency wage, signalling and incentive mechanisms to induce effort in the production of artistic quality.Art market, Occupational choice, Wage equalization, Signalling