An Assessment of the Italian 2007 Second Pillar Reform: a simulation approach

In this paper we aim at assessing the outcomes of the 2007 Italian reform of the complementary social security and to identify the determinants behind them. The reform gave relevant incentives to workers to switch from investing about 7% of their gross wages into a compulsory defned benefit scheme inside the firm (which took the form of a termination indemnity payment, the TFR scheme) to an external pension fund. We provide a theoretical framework to model workers' choice problem of switching between these pension schemes and we then perform an agent-based simulation taking into account all the details of the reform. Our simulations are able to replicate the Italian data in term of adhesion rates to complementary social security and also to identify some of the key determinants of that outcome, like the fiscal incentives, the financial literacy and the expectations on the rate of returns of pension funds.Agent Based Simulation, Pension Schemes, Second Pillar

Elaborato sul concetto di certezza in Ludwig Wittgenstein

Wittgenstein si presenta, nel panorama filosofico novecentesco, come uno dei filosofi più originali. Nella fase finale della sua vita, giunge a criticare la concezione tradizionale del rapporto tra mente e significato, per la quale a garanzia della relazione di significazione basterebbe l'accesso che ciascun individuo ha ai propri contenuti mentali, riscontrando quindi il fondamento del significato nell'interiorità soggettiva. Wittgenstein, invece, avanza una prospettiva che pone un "gioco linguistico" con delle regole ben precise come condizione di giudizio del significato di un'espressione linguistica, regole che sono oggettive e condivise, non private, e che determinano precise funzioni del linguaggio e della conoscenza. Lo studio di Wittgenstein trova motivazione se consideriamo che, attraverso i secoli, la filosofia ha sviluppato un suo proprio linguaggio che si è costantemente reinventato e specializzato, a seconda dello sviluppo storico e degli eventi che lo hanno caratterizzato; periodicamente, quando in maniera velata, quando esplicita, essa ha cercato di imitare il linguaggio scientifico, con l'aspirazione di un maggiore rigore espositivo e concettuale

Impact of organic and conventional management and tillage operations on soil quality and productivity in the Montepaldi Long-Term Experiment (MoLTE)

The goal of the research was to assess the impact of different management (organic and conventional) and tillage (plowing, chisel plowing, disk harrowing) on soil quality, and to investigate the response of two crops, barley and sunflower respectively, in terms of yield. The indicators used for the soil quality evaluation were: earthworm's abundance, root's density, soil compaction score obtained with spade test, bulk density, soil penetration resistance and chemical analysis. Data were collected from November 2015 to September 2017, then statistical analysis, based on ANOVA test, was performed. Main results show that conventional system is more productive than organic and there is not significant difference between plowing and reduced tillage operations regarding yield; earthworms are more abundant under reduced tillage; root's density is about 20% higher in organic soils but phosphorous decreased by about 40% in 25 years

An Assessment of the Italian 2007 Second Pillar Reform: a simulation approach

In this paper we aim at assessing the outcomes of the 2007 Italian reform of the complementary social security and to identify the determinants behind them. The reform gave relevant incentives to workers to switch from investing about 7% of their gross wages into a compulsory defned benefit scheme inside the firm (which took the form of a termination indemnity payment, the TFR scheme) to an external pension fund. We provide a theoretical framework to model workers' choice problem of switching between these pension schemes and we then perform an agent-based simulation taking into account all the details of the reform. Our simulations are able to replicate the Italian data in term of adhesion rates to complementary social security and also to identify some of the key determinants of that outcome, like the fiscal incentives, the financial literacy and the expectations on the rate of returns of pension funds