Tax Competition in EU implies EMTR different: some effects on FDI and Economic Growth Rate

Tax base mobility in a globalised economy implies that tax policy influences savings, domestic investments and inter-jurisdictional capital mobility. Assuming the existence of spatial and temporal interdependence, using: a data set of EU countries, after the capital market liberalisation, and a longitudinal data technique for pooling time series of cross section; we test how difference in national tax influence capital inflows and outflows. More, using a cointegration analysis on GDP procapita and FDI time series’, we investigate the link between these two paths.Tax Competition, FDI, Economic Growth, Cointegration analysis

CAN FISCAL POLICY EXPLAIN TECHNICAL INEFFICIENCY OF PRIVATISED FIRMS? A PARAMETRIC AND NONPARAMETRIC APPROACH

The massive interests of economic literature about the privatisation gave a notable impulse to the discussion about this theme in the pre and post privatisation firms performance. Basically in every case after privatisation the level of profit increases. Does this mean that privatisation is certainly able to increase efficiency? In this field a large part of the literature leave out the complex problem that public firms usually are subject to objectives and constraints that differently from private firms can affect the overall economic efficiency. Unfortunately many authors ignore the effects of taxation during the process of privatisation, but in real term there are significant tax issues that must be considered by public and private decision maker. In this paper we concentrate the attention on the efficiency measures with the purpose to identify and measure sources of successful performance that can be used in policy planning and allocation of resources. Several techniques to calculate these frontier functions have been used, some of them parametric, others non-parametric to empirically investigate the relationship between taxation on firm’s income and efficiency in the period pre and post-privatisation. In this work we use both econometric and mathematical programming approaches for measuring efficiency. The econometric tool provide maximum likelihood estimates of a stochastic production and cost functions to distinguish noise from inefficiency. Instead, the mathematical programming approaches are nonstochastic and they do not make strict assumptions on the functional form of production and the statistical properties of the data. The general results obtained from the 3 different tools (Stochastic Frontier, Data Envelopment Analysis and Neural Network) are consistent. In fact, we see that privatization enhanced efficiency in three out of four sample firms.Privatization, Fiscal policy, Data Envelopment Analysis, Stochastic Frontier, Neural Network

Centralization and Decentralization of Public Policy in a Complex Framework

The public economic literature of the past century is characterized by a traditional paradigm that ascribes little attention to the spatial dimension. However, contemporary globalization requires that researchers and economists expand their perspectives to consider space conceptualization. What is required in the 21st century is a richer and more realistic framework that broadens existing concepts of socio-economic analysis while overcoming narrow national borders. Although national governments will remain prominent performers in the global market, regional and local governments cannot be ignored because citizens worldwide are exerting greater self-determination in influencing governmental decisions. This paper is focused on the opportunity to analyze the governance of decentralization by the new optimizing procedures provided by complex system theory. The first section of the paper explores the positive and normative issues related to centralization and decentralization in a globalized framework as well as the increased interdependence in power sharing among different jurisdictional level. In the second section, Kauffman’s (1993) contributions are examined as a means of determining if the fitness landscape allows combining the institutional evolution. Finally, this paper concludes highlighting that complex system theory is one of the possible tools useful to redesign the map of institutional sharing power in an era of globalization, considering that it allows catching Pareto improving in the level of welfare

The role of political competition in the link between electoral systems and corruption: an extension

[Abstract] This work provides an extension to an international context of the analysis made by Alfano, Baraldi and Cantabene (2013) on the role of political competition as a channel through which electoral systems affect corruption. Our result conflicts with that found by empirical literature on that topic that makes plurality rules the most virtuous in terms of corruption. Political scientists must be cautious in designing the degree of proportionality of electoral rules without take into account the variation in political competition that follows

The role of political competition in the link between electoral systems and corruption: an extension

This work provides an extension to an international context of the analysis made by Alfano, Baraldi and Cantabene (2013) on the role of political competition as a channel through which electoral systems affect corruption. Our result conflicts with that found by empirical literature on that topic that makes plurality rules the most virtuous in terms of corruption. Political scientists must be cautious in designing the degree of proportionality of electoral rules without take into account the variation in political competition that follows

A survey study on Industry 4.0 readiness level of Italian small and medium enterprises

Abstract The Industry 4.0 (I4.0) paradigm is considered one of the most trending topics in the academic and industrial context, that involves emerging technologies that can make the processes increasingly integrated and provide digital solutions for supporting companies towards the greater flexibility required by the market. To date, the scientific literature strongly addressed the development of enabling technologies and the assessment of their impacts in different industrial contexts. However, there is a lack of studies providing empirical evidence about how manufacturing companies are facing the digital transformation, in particular for smaller industrial realities. For this reason, this paper aims to study the knowledge, readiness, and dissemination level of the I4.0 paradigm and enabling technologies for Italian Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). A web-based survey was conducted, and 77 companies were interviewed. The survey results underline that MSMEs still have limited knowledge about I4.0 and are not well prepared for its implementation

Assessment of the Indoor Air Purification by Photocatalytic Paints

Photocatalytic building materials containing TiO2 were extensively studied for outdoor applications using solar radiation. Nowadays, the market offers a wide variety of these materials with self-cleaning and air purification functionalities. However, heterogeneous photocatalysis applied in indoor construction materials was less developed. The objective of this work is to investigate the photocatalytic performance of carbon doped TiO2 in replacement of the normal pigments in indoor wall paint formulations. To achieve this goal, the photocatalytic oxidation of acetaldehyde in gas phase was carried out. The air decontamination process was conducted us-ing regular indoor light in a bench scale chamber photoreactor simulating a room. The main environmental conditions that affect the photocatalytic process were varied: air flow rate, irradiance, relative humidity and acetaldehyde concentration. The results were analyzed through the response surface methodology and revealed the air purifying power of photocatalytic paints under indoor conditions.Fil: Salvadores, Federico. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Instituto de Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Industria Química. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Instituto de Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Industria Química; ArgentinaFil: Alfano, Orlando Mario. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Instituto de Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Industria Química. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Instituto de Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Industria Química; ArgentinaFil: Ballari, Maria de Los Milagros. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Instituto de Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Industria Química. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Instituto de Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Industria Química; Argentin

Environmental pollution from illegal waste disposal and health effects: A review on the triangle of Death.

The term “triangle of death” was used for the first time by Senior and Mazza in the journal The Lancet Oncology referring to the eastern area of the Campania Region (Southern Italy) which has one of the worst records of illegal waste dumping practices. In the past decades, many studies have focused on the potential of illegal waste disposal to cause adverse effects on human health in this area. The great heterogeneity in the findings, and the bias in media communication has generated great healthcare doubts, anxieties and alarm. This paper addresses a review of the up-to-date literature on the “triangle of death”, bringing together the available information on the occurrence and severity of health effects related to illegal waste disposal. The Scopus database was searched using the search terms “waste”, “Campania”, “Naples”, “triangle of death” and “human biomonitoring”. Despite the methodological and sampling heterogeneity between the studies, this review examines the evidence from published data concerning cancer incidence, childhood mortality and birth defects, so that the current situation, knowledge gaps and research priorities can be established. The review aims to provide a contribution to the scientific community, and to respond to the concerns of the general population

Efficiency evaluation of different TiO 2 coatings on the photocatalytic inactivation of airborne bacterial spores

The performance of different TiO 2 coatings is compared for the photocatalytic inactivation of dry Bacillus subtilis spores dispersed on TiO 2 films under UV-A radiation. Three different TiO 2 coatings were assayed: Degussa P-25, sol-gel, and composite sol-gel/Degussa P-25. The influence of the increase in the number of TiO 2 layers was also studied. Furthermore, the amount of TiO 2 deposited on the borosilicate glass plates and the fraction of energy effectively absorbed by the catalytic films were determined. Spectral diffuse transmittance and reflectance measurements were performed using a spectroradiometer with an integrating-sphere attachment. The net-radiation method was then applied to evaluate the fraction of energy absorbed by the coatings. To objectively compare the performance of the catalytic films, two types of efficiencies were calculated: the photonic efficiency and the quantum efficiency of inactivation. The highest quantum efficiency was obtained with the TiO 2 Degussa P-25 coating with two layers. © 2012 American Chemical Society.Fil: Zacarias, Silvia Mercedes. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Instituto de Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Industria Química. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Instituto de Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Industria Química; ArgentinaFil: Satuf, María Lucila. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Instituto de Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Industria Química. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Instituto de Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Industria Química; ArgentinaFil: Vaccari, Maria Celia. Universidad Nacional del Litoral; ArgentinaFil: Alfano, Orlando Mario. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Instituto de Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Industria Química. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Instituto de Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Industria Química; Argentin