Il rating fra crisi e riforma dei mercati finanziari

Il lavoro affronta in chiave comparatistica il tema del ruolo e della credibilità dell'operato delle agenzie di rating, anche alla luce delle vicende legate alla crisi dei mutui subprime. Particolare attenzione è dedicata alle questioni della struttura oligopolistica dell'industria del rating, della scarsa accountability, del conflitto di interessi, nonché alle iniziative di regolazione assunte sia negli Stati Uniti sia nell'Unione europea

La governance delle società pubbliche fra diritto comune e regole speciali

Il seminario illustra contenuti e finalità della riforma delle società a partecipazione pubblica attuata con d.lgs. n. 175/2016 (nel testo integrato e corretto dal d.lgs. n. 100/2017), con particolare riferimento ai principi in tema governance delle stesse e al rapporto con la disciplina societaria di diritto comune

The Two Faces of First-Rank Symptoms

Recently, there has been renewed interest in Schneider's first-rank symptoms (FRS) of schizophrenia, thanks in part to a meta-analysis of their diagnostic accuracy, which deserves much credit for its methodological rigor. Conceptualising FRS as a diagnostic test whose performance can be measured in terms of sensitivity and specificity involves some issues that require reflection. First, the full adequacy of sensitivity as a measure of diagnostic accuracy for FRS might be questioned. However, it is conceptually acceptable, though FRS are at a disadvantage as compared with many other psychiatric "diagnostic tests" that should have perfect sensitivity under ideal conditions. Also, from a psychopathological perspective it may well be argued that FRS cannot be conceptualised as a simple, inexpensive diagnostic test suitable for screening purposes; however, the history of the concept reveals some reasons why it may be legitimate to view them this way. While no other relevant study has appeared after the publication of the meta-analysis, data on a further 166 patients from a study that could not be included due to incompletely reported data were located. This brought the total to 4,236 patients from 17 studies on the ability of FRS to differentiate schizophrenia from other psychoses. The resulting summary estimates of sensitivity, specificity and positive and negative likelihood ratios are 60.2%, 75.9%, 2.50, and 0.52, respectively. FRS have a kind of double nature, as they can be legitimately considered as belonging to both a sophisticated framework grounded in phenomenological psychopathology and an eminently pragmatic framework grounded in clinical epidemiology. When FRS are conceptualised as simple clinical indicators that require low levels of inference, the available estimates of their diagnostic accuracy are a fairly valid appraisal of their performance and usefulness, and suggest that FRS have some value in differential diagnosis. However, when FRS are conceptualised as profoundly anomalous experiences that can be properly identified and evaluated only by using a phenomenological approach, these estimates can hardly be seen as a valid evaluation of their diagnostic significance. Phenomenologically informed studies are needed to address this research gap

Shareholder Activism and Corporate Social Responsibility

The presentation focuses on the role of shareholder activism in promoting the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). One of the most debated topic in current corporate law is how institutional investors can use their fiduciary duties in the corporation, particularly the values or otherwise of the changes brought about by activist shareholders. The presentation deals with the "capable and incentives problems" and enlighten the subset of activist interventions. It is pointed out that the ESG investing better performs with the standard business model of index tracking and stock picking funds, whilst the goals of activist hedge funds are short-term. Although some scholars argue that there is no empirical evidence of this common-shared view, either the self-regulation or the European Union do not rely to hedge funds