Distance, bank heterogeneity and entry in local banking markets

We examine the determinants of entry into Italian local banking markets during the period 1991-2002 and build a simple model in which the probability of branching in a new market depends on the features of both the local market and the potential entrant. Our econometric findings show that, all else being equal, banks are more likely to expand into those markets that are closest to their pre-entry locations. We also find that large banks are more able to cope with distance-related entry costs than small banks. Finally, we show that banks have become increasingly able to open branches in distant markets, probably due to the advent of information and communication technologies.entry, barriers to entry, local banking markets, geographical distance.

Switching costs in local credit markets

Switching costs are a key determinant of market performance. This paper tests their existence in the corporate loan market in which they are likely to play a central role because of the complexity of contracts and informational problems. Using very detailed data at bank-firm level on four Italian local credit markets we empirically show that firms tend to iterate their choice of the main bank over time. This inertia is not related to unobserved and time invariant preferences of firms across banks and can be attributed to the existence of switching costs. We also offer evidence that banks price discriminate between new and old borrowers by charging lower interest rates to the former in order to cover part of the switching costs. The discount is about 44 basis points, equal to 7 per cent of the average interest rate. These results prove robust to a number of other potential identification drawbacks.switching costs, local credit markets, price discrimination, lending relationships

Operando Structural Characterization of the E-ALD Process Ultra-Thin Films Growth

Spanning from nanoelectronics to new solar energy materials, technological development in the recent years requested highly controlled nanostructured surfaces, ultra-thin films, and 2D structured materials. In general, although very favorable from a full life cycle assessment (FLCA) standpoint, electrodeposition hardly allows to obtain the high order required by recent technologies. In particular cases, the electrodeposition enables the deposition of atomic layers by means of surface limited reactions (SLRs). By exploiting SLRs, it is possible to define layer-by-layer deposition scheme of different atomic layers; we refer to these schemes as electrochemical atomic layer deposition (E-ALD) and when the growth of the film is epitaxial with the substrate, the techniques are called electrochemical atomic layer epitaxy (ECALE). Aiming at characterizing structure and growth of materials grown by means of E-ALD, surface analysis techniques apply better. In particular, surface X-ray diffraction (SXRD) with high brilliance synchrotron sources enables the operando structural analysis in electrochemical environment. In recent years, several works on the operando surface characterization by means of SXRD have been reported. Thanks to novelties in the field of operando SXRD experiments, semiconducting systems were studied, such as single and multilayer of CdS and Cu2S

The risk of home mortgages in Italy: evidence from one million contracts

This study analyzes the main characteristics of loans for house purchase issued in Italy between 2004 and 2007 employing the data on individual contracts from the Sample Survey of Lending Rates. Variables describing the type of mortgage and the borrower are related to the ex post probability of late payments and defaults. We also estimate the difference in ex post risk between mortgages that have subsequently been securitized and those that have not. The main results are: variable rate contracts proved to be more risky than fixed rate contracts; the difference is larger for mortgages issued at the end of 2005, when market rates were at their lowest; late payments have been more frequent for borrowers that are younger, resident in the South or immigrants from non-EU countries; non-securitized mortgages were more likely to run into difficulties with late payments and defaults than securitized ones.home mortgages, credits

Aportes para un país diferente

The present study examines the limited capacity of Argentina's current productive structure to meet society's demands –including decent employment, competitiveness, external integration, territorial roots, and quality of life– as well as the new international paradigm and the opportunities it presents for sustainable development based on Bioeconomy. The current productive structure, along with its associated routines and promotion regimes, is grounded in the industrial paradigm of the past century –focused on intensive use of fossil fuels and inert materials derived from metallurgy and petrochemicals – and adapted to local conditions in the mid-20th century. Since then, the global economy has undergone an irreversible techno-productive shift towards the convergence of information and biological technologies, displacing the productive matrix towards a more sustainable path. In this new paradigm, supported by Bioeconomy, Argentina has the opportunity to redefine its global position through a change in its productive structure, maximizing its biological –and therefore renewable– resources and its human capital. It is concluded that this presents a unique opportunity to review current incentive schemes and establish a modern and competitive productive matrix, redefining the roles of traditional sectors such as agriculture and mining, and promoting emerging ones such as knowledge-based industry, biotechnology, and bioenergy, among others, granting them the role of growth engines.El trabajo gira en torno a la capacidad (limitada) que tiene la actual estructura productiva de dar respuestas permanentes a las demandas de la sociedad en materia de generación de empleo, competitividad e inserción externa, distribución espacial de la actividad económica y acceso a la modernidad. Se argumenta que la actual conformación productiva y los sistemas de promoción asociados guardan estrecha relación con los esfuerzos de la sociedad local por adaptar a las condiciones locales el paradigma industrial propio de las sociedades desarrolladas de mediados del siglo pasado centrados en las producciones en serie, el uso masivo de energías fósiles y los materiales inertes derivados de las metalurgias y la petroquímica. Por diversas razones, varias décadas más tarde, las actividades líderes de tal estrategia y la sociedad local en su conjunto no logró cerrar significativamente la brecha productiva y, diversas políticas mediante, transitan un claro estancamiento productivo y una desmejora notable en el contexto global. En el interín, la economía mundial evidenció un salto tecno-productivo radical centrado en la convergencia de las tecnologías de la comunicación y la biología. El paradigma en ciernes redefine los liderazgos sectoriales hacia la electrónica y la biotecnología aplicada, desplaza la matriz energética hacia “lo verde” y enfatiza en los materiales derivados de fuentes renovables. El nuevo enfoque productivo -sustento de la Bioeconomía como modelo de desarrollo- redefine, para Argentina, su posicionamiento global y abre las puertas hacia un posible cambio en su estructura productiva. Desde esa óptica, el trabajo analiza la actual estructura productiva y los cambios operados en algunas actividades -en particular las relacionadas con los recursos naturales renovables- de alto potencial productivo en línea con un nuevo orden económico mundial. Concluye señalando que, para la sociedad local, ello abre una ventana de oportunidad para revisar profundamente los diversos esquemas de incentivos actuales en pro de establecer una matriz productiva moderna, genuinamente competitiva y con capacidad de satisfacer las demandas sociales. En dicho sendero, se resignifican los roles de sectores tradicionales -como el agropecuario y la minería - y de otros novedosos -como los servicios basados en el conocimiento, las bioenergías y los Resumen: El trabajo gira en torno a la capacidad (limitada) que tiene la actual estructura productiva de dar respuestas permanentes a las demandas de la sociedad en materia de generación de empleo, competitividad e inserción externa, distribución espacial de la actividad económica y acceso a la modernidad. Se argumenta que la actual conformación productiva y los sistemas de promoción asociados guardan estrecha relación con los esfuerzos de la sociedad local por adaptar a las condiciones locales el paradigma industrial propio de las sociedades desarrolladas de mediados del siglo pasado centrados en las producciones en serie, el uso masivo de energías fósiles y los materiales inertes derivados de las metalurgias y la petroquímica. Por diversas razones, varias décadas más tarde, las actividades líderes de tal estrategia y la sociedad local en su conjunto no logró cerrar significativamente la brecha productiva y, diversas políticas mediante, transitan un claro estancamiento productivo y una desmejora notable en el contexto global. En el interín, la economía mundial evidenció un salto tecno-productivo radical centrado en la convergencia de las tecnologías de la comunicación y la biología. El paradigma en ciernes redefine los liderazgos sectoriales hacia la electrónica y la biotecnología aplicada, desplaza la matriz energética hacia “lo verde” y enfatiza en los materiales derivados de fuentes renovables. El nuevo enfoque productivo -sustento de la Bioeconomía como modelo de desarrollo- redefine, para Argentina, su posicionamiento global y abre las puertas hacia un posible cambio en su estructura productiva. Desde esa óptica, el trabajo analiza la actual estructura productiva y los cambios operados en algunas actividades -en particular las relacionadas con los recursos naturales renovables- de alto potencial productivo en línea con un nuevo orden económico mundial. Concluye señalando que, para la sociedad local, ello abre una ventana de oportunidad para revisar profundamente los diversos esquemas de incentivos actuales en pro de establecer una matriz productiva moderna, genuinamente competitiva y con capacidad de satisfacer las demandas sociales. En dicho sendero, se resignifican los roles de sectores tradicionales -como el agropecuario y la minería - y de otros novedosos -como los servicios basados en el conocimiento, las bioenergías y los biomateriales- como motores de crecimiento

Potential Benefits of Remote Working on Urban Mobility and Related Environmental Impacts: Results from a Case Study in Italy

Remote working is increasingly seen as an effective model in several countries in the last decade, mainly thanks to the development of information and communication technologies in support of common daily working tasks. The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic has represented a pivotal moment for the adoption of remote working in multiple sectors, with positive effects on the environmental impacts caused by the daily commuting of workers. However, due to the fact that pandemic-induced remote working has represented a major forced experiment on a global scale, and that it has often been imposed rather than chosen by employees, workers’ well-being has not always been ensured. This research work presents an analysis of a wide survey of remote workers in public administrations in four different provinces in Italy, with the aim of assessing the main characteristics of the users and the related environmental benefits. Survey data refer to remote workers before COVID-19, thus representing workers who have freely chosen to work from home for different reasons. The results of this work represent a useful tool with which to support the definition of new remote work strategies that could help policy makers reduce a part of the systematic mobility demand. We have also calculated average energy and emission savings to provide useful indicators for a preliminary estimation of the potential environmental benefits of remote working. Considering the entire sample of respondents, workers who would have commuted at least partially by car have saved on average 6 kg of CO2 per day thanks to remote working (with an average round-trip commuting distance of approximately 35 km). The current results will be supplemented by the results of a new survey underway, aimed at evaluating the differences of remote working experiences during the emergency response to COVID-19

Topography of the graphene/Ir(111) moiré studied by surface x-ray diffraction

International audienceThe structure of a graphene monolayer on Ir(111) has been investigated {\it in situ} in the growth chamber by surface x-ray diffraction including the specular rod, which allows disentangling the effect of the sample roughness from that of the nanorippling of graphene and iridium along the moiré-like pattern between graphene and Ir(111). Accordingly we are able to provide precise estimates of the undulation associated with this nanorippling, which is small in this weakly interacting graphene/metal system and thus proved difficult to assess in the past. The nanoripplings of graphene and iridium are found in phase, i.e. the in-plane position of their height maxima coincide, but the amplitude of the height modulation is much larger for graphene ($0.379 \pm 0.044$ \AA) than, {\it e.g.}, for the topmost Ir layer ($0.017 \pm 0.002$ \AA). The average graphene-Ir distance is found to be $3.38 \pm 0.04$ \AA

Local detection of X-ray spectroscopies with an in-situ AFM

The in situ combination of Scanning Probe Microscopies (SPM) with X-ray microbeams adds a variety of new possibilities to the panoply of synchrotron radiation techniques. In this paper we describe an optics-free AFM/STM that can be directly installed on synchrotron radiation end stations for such combined experiments. The instrument can be used just for AFM imaging of the investigated sample or can be used for detection of photoemitted electrons with a sharp STM-like tip, thus leading to the local measure of the X-ray absorption signal. Alternatively one can can measure the flux of photon impinging on the sharpest part of the tip to locally map the pattern of beams diffracted from the sample. In this paper we eventually provide some examples of local detection of XAS and diffraction