The Euro's Effects on Trade in a Dynamic Setting

This paper provides an update on estimates of the euro effect on trade integration among EMU economies, taking into account the aggregate bilateral exports of 23 OECD countries for the sample period 1988-2004. We consider 13 exporting European countries and 23 importing industrialized countries We utilize the dynamic panel data estimator proposed by Blundell and Bond (1998) and introduce controls for heterogeneity. The results of our dynamic specification of the gravity equation yield an estimate of the short run intra-Eurozone pro-trade effect, following the adoption of the single currency, which is as high as around 4% (17% in the long run). This finding, slightly lower than the results set out in our previous studies, is in line with those of very recent empirical analyses using dynamic specification of the gravity equation. It is also consistent with the already tight trade links characterizing the economies that have adopted the euro.International trade ; currency unions ; gravity models ; dynamic panel data

Libro Bianco. Il Servizio sanitario nazionale e la pandemia da Covid 19. Problemi e proposte

Il libro è il frutto del lavoro collettivo di una task force (coordinata da Giovanna Vicarelli) composta da una ventina di sociologi della Sezione di Sociologia della salute e della medicina dell'Associazione Italiana di Sociologia (AIS). Con tale lavoro si è inteso, da un lato, indagare scientificamente sulla configurazione del Servizio Sanitario Nazionale (SSN) di fronte alla pandemia da Covid-19 e, dall'altro, indicare alcune linee di azione per aumentarne la resilienza e la capacità di risposta ai bisogni emergenti di salute. Nella prima parte del lavoro si considera, con una prospettiva comparata, in che modo i diversi sistemi sanitari europei hanno saputo o meno rispondere all'arrivo della pandemia, per passare, quindi, all'analisi dei punti di forza e di debolezza del regionalismo sanitario in Italia. Successivamente, si affronta il tema delle disuguaglianze sociali di salute che la pandemia ha messo a nudo quale conseguenza, anche, dei più recenti processi di ristrutturazione dell'assistenza ospedaliera e dell'assistenza primaria. In tal senso, una attenzione a parte viene riservata al caso lombardo, considerato per molti aspetti emblematico della crisi sanitaria in corso. Il ruolo svolto dai medici e dalle professioni sanitarie, nonché le politiche regionali relative al volontariato sociosanitario, costituiscono pure temi cruciali dell'analisi. Nella seconda parte del volume viene delineata una proposta complessiva basata su cinque linee strategiche (e conseguenti direttive di azione) che occorrerebbe perseguire per un rilancio complessivo del SSN in termini di equità, uguaglianza e personalizzazione delle cure, integrazione territoriale, regionalismo responsabile e solidale, centralità del cittadino singolo e associato. Tali obbiettivi trovano radicamento in quattro principi-guida: l'universalismo, la dimensione comunitaria, la promozione della salute e l'organizzazione dei servizi e delle prestazioni in un'ottica di rete

Essays on Climatic Risks and Vulnerability-Reduction Strategies

This dissertation analyzes three di_erent dimensions of climate risk: (i) impacts and responses to climate change in physical and biological systems; (ii) socio-economic consequences of climatic variability in human systems; and (iii) the design of formal insurance instruments to reduce socio-economic vulnerability to climatic risk, as adaptation strategies. Each part represents an independent study

Mechanical mode engineering with orthotropic metamaterial membranes

Metamaterials are structures engineered at a small scale with respect to the wavelength of the excitations they interact with. These structures behave as artificial materials whose properties can be chosen by design, mocking and even outperforming natural materials and making them the quintessential tool for manipulation of wave systems. In this Letter we show how the acoustic properties of a silicon nitride membrane can be affected by nanopatterning. The degree of asymmetry in the pattern geometry induces an artificial anisotropic elasticity, resulting in the splitting of otherwise degenerate mechanical modes. The artificial material we introduce has a maximum Ledbetter-Migliori anisotropy of 1.568, favorably comparing to most bulk natural crystals. With an additional freedom in defining arbitrary asymmetry axes by pattern rotation, our approach can be useful for fundamental investigation of material properties as well as for devising improved sensors of light, mass or acceleration based on micromechanical resonators

The Creation of the NHS in Italy (1961-1978)

The Italian health system has changed its welfare model three times over the course of its 160-year existence. From a form of "residual welfare" during the liberal period (1861-1921), it became "meritocratic welfare" during the fascist period (1922-1943) and in the years of the first republic (1945-1977). Finally, in 1978, the "universalistic institutional" model of health protection was approved. For a long time, therefore, the main responsibility for citizens' well-being was attributed to families, to the Catholic Church and its welfare networks, to entrepreneurial paternalism, and to the different health insurance institutions associated with employment sectors. Only with Law 833, which established the National Health Service (NHS), did the State recognise full and direct responsibility for citizens' health. This paper describes the complex path that led to the establishment of the Italian NHS, highlighting the diversity of the actors involved, the multiplicity of their social and health claims, the configuration of the public health service designed in the 1960s, and the political and social conditions that led to the effective enactment of Law 833. On the whole, it was a long, non-linear path with various barriers, where the conditions of implementation were determined by the particularity of the Italian political, economic, and social events that characterised the 1970s

Medici e manager. Verso un nuovo professionalismo?

The blend of doctors’ and managers’ tasks is the result of a conflict that lasted for several decades and have not yet reached its end. However today, this fusion is proposed as evidence, as long as becoming a unions claims. What has happened in this time frame, and how it can explain the current figure of doctor with managerial skills as well professional skills? We are facing a new medical professionalism? To understand these transformations is necessary to reconstruct the path that, in Italy, led the interdependence between current professional knowledge and knowledge management, trying to reason about the theoretical tools available (or in costruction) today to read the emerging configurations of health care

Through-membrane electron-beam lithography for ultrathin membrane applications

We present a technique to fabricate ultrathin (down to 20 nm) uniform electron transparent windows at dedicated locations in a SiN membrane for in situ transmission electron microscopy experiments. An electron-beam (e-beam) resist is spray-coated on the backside of the membrane in a KOH- etched cavity in silicon which is patterned using through-membrane electron-beam lithography. This is a controlled way to make transparent windows in membranes, whilst the topside of the membrane remains undamaged and retains its flatness. Our approach was optimized for MEMS-based heating chips but can be applied to any chip design. We show two different applications of this technique for (1) fabrication of a nanogap electrode by means of electromigration in thin free-standing metal films and (2) making low-noise graphene nanopore devices

Hub-and-Spoke or else? Free trade agreements in the 'enlarged' European Union

The object of this paper is to estimate if and how the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA) and the Baltic Free Trade Agreement (BFTA) exerted a significant impact on intra-European trade, effectively reducing the influence of the European Association Agreements (EAs) in shaping the European trade structure as a hub-and-spoke system - with the EU15 being the hub and the CEECs the spoke. This paper analyses bilateral trade flows between eight CEECs and EU-23. We estimate a gravity equation using a system GMM dynamic panel data approach. Results support the assumptions that gravity forces and "persistence effects" matter. With respect to the effect of free trade agreements, evidence is found that Free trade agreements between CEECs matter: There is evidence that the presence of intra-periphery agreements helped expand intra-periphery trade and limited the emergence of a "hub-and-spoke" relationship between CEECs and EU. This results have important policy implications for the trade strategy of "future" EU members of the Southeastern European Countries as well as of the Southern Mediterranean Countries. According to the empirical results, these countries should move towards a regional free-trade area as exemplified by the CEFTA and the BFTA to avoid "hub-and-spoke" effects.Trade flows, regional integration, EU eastward enlargement, gravity model, dynamic panel data

Euro introduction and export behaviour of Italian firms

Recent literature has focused on the importance of extensive and intensive margins of trade in the case of the Euro adoption. Using a unique dataset taken from ISTAT firm level data, we study the effects of euro introduction on Italian manufacturing firms. We focus our analysis on the period 1996-2004, covering three years before and six years after the euro introduction. We estimate a gravity equation using difference-in difference estimation techniques. Firm-level evidence shows that the euro had indeed a positive influence on Italian exports, mainly channelled through the intensive margin, whereas the extensive margin was not significantlyimportant. This result suggests that the positive effect of euro introduction on trade flows is essentially owed to a reduction of variable trade costs. The reduction of fixed-entry costs would have a role, allowing the entry of new exporting firms in foreign markets. However, these latter are smaller and less productive and exporting a small number of products; as a result, their contribution to total export value is quite low. This result seems in line with the well known stylised fact on small average size of Italian firms. The lower is the average firm size, the lower is the probability to benefit of a downward shift of fixed entry costs in foreign markets induced by the common currency