Federal State-building, asymmetric federalism and European integration: the case of the Eurozone

This thesis aims at answering the following questions: To what extent does the Eurozone represent a federal political system; to what extent does the EU’s monetary integration through the Eurozone represent a process of federal state-building; and to what extent can the Eurozone represent a case of asymmetric federalism? In this thesis, federalism is described as a process of state-building, and more precisely, the theory of replicating the features of states, in particular federal states, (and thus, of, federal state-building), to include the presence of a common market, foreign policy, trade policy, and monetary policy. The Eurozone was selected as a case study, as it represents the most integrated case of federal state-building; and the economic and monetary policies as the policy areas of the Union most echoing the traditional elements of states, although the Eurozone it is not itself a state. The thesis highlights the process of monetary integration and how this has been a de facto attempt, sometimes in a more Europeanised fashion, sometimes with just an intergovernmental outcome, to tackle the sovereign debt crisis in a way which vindicates the federalist arguments. In the conclusions I argue that while the specific case of the Eurozone does not represent a federal political system per se, it remains the most important example of federal state-building at the supranational level. Additionally, I argue that the presence of many typical elements of federal states are indeed a confirmation that the process of European integration is, above all, one of federal state-building, with all its complexities and specificities

The Remains of the Day: The International Economic Order in the Era of Disintegration

The last two decades of the XX century have been marked by a vigorous acceleration of international economic integration both at a global and regional level. States accepted pervasive constraints on their national decision-making in the hope that stability and predictability would favor economic growth. This model of international economic integration, however, has recently shown worrying signs of ‘disintegration’. Disintegration manifests itself both as disintegration of the international legal regimes which compose the international economic order; and disintegration through law, namely the social, economic and environmental disintegration phenomena,triggered or at leastfacilitated by these regimes. Relying on the paradox integration/disintegration as an analytical framework, this article draws a blueprint of the various disintegration phenomena, which are further analyzed in the individual contributions to this Special Issue. It seeks to identify a relationship betweenthetwo dimensions of disintegration and detect possible correlation patterns. Last, after engaging with the different normative alternatives put forward by the contributors, it concludes by calling for a rethinking of the traditional approach to international economic integration. This reconceptualization should be premised on the full realization that the current model entails a great deal of environmental and social ‘hidden costs’

Reduced lysosomal acid lipase activity: A new marker of liver disease severity across the clinical continuum of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease?

Lysosomal acid lipase (LAL) plays a key role in intracellular lipid metabolism. Reduced LAL activity promotes increased multi-organ lysosomal cholesterol ester storage, as observed in two recessive autosomal genetic diseases, Wolman disease and Cholesterol ester storage disease. Severe liver steatosis and accelerated liver fibrosis are common features in patients with genetic LAL deficiency. By contrast, few reliable data are available on the modulation of LAL activity in vivo and on the epigenetic and metabolic factors capable of regulating its activity in subjects without homozygous mutations of the Lipase A gene. In the last few years, a less severe and non-genetic reduction of LAL activity was reported in children and adults with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), suggesting a possible role of LAL reduction in the pathogenesis and progression of the disease. Patients with NAFLD show a significant, progressive reduction of LAL activity from simple steatosis to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis and cryptogenic cirrhosis. Among cirrhosis of different etiologies, those with cryptogenic cirrhosis show the most significant reductions of LAL activity. These findings suggest that the modulation of LAL activity may become a possible new therapeutic target for patients with more advanced forms of NAFLD. Moreover, the measurement of LAL activity may represent a possible new marker of disease severity in this clinical setting

Market dynamics associated with credit ratings: a literature review.

Credit ratings produced by the major credit rating agencies (CRAs) aim to measure the creditworthiness, or more specifically the relative creditworthiness of companies, i.e. their ability to meet their debt servicing obligations. In principle, the rating process focuses on the fundamental long-term credit strength of a company. It is typically based on both public and private information, except for unsolicited ratings, which focus only on public information. The basic rationale for using ratings is to achieve information economies of scale and solve principal-agent problems. Partly for the same reasons, the role of credit ratings has expanded significantly over time. Regulators, banks and bondholders, pension fund trustees and other fiduciary agents have increasingly used ratings-based criteria to constrain behaviour. As a result, the influence of the opinions of CRAs on markets appears to have grown considerably in recent years. One aspect of this development is its potential impact on market dynamics (i.e. the timing and path of asset price adjustments, credit spreads, etc.), either directly, as a consequence of the information content of ratings themselves, or indirectly, as a consequence of the “hardwiring” of ratings into regulatory rules, fund management mandates, bond covenants, etc. When considering the impact of ratings and rating changes, two conclusions are worth highlighting. – First, ratings correlate moderately well with observed credit spreads, and rating changes with changes in spreads. However, other factors, such as liquidity, taxation and historical volatility clearly also enter into the determination of spreads. Recent research suggests that reactions to rating changes may also extend beyond the immediately-affected company to its peers, and from bond to equity prices. Furthermore, this price reaction to rating changes seems to be asymmetrical, i.e. more pronounced for downgrades than for upgrades, and may be more significant for equity prices than for bond prices. – Second, the hardwiring of regulatory and market rules, bond covenants, investment guidelines, etc., to ratings may influence market dynamics, and potentially lead to or magnify threshold effects. The more that different market participants adopt identical ratings-linked rules, or are subject to similar ratings-linked regulations, the more “spiky” the reaction to a credit event is likely to be. This reaction may include, in some cases, the emergence of severe liquidity pressures. Efforts have recently been made, notably with support from the rating agencies themselves, to encourage a more systematic disclosure of rating triggers and to renegotiate and smooth the possibly more destabilising forms of rating triggers. However, the lack of a clear disclosure regime makes it difficult to assess how far this process has evolved. Questions also remain as to the extent to which ratings-based criteria introduce a fundamentally new element into market behaviour, or, conversely, the extent to which they are simply a va riant of more traditional contractual covenants. Rating agencies strive to provide credit assessments that remain broadly stable through the course of the business cycle (rating “through the cycle”). Agencies and other analysts frequently contrast the fundamental credit analysis on which ratings are based with market sentiment — measured for example by bond spreads — which is arguably subject to more short-term influences. Agencies are adamant that they do not directly incorporate market sentiment into ratings (although they may use market prices as a diagnostic tool). On the contrary, they make every effort to exclude transient market sentiment. However, as reliance on ratings grows, CRAs are being increasingly expected to satisfy a widening range of constituencies, with different, and even sometimes conflicting, interests: issuers and “traditional” asset managers will look for more than a simple statement of near-term probability of loss, and will stress the need for ratings to exhibit some degree of stability over time. On the other hand, mark-to-market traders, active investors and risk managers may seek more frequent indications of credit changes. Hence, in the wake of major bankruptcies with heightened credit stress, rating agencies have been under considerable pressure to provide higher-frequency readings of credit status, without loss of quality. So far, they have responded to this challenge largely by adding more products to their traditional range, but also through modifications in the rating process. The rating process and the range of products offered by rating agencies have thus evolved over time, with, for instance, an increasing emphasis on the analysis of liquidity risks, a new focus on the hidden liabilities of companies and an increased use of market-based tools. It is too early, however, to judge whether these changes should simply be regarded as a refinement of the agencies’ traditional methodology or whether they suggest a more fundamental shift in the approach to credit risk measurement. For the same reason, it is not possible to draw any firm conclusions about changes in the effects of credit ratings on market dynamics.

LA SOVRANITA' PERMANENTE DEGLI STATI SULLE RISORSE NATURALI ED IL FENOMENO DEL LAND GRABBING

In seguito alla crisi dei prezzi dei prodotti alimentari tra il 2007 ed il 2008, \ue9 emersa sul panorama internazionale una nuova pratica, definita sinteticamente "land grabbing" (letteralmente accaparramento delle terre). Con tale espressione si indica, in prima approssimazione, l'acquisizione o l'affitto in larga scala di terre destinate ad uso agricolo, da parte di investitori stranieri pubblici e privati. Il fenomeno \ue8 concentrato prevalentemente nei Paesi in via di sviluppo e, in modo particolare, in Africa. I Pvs, spinti dalla necessit\ue0 di liquidit\ue0 ed infrastrutture, hanno posto in essere un politica favorevole agli Investimenti Diretti Esteri, consentendo l\u2019acquisto o l\u2019affitto di terra fertile, per corrispettivi o canoni piuttosto esigui e termini contrattuali particolarmente estesi (generalmente ricompresi in un range temporale tra i trenta e novantanove anni). La conclusione di tali contratti di investimento \ue8 formalmente indirizzata alla produzione di materie prime per il fabbisogno alimentare ed energetico dei Paesi d\u2019origine. Prima facie, essi sembrerebbero un \u201cnormale\u201d esercizio della sovranit\ue0 permanente dello Stato di destinazione sulle proprie risorse naturali, che detiene il pieno diritto di regolarne lo sfruttamento. Nella fattispecie, emerge, infatti, in modo preponderante il ruolo degli Stati ospite. Le transazioni si svolgono in maniera formalmente legittima e vengono veicolate dallo Stato recipiente, le cui autorit\ue0 nazionali o regionali concludono leciti accordi con gli investitori. Numerose perplessit\ue0 sorgono, per\uf2, in merito alla compatibilit\ue0 di tale pratica con il diritto internazionale vigente. Simili investimenti presentano, infatti, un alto potenziale di rischio a carico delle popolazioni del Paese ospite, in particolare sotto il profilo dell\u2019accesso alla terra, e quindi dell\u2019approvvigionamento alimentare. \uc8 possibile che sulle terre oggetto d'investimento insistano gi\ue0 coltivazioni o allevamenti di comunit\ue0 rurali, che utilizzano la terra in virt\uf9 di consuetudini o diritti d'uso, cui solitamente \ue9 collegato un minor livello di tutela rispetto ai titoli formali di propriet\ue0, peraltro piuttosto rari. In alcune regioni del mondo, i soggetti titolari risultano quindi particolarmente vulnerabili, considerata la difficolt\ue0 di azionare i loro incerti diritti sulla terra e di ottenere, di conseguenza, un\u2019adeguata protezione giurisdizionale. Egualmente preoccupante, sotto il profilo ambientale, \ue9 la tendenza, nell'implementazione di questo tipo d'investimenti, a sfruttare la terra per la coltivazione di biocarburanti o la realizzazione di vasti appezzamenti di monoculture, che riducono, evidentemente, la possibilit\ue0 di mantenere una diversificazione ambientale adeguata. Una volta accertata la rilevanza giuridica del fenomeno della corsa alle terre ed averne individuato una qualificazione autonoma, il lavoro si propone, quindi, di valutare la questione della legittimit\ue0 dell\u2019esercizio della sovranit\ue0 permanente da parte del Paese di destinazione, quando l\u2019alienazione di porzioni di territorio oggetto d\u2019investimento si esplichi in modalit\ue0 tali da generare le esternalizzazioni negative brevemente accennate: l\u2019esercizio della sovranit\ue0 da parte dello Stato non pu\uf2, infatti, prescindere da precisi obblighi che su di esso gravano ai sensi del diritto internazionale, inerenti alla tutela dei diritti umani, da una parte, ed alla protezione dell\u2019ambiente, dall\u2019altra.After the outbreak of the food price crisis in 2007 \u2013 2008 a new practice, known as land grabbing, has emerged on the international scene. The race to land is generally understood as the phenomenon of large-scale investments in land by foreign investors, which include both States and private companies, especially in developing countries. Driven by the necessity to attract foreign capital and finance infrastructure projects, developing countries have implemented favorable Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policies, thus allowing the purchase or lease of fertile land lots, for rather meager rental prices and long terms (usually ranging from thirty to ninety-nine years) . Formally, these investments are directed towards the production of raw materials, necessary to address food and energy requirements, in particular for those countries which are net importers of agricultural products. The host State may well then decide to conclude lawful deals with the investors towards this aim. Prima facie, therefore, the conclusion of investment contracts in land apparently reflects the host country\u2019s exercise of permanent sovereignty over its natural resources, which has the full right to regulate the exploitation thereof. Nevertheless the analysis of the phenomenon of land grabbing raises some doubts in relation to the compatibility of this practice with current international law norms. Such investments potentially carry a number of high risks to the population of the host country, in particular in terms of access to land and food supply. It is likely, in fact, that on the land subject to a given investment, there may already exist crops or herds of rural communities, who use the land by virtue of custom or usage rights, usually granted a lower level of protection if compared to the formal titles of ownership, rare at best in most developing countries. In some regions of the world, the holders are therefore particularly vulnerable to displacement, given the difficulty to exercise their uncertain land rights and to obtain, as a result, adequate judicial protection. Equally worrying, environmentally, is the implementation of investment contracts aimed at exploiting land to farm biofuels or realize large plots of monoculture, thus reducing the possibility to keep adequate land biological diversity. After the analysis of the juridical significance of land grabbing and the identification of its autonomous legal characterization, the thesis examines the question of the legitimacy of the race to land with regards to the exercise of permanent sovereignty over natural resources by the host country, especially in those cases where the alienation of land generates considerably negative externalities on the local population: sovereignty cannot, in fact, be exercised without due regard to the specific obligations incumbent upon States under international law, related, in particular, to the protection of human rights and the environment

La forma e l'impronta del dolore. Percorsi nella fotografia della sofferenza.

L'articolo discute l'uso dell imagine da part di alcune ONG nei logo website e gallery. Oggi, infatti, le ONG sono diventate uno dei soggetti principali di enunciazione del discorso dei diritti umani e della sua retorica. Questa retorica risulta strettamente connessa ad un'esperienza visiva delle atrocità e ad una rappresentazione "concerned" della sofferenza umana. L'espressione “concerned photography” si riferisce così a tutte quelle immagini che ritraggono le violazioni dei diritti umani attraverso una messa in scena del dolore e della sofferenza. Per quanto riguarda l'uso di fotografie "concerned" da parte delle ONG, queste immagini rappresentano una sorta di "genere" che assolve principalmente a tre obiettivi: "far conoscere" al mondo le sofferenze degli altri (livello cognitivo), "far sentire" il loro dolore (livello passionale) e "far agire" (livello pragmatico). Il nostro contributo si focalizza in particolare su un aspetto di questo complesso "genere testuale" (la relazione tra "ritratti della sofferenza" e paesaggio) e su due casi studio (una fotografia di 3 bambini pachistani scattata durante l'inondazione del 2010 e le immagini delle vittime di Srebrenica)

Enhancing the Toolbox of Fixed Income Active Portfolio Management

AbstractMany central banks adopt an active investment style for reserve management. This paper discusses various possible enhancements to active management tools and processes to generate extra returns in an increasingly challenging environment. The proposed framework is based on an affine model, which includes macroeconomic and market sentiment indicators among the explanatory variables. Using estimates of expected excess returns drawn from the model, an operational indicator produces input highlighting the portfolio's exposure to duration risk. This indicator is incorporated within a broader framework, in which a scorecard considers a range of qualitative elements, including consensus figures on macroeconomic data, monetary policy and interest rates. These elements are then combined with the model output to produce a comprehensive indication with respect to portfolio deviation from the benchmark. It should be noted that the approach presented in this paper is experimental; it has not yet been used in an active portfolio. Finally, consideration is given to the governance of the central bank investment process in order to assess how the proposed enhancements could strengthen the decision-making process. The analysis suggests that the scorecard with model-based input may address some weaknesses inherent in tactical decision- making.The views expressed herein are solely our own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Bank of Italy or the European System of Central Banks

Underuse of oral anticoagulants in patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation in Italy

INTRODUCTION: Oral anticoagulants (OAs) are significantly more effective than Aspirin in the prevention of cerebrovascular accidents among patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). Several studies, however, showed OAs to be widely underused in these patients. OBJECTIVE: To assess the appropriateness of antithrombotic therapy in an Italian population of AF patients. METHODS: Two hundred and fifty-five consecutive patients affected by nonvalvular AF participated in the study. Data were collected on demographic characteristics, risk factors for stroke, current prophylactic therapy, and perceived or actual risk factors for bleeding. INR levels were measured. Patients were stratified by their risk for stroke (214 at high risk, 21 moderate, 20 low), and their prophylactic therapy was analysed in light of international antithrombotic therapy recommendations. After therapy adjustment, 203 of our patients were followed-up for the occurrence of cerebrovascular events for an average of 27 months. RESULTS: Upon admission, 35% (n=75) of patients in the high-risk category were either taking no antithrombotic prophylaxis or were being treated with Aspirin. In addition, 38 of 139 patients receiving OAs had an INR<2. Thus, a total of 113 (52.8%) high-risk subjects were not receiving adequate antithrombotic therapy. Of high-risk patients not treated with OAs, 46.7% reported no perceived or actual risk factors for bleeding. The annual incidence of cerebrovascular accidents was 3.8% among 163 high-risk patients assigned to OA treatment, and 4.5% among 39 patients given Aspirin treatment. Relative to expected annual incidence rates, cerebrovascular risk in anticoagulated patients was reduced by about 70%. CONCLUSIONS: Underuse of OAs is still common in Italy, and much of it cannot be explained by the concern for haemorrhage. Support and training in the complex task of anticoagulation management may help to extend this efficacious prophylactic therapy to all patients who may benefit from it