Towards a stochastic model with heterogeneous agents and class division

We present a simple stochastic model in which heterogeneous agents accumulate wealth belonging to the capitalist or the working class, with profits generated by a stochastic multiplicative process and wages by an additive one. Class selection is based on a random process depending on wealth distribution and the profit rate. In general, playing the role of capitalist rises the probability of accumulating more and more wealth that, in turn, increases the probability to play again the role of the capitalist in following periods. This may give rise to an amplification mechanism leading to a persistent division in social classes. A scenario analysis is performed to explore the sensitivity of results to alternative assumptions on the propensity to consume/save and the fraction of wealth invested by capitalists in the risky process.wealth distribution; social classes; capitalist accumulation.

Branch banking dynamics, collective behaviour and overclustering

We provide an empirical and theoretical analysis of branch banking dynamics in Italy, focussing on banks' location choices in the decentralised system emerged after the deregulation of late 1980s and early 1990s. Until the regime change the Italian banking sector was characterised by a centralised system in which the opening of new branches was subject to a Bank of Italy''s authorisation. As a consequence of the 1990 "branch liberalisation" there was a collective phenomenon of new openings that, in some circumstances, has produced overclustering episodes, due to the lack of coordination in an uncertain decisional context. Different performances at the system level can be linked to different aggregation of errors in alternative organisational settings. We suggest that policy intervention may improve information gathering and diffusion at the system level, reducing the incidence of locational errors.

On the evolution of the Italian bank branch distribution

The aim of this paper is to investigate the effects of institutional change on the evolution of the Italian bank branch distribution. As a consequence of the “liberalisation†of the late 1980s and early 1990s, banks were free to open new branches in their preferred locations, without the administrative control of the Bank of Italy operational until 1989. Another major consequence of the regime change has been a significant wave of consolidation events among banks. Our hypothesis is that these fundamental changes can account for the emergence of a power law tail as the outcome of self-organisation in a deregulated environment. From a methodological point of view, we follow a “systemic†approach with a focus on statistical properties of bank branch distribution identifying the banks' collective reaction to the changing institutional setting.branch banking dynamics, institutional change, collective phenomena, power law distribution

Some extremal contractions between smooth varieties arising from projective geometry

We construct explicit examples of elementary extremal contractions, both birational and of fiber type, from smooth projective n-dimensional varieties, n\geq 4, onto smooth projective varieties, arising from classical projective geometry and defined over sufficiently small fields, not necessarily algebraically closed. The examples considered come from particular special homaloidal and subhomaloidal linear systems, which usually are degenerations of general phenomena classically investigated by Bordiga, Severi, Todd, Room, Fano, Semple and Tyrrell and more recently by Ein and Shepherd-Barron. The first series of examples is associated to particular codimension 2 determinantal smooth subvarieties of P^m, 3\leq m\leq 5. We get another series of examples by considering special cubic hypersurfaces through some surfaces in P^5, or some 3-folds in P^7 having one apparent double point. The last examples come from an intriguing birational elementary extremal contraction in dimension 6, studied by Semple and Tyrrell and fully described in the last section.Comment: 29 pages. Proc. London Math. Society, to appea

On the expansion of finance and financialisation

In this paper we explore the role of finance in the recent crisis noting that its expansion, in a context of deregulation and globalisation, has boosted financial profits and capital accumulation, but at the cost of a growing systemic instability both in the leading capitalist economy, i.e. the USA, and at the international level. The expansion of finance tends to emerge in certain phases of capitalist development, in particular during periods of countries’ decline. At the same time, each phase has its peculiar aspects and, referring to the recent evolution, we focus on the phenomenon of financialisation, intended as an increasing involvement of economic agents in the working of financial markets.deregulation; renationalisation; capitalist accumulation; instability; inequality

New Perspectives on Treatment of Hepatitis B Before and After Liver Transplantation

open5noThe hepatitis B virus (HBV) infects more than 260 million people globally, with increasing incidence, especially in developing countries. Despite antiviral therapies, HBV-related end-stage liver disease remains one of the most important indications for liver transplantation worldwide. Although new available treatments have improved the outcome of patients with both compensated and decompensated liver disease in some specific clinical settings as acute-on-chronic liver failure mortality is still high. Moreover, the incidence of HBV-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) seems to be increasing and represents a major challenge for the transplant team. In the post-transplant setting, combination of anti-HBV immunoglobulins and oral nucleos(t)ides provided significant improvement on graft and patient survival. Furthermore, recent data suggested the possibility of personalized therapeutic algorithms based on pre and post-transplant viral and host risk factors. Finally, liver grafts from HBV core antibody (anti-HBc) positive or hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) donors can be safely used in order to expand the donor pool, considering adequate allocation and tailored prophylaxis after LT. In this review we have focused on the evolution of antiviral therapy for HBV, highlighting useful information to aid the transplant hepatologist in clinical practice.ReviewopenZanetto, Alberto; Ferrarese, Alberto; Bortoluzzi, Ilaria; Burra, Patrizia; Russo, Francesco PaoloZanetto, Alberto; Ferrarese, Alberto; Bortoluzzi, Ilaria; Burra, Patrizia; Russo, FRANCESCO PAOL

A Stochastic Model of Wealth Accumulation with Class Division

Working Paper / Quaderno di Ricerca - Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Social

The crisis, its origins, and the next future

We briefly describe the evolution of the global process of capitalist accumulation during the neoliberal decades, to stress the “real causes” of the current crisis. This analysis leads to the search for a radical alternative to “austerity”, that is the economic policy approach tied to an interpretation of the crisis due to problems of “financial nature”. In our view, the political alternative to the neoliberal management of the crisis should be based on a large extension of education in the context of a “green” and “egalitarian” process of economic development. This requires a significant involvement of the public sector (in collaboration with private capitals) in providing the bases for economic growth, and a political support to an appropriate taxation of wealth (by now highly concentrated in a very small fraction of the population).capitalist accumulation; neoliberal crisis; political change; public sector; education; wealth taxation