Did trade policy foster Italian industrialization evidences from the effective production rates 1870-1930

Trade policy, and its effects oftariffs on structural change and industrialization, is arguably the 1110st contentious topic in Italian economic history. However, so far the discussion has relied almost exclusively on few scattered data and anecdotal evidence. This article builds on a comprehensive data-base of nominal and effective protection rates to test the main hypotheses put forward in the literature. We show that there is little evidence of a deliberate strategy to foster industrialization, or of any consisted strategy at aH. So we argue that the actual lay-out of Italian duties was the somewhat haphazard outcome of several causes, notably the need for revenue and the lobbying by sectional interests

Heat exchanges in coarsening systems

This paper is a contribution to the understanding of the thermal properties of aging systems where statistically independent degrees of freedom with largely separated timescales are expected to coexist. Focusing on the prototypical case of quenched ferromagnets, where fast and slow modes can be respectively associated to fluctuations in the bulk of the coarsening domains and to their interfaces, we perform a set of numerical experiments specifically designed to compute the heat exchanges between different degrees of freedom. Our studies promote a scenario with fast modes acting as an equilibrium reservoir to which interfaces may release heat through a mechanism that allows fast and slow degrees to maintain their statistical properties independent.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figure

Singular behavior of fluctuations in a relaxation process

Carrying out explicitly the computation in a paradigmatic model of non-interacting systems, the Gaussian Model, we show the existence of a singular point in the probability distribution $P(M)$ of an extensive variable $M$. Interpreting $P(M)$ as a thermodynamic potential of a dual system obtained from the original one by applying a constraint, we discuss how the non-analytical point of $P(M)$ is the counterpart of a phase-transition in the companion system. We show the generality of such mechanism by considering both the system in equilibrium or in the non-equilibrium state following a temperature quench.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1404.397

Did trade policy foster Italian industrialization evidences from the effective production rates 1870-1930

Trade policy, and its effects oftariffs on structural change and industrialization, is arguably the 1110st contentious topic in Italian economic history. However, so far the discussion has relied almost exclusively on few scattered data and anecdotal evidence. This article builds on a comprehensive data-base of nominal and effective protection rates to test the main hypotheses put forward in the literature. We show that there is little evidence of a deliberate strategy to foster industrialization, or of any consisted strategy at aH. So we argue that the actual lay-out of Italian duties was the somewhat haphazard outcome of several causes, notably the need for revenue and the lobbying by sectional interests.Italy, Protection, Industrialization

Productivity, networks, and export performance: evidence from a cross-country fi rm dataset

This paper uses a newly assembled multi-country multi-industry fi…rm-level dataset to test the effect of productivity and networking on the export probability of …firms. Results are in line with the new-new trade theory and with the literature on the information value of networks. Firms are more likely to export if they are more productive, larger, and if they bene…fit from foreign networks (ownership and …financial linkages), domestic networks (chamber of commerce, links to regulation), and communication networks (E-mail, internet). Firms bear a lower probability of exporting if they have state or labor networks. Overall, …firms with better network connections by one standard deviation enjoy a 15% higher probability of exporting.new-new trade theory; export probability

On the accuracy of international foreign trade statistics (1909-1935): Morgensten Revisited.

This work questions Morgenstern's pessimistic results on the reliability of aggregate international foreign trade statistics: His comparisons using pairs of countries can only test the misclassification of a country's trade flow. Aggregation, by contrast, eliminates this problem. Therefore, testing the total value of imports and exports with the sum of the same trade flows as registered by their partner countries' statistics, leads to more encouraging conclusions on the aggregate data. Our results strengthen considerably one's trust in the reliability of pre-World War 11 foreign trade statistics. Diversity in individual countries' accuracy indexes can be partially explained by differences in freight factors and also by minor differences in compilation.

The private and social return to schooling in Italy

We estimate the private (individual) and social return to schooling in Italy and four macro regions. Our estimates take into account the effects of schooling on employment and wages as well as the key features of the Italian tax and social insurance system. We find that the individual return to schooling compares favorably to the return to financial assets (especially in the South). At the social level, the available infrastructure-capital data indicates that the return to schooling exceeds that to infrastructures in the South.Education, Regional Development, Wages, Employment probability

Arts as a tool for communications and rehabilitation. The findings from Neurosciences

The link between arts and brain is reported, describing the relationship between several brain area and the artistic behavior, the modifications of the art performances following pathologic conditions, art performed by mentally disabled patients as an instrument of communications and rehabilitation, and finally the example of Stendhal syndrome as a condition in which arts may stimulate brain, in susceptible subjects, leading to physical and psychological disturbances