Testing Williamson’s theory on transaction-specific governance structures: Evidence from electricity markets

Long term contracts increase the hazard of ex post maladaptation, creating demand for processes that enable adaptation over the course of long-term exchange. Enabling adaptation, however, may diminish the effectiveness of the long-term contracts, designed as prima facie hold-up remedies. Following Joskow (1987), we attempt to empirically capture the positive relationship between physical asset specificity and the duration of long-term contracts between California electricity generators. In addition, following Masten and Crocker (1985), we try to measure the effect of legal provisions on contract duration and interpret them as efficient instruments for providing flexibility in long-term relationships. The more important the investment in relationship-specific assets, the longer the contractual duration. However, parties mitigate long-term contract inflexibility, based on ex ante bargained terms and conditions, with provisions that allow for contingent adaptation. Our empirical results provide support for the hypothesised relationships under different model specifications and alternative estimation techniques.electricity long-term contracts, idiosyncratic relations, asset specificity, efficient adaptation

Old master paintings, export veto and price formation: an empirical study

In this paper, we focus on the institutional setting where Old Masters'Paintings (OMP) markets transactions are carried. We develop a preliminary attempt to embody legal provisions in econometric, hedonic pricing models. We consider a particular regulation applicable only in Italy, the "export veto" for art objects that are particularly relevant for the national cultural patrimony. We proxy such legal provision in order to include it in the statistical analysis and to check whether it affects the OMP price differentials between pre-auction estimated price and post-auction hammer price. Preliminary results show that the price differential is affected by the legal variable, therefore suggesting that the country's institutional framework plays an important role in price dynamics

The Profile of a “Warm-Glower”: A Note on Consumer’s Behavior and Public Policy Implications

The paper focuses on the ongoing debate on non-market valuation, including the valuation environmental goods, and the opportunity to use contingent valuation for policy guidance. In fact, contingent valuation critics argue that reported willingness to pay answers do not reflect real economic preferences and, for this reason, should not be used in cost-benefit analysis The attempt to contravene such critique finds many supporters. This paper starts from the latter stream of research and adds two original contributions. First, it sheds light on the individual warm glow motivational profile, exploring the empirical relationship between individual’s socio-economic characteristics and warm glow. Second, it discusses some implications of the presence of warm glow for public policy.Economic value, Contingent valuation, Willingness to pay; Latent factor, Consumer motivations, Warm glow, Ego driven warm glow, Social oriented warm glow, Public policy design

Sun exposure drives Antarctic cryptoendolithic community structure and composition

AbstractThe harsh environmental conditions of the ice-free regions of Continental Antarctica are considered one of the closest Martian analogues on Earth. There, rocks play a pivotal role as substratum for life and endolithism represents a primary habitat for microorganisms when external environmental conditions become incompatible with active life on rock surfaces. Due to the thermal inertia of rock, the internal airspace of lithic substratum is where microbiota find a protected and buffered microenvironment, allowing life to spread throughout these regions with extreme temperatures and low water availability. The high degree of adaptation and specialization of the endolithic communities makes them highly resistant but scarsely resilient to any external perturbation and thus, any shifts in microbial community composition may serve as early-alarm systems of environmental perturbation, including climate change.Previous research concluded that altitude and distance from sea do not play as driving factors in shaping microbial abundance and diversity, while sun exposure was hypothesized as significant parameter influencing endolithic settlement and development. This study aims to explore our hypothesis that changes in sun exposure translate to shifts in community composition and abundances of main biological compartments (fungi, algae and bacteria) in the Antarctic cryptoendolithic communities. We performed a preliminary molecular survey, based on DGGE and qPCR tecniques, of 48 rocks with varying sun exposure, collected in Victoria Land along an altitudinal transect from 834 to 3100 m a.s.l.Our findings demonstrate that differences in sun radiation between north and south exposure influence temperature of rocks surface, availability of water and metabolic activity and also have significant impact on community composition and microbial abundance

An Economic Model for Bioprospecting Contracts

This paper explores the use of a micro-economic model to analyse the provisions and parties of bioprospecting contracts. It focuses on the pharmaceutical industry as the representative biodiversity buyer, presenting an original theoretical framework that explains the main contract characteristics or stylised facts. Against this background, it considers the main contractors involved in these private contracts, i.e. biodiversity sellers and biodiversity buyers, analysing both the magnitude and distribution of the respective payoffs. Particular attention is devoted to the different, mixed impacts of bioprospecting contracts and patenting on social welfare. The positive welfare impacts delivered by bioprospecting contracts are associated with the potential discovery of a new drug product, i.e. productivity gains, non-monetary benefit-sharing or transfers and royalty revenues. The negative welfare impact results from the legal creation of a monopoly and the related well-known effect on the consumer surplus. Finally, the potential redistribution effects are limited, and a potential enforcement of this objective may jeopardise the desirability of the contracts since this action would lead to a significant increase in the transaction costs.Bioprospecting Contract, Genetic Resource, Biodiversity Buyer, Biodiversity Seller, Patenting, Welfare Analysis, Benefit Sharing

Draft Genome Sequence of the Yeast Rhodotorula sp. Strain CCFEE 5036, Isolated from McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica.

A draft genome sequence was assembled and annotated of the basidiomycetous yeast Rhodotorula sp. strain CCFEE 5036, isolated from Antarctic soil communities. The genome assembly is 19.07 megabases and encodes 6,434 protein-coding genes. The sequence will contribute to understanding the diversity of fungi inhabiting polar regions

Economic and climate change pressures on biodiversity in southern Mediterranean coastal areas. MEDPRO Technical Report No. 24/February 2013

This paper establishes and measures key biodiversity and ecosystem health indicators and the number of world heritage sites in coastal areas at global level. It then estimates – econometrically – the indicators’ influence on the provision of tourism values through the marine ecosystem function as a harbour of biodiversity, and as a provider of amenity values and marine cultural identity. The report then focuses on the MEDPRO region, providing some estimates of the potential impact of climate change on these services for a given temperature increase scenario. Finally, the effect on ecosystemrelated tourism is computed for the four MEDPRO social economic scenarios. The analysis is enriched by some quantification of the potential costs of adaptation

Rules, Organizational Structures and Economic Performance: The case of Prosecco Cooperative Wineries in the Treviso Area

The study performs an economic analysis of the rules that govern the organization of production within Prosecco cooperative wineries in the Treviso area, in order to assess the economic impact on the wineries performance and the ability of the institution to minimize transaction costs. We first present an economic discussion of qualitative and quantitative information gathered for the 16 cooperative wineries in the Treviso area. Then we present a theoretical framework for the economics of transaction costs of the cooperative wineries. Despite the “fame” of the cooperative winery of an inefficient, assistance-based institution, it emerges the profile of a complex structure, which seeks to incorporate the values of social and cultural cohesion and competitiveness in the markets, within the mission of a company. There is a strong link between regulation of quality standards and impacts on the winery economic performance. In the case of the winery, achieving mutualism is paradoxically favored by the maximization of profits and the ability to do business

On the economic nature of consumers\u2019 willingness to pay for a selective and sustainable fishery: A comparative empirical study

Special issue on Discards regulation vs Mediterranean fisheries sustainability.-- 6 pages, 2 tables[EN] The EU Landing Obligation (LO) bans discards to incentivize a more selective and sustainable fishery. This regulation may induce a cost to the fishing industry that could be transferred to final fish consumers. We aim to assess the consumers’ reservation price for a sustainable and selective fishery. The methodology follows two steps: We first assess the value of the reservation price (willingness to pay, WTP) for a sustainable and selective fishery by using contingent valuation methods from a comparative perspective in Spain and Italy. We then attempt to empirically assess the components of WTP by using an original model specification that, unlike those presented in the literature, exogenizes socio-economic variables and uses ideological indicators to explain WTP in a two-line simultaneous model estimated by instrumental variable regression. The results show a positive, though low, WTP across the two samples, and very different impacts of estimated coefficients on the WTP for the two samples. A preliminary interpretation of this divergence highlights that Italian consumers consider LO-incentivized sustainable fishery a pure public good linked to issues of legality, and Spanish consumers consider it an impure public good linked to environmental issues. These differences may indicate how strongly the institutions and the policies in each region are perceived by a different human capital structure. They may also indicate that the problem, the perceptions of it and the solutions to it differ according to the context[ES] La obligación de desembarque de la Unión Europea (LO) prohíbe los descartes para incentivar una pesquería más selectiva y sostenible. Esta regulación puede inducir costes a la industria pesquera que a su vez pueden ser transferidos al consumidor final. Nuestro objetivo es evaluar el precio de reserva del consumidor para una pesquería más sostenible y selectiva. La metodología se basa en dos fases: primero, evaluamos el precio de reserva (disposición a pagar, WTP) para una pesquería sostenible y selectiva mediante métodos de valoración contingente (CV) en un estudio comparativo entre España e Italia. En una segunda fase intentamos estimar empíricamente los componentes de esta WTP mediante la especificación original de un modelo que, a diferencia de la literatura existente, exogeniza las variables socioeconómicas y usa indicadores ideológicos para explicar la WTP, en una regresión bi-funcional con variables instrumentales (IV). Los resultados muestran una WTP positiva, aunque reducida, en ambas muestras, y permiten deducir un impacto distinto de los coeficientes estimados en la WTP. La interpretación preliminar de esta divergencia hace destacar que los consumidores italianos consideran como un bien público puro a una pesquería sostenible incentivada mediante LO, relacionado con aspectos de legalidad, mientras que los consumidores españoles consideran ese modelo de pesquería como un bien público impuro, relacionado con conservación ambiental. Estas diferencias pueden indicar la fortaleza con la que dos estructuras distintas de capital humano perciben las instituciones y las políticas de cada región. También sugieren una distinta percepción, existencia y solución del problema en un contexto distintoThis research was funded by EU H2020 Research and Innovation Action “MINOUW” (contract nº 634495)Peer reviewe