Portfolio Infrastructure Investments: an Analysis of the European and UK Cases

Infrastructure has been receiving much attention in recent years. Investment banks and fund managers are increasingly promoting the investment characteristics of infrastructure assets and they argue that investing in infrastructure should be ideal for institutional investors such as pension funds. However, the claim lacks empirical support. We suggest that the limited research on infrastructure is mainly due to scant empirical data. The objectives of this paper are to examine the significance of economic infrastructure as an asset class by assessing the investment characteristics and performance of infrastructure indexes in Europe and UK from 2000-2014, to analyse how an infrastructure portfolio should be constructed and to determine whether the private sector should invest in an infrastructure portfolio containing a variety of infrastructure sectors or if the private sector should invest in one specific sector only

Technological Spillovers and Productivity in Italian Manufacturing Firms

We study whether a firm’s total factor productivity dynamics is positively influenced by its own R&D activity and by the technological spillovers generated at the intra- and inter-sectorial level. Our approach corrects simultaneously for the endogeneity and the selectivity biases introduced by the use of a firm’s own R&D as a regressor. A firm’s involvement in R&D activities accounts for significant productivity gains. Firms also benefit from spillovers originating from their own industries, as well as from innovative upstream sectors.R&D, TFP, selectivity, treatment effect

Technological Spillovers and Productivity in Italian Manufacturing Firms

We study whether a firm’s total factor productivity dynamics is positively influenced by its own R&D activity and by the technological spillovers generated at the intra- and inter-sectorial level. Our approach corrects simultaneously for the endogeneity and the selectivity biases introduced by the use of a firm’s own R&D as a regressor. A firm’s involvement in R&D activities accounts for significant productivity gains. Firms also benefit from spillovers originating from their own industries, as well as from innovative upstream sectors.R&D, TFP, selectivity, treatment effect

Urban industrial relocation: The theory of edge cities

In recent years urban economists have focused their attention upon a 'newly recognized' phenomenon: edge cities. Such an urban growth pattern, although having its primary roots in the United States, can be an appropriate framework for examining European trends of urban industrial location. The objective of this study is to examine the relocation of firms from dominant industrial areas, for example, urban CBDs, to new locations at the urban outer boundaries. In this context, we develop in this paper a model based upon the theory of monopolistic competition ("Dixit and Stiglitz, 1977") that examines the economic relationships among firms at different locations. Such intra/inter relationships are examined from the point of view of complementarity. Complementarity in our case combines the two notions of firms' interaction with cumulative and reinforcing effects, and of coordination among firms in the local industrial organizations. Our interest in such a notion springs from the necessity to explain the spatial distribution of firms, particularly why firms in their location often choose to cluster. One of the explanations within the literature is that concentration in clusters is due to the need to share common infrastructures. However, this is just one of many possible explanations for this phenomenon. In our model, we will tackle this aspect of firm locations in clusters from the point of view of the elasticity of substitution. On the basis of the model we will formulate a policy framework regarding industrial suburbanization.

On the Relationship between R&D and Productivity: a Treatment Effect Analysis

This study uses firm level data from two detailed surveys of Italian manufacturing firms to study the relationship between R&D expenditures and productivity growth. The analysis considers the different contributions of various forms of R&D (product, process, internal, external in collaboration with universities, research centres and other firms) to Total Factor Productivity (TFP). Thus, this paper answers the call for more research on the links between a firm’s external R&D and its productivity. In the cross-section econometric analysis, we estimate a Treatment Effects model based on the assumption that the decision to carry out R&D is endogenous. We found evidence supporting such a methodological approach. The main restlts reveal a positive and statistically significant relationship between the detailed measures of R&D and TFP. It is noteworthy that among external R&D investments, only expenditures for projects run in collaboration with other firms turn out to be highly significant, while cooperation in R&D with universities does not seem to lead to productivity enhancements. Because of the public good nature of research, firms may resort to do R&D within laboratories run by universities only when the outcome of the research does not have important strategic consequences.Total factor productivity, selectivity, manufacturing, firm level

Portfolio Structuring Model for Urban Infrastructure Investments

The objective of this work is to propose a new methodology based on the concept of portfolio structuring for urban infrastructure investment. We argue that city investments need to be treated as an integrated and interdependent entity and from this perspective, the portfolio methodology is proposed in order to assess the non-financial impacts of infrastructure projects and then combine them in a portfolio of investments from a financial perspective. The methodology is applied for a set of project under the EIB JESSICA Initiative. The methodology shows that not only is it possible to develop a practical decision support system to assist stakeholders in assessing the performance of individual urban infrastructure projects, but also how it is possible to combine projects into a portfolio. The method exceeds the simple analysis of returns of individual investment schemes and capitalizes on effective and integrated management of projects/investment. And this is the key to devising a focused response which will enable therefore cities to be globally competitive, via innovative financial and business models

Haematological and biochemical alterations of Catla catla fingerlings following sublethal exposure to Nuvan

The sublethal exposure (0.24 ppm) of Nuvan on some biochemical compositions such as serum protein, blood glucose, glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase (AST) and glutamate pyruvate transaminase (ALT) and on some hematological parameters such as red blood corpuscles (RBC), white blood corpuscles (WBC), hemoglobin content (Hb), mean corpuscular concentration (MCV), mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) of Catla catla fingerlings were studied. The hematological and biochemical parameters evoked a significant reduction (excepting MCV, ALT and AST which is significantly increased) with increasing days of Nuvan exposure

A portfolio approach for urban investments

The projects that are financed in an urban environment depend on a variety of factors. With the portfolio approach cities can determine which projects benefit them most in terms of profits and social benefits and can choose them accordingly

Three Essays on the generalizability of experimental results in economics

Although few economists today dismiss the use of the laboratory experiments, it would be a mistake to think that experimental methodology no longer represents a controversial issue in economics. One of the major criticisms is represented by the external validity of experimental data and concerns the transferability of results obtained in laboratory to the real world. The aim of this thesis is to tackle the issue of external validity focusing in particular on one aspect: the possible lack of representativeness of standard subjects pools usually used in economic research. The first experimental study compares the choices of undergraduates and subjects representative of population in different treatments and with different reward dimensions by exploiting the experimental design used by Pelligra and Stanca (2013) to investigate social preferences in a field experiment. Our results show that two samples follow a common behavioral pattern with the only exception of a significant difference in choices where self-interest may play a prominent role. In the second study we use a between-subjects design to compare the behavior of experienced and inexperienced subjects. We investigate whether the laboratory experience, built through repeated participation in experimental sessions, biases subjects’ behavior in a set of representative simple games used to study social preferences. Our main finding shows how subjects having a high level of experience in lab experiments do not behave in a significantly different way from novices