The Political Competition-Economic Performance Puzzle: Evidence from the OECD Countries and the Italian Regions

Empirical tests of the theories on the relationship between political competition and economic performance generate a puzzle: data tend to support the theory at the lower levels of government, but not in panels of countries. We argue that the larger set of policy instruments reduces the tax price of votes at the national level, increasing the incentives to use distortionary redistributive policies to win contested elections. Moreover, constitutions reserve competencies with a high ideological potential to the national government, reducing swing voters’ responsiveness to the economic performance of the central government. We thus expect political competition to produce efficiency-oriented policies at the sub-national level compared to the national one. We test this hypothesis on a panel of 24 OECD countries over 1974-2000 and a panel of 15 Italian regions over 1984-2000 and find support for our predictions.political competition, growth, redistribution, national and regional government

WOULD YOU TRUST AN ITALIAN POLITICIAN? PRELIMINARY EVIDENCE FROM ITALIAN REGIONAL POLITICS

This paper evaluates the erosion of electoral accountability of the "Governors" of the Italian Regions in three subsequent political moments: 1) the elections; 2) the inaugural speeches of the Governor; 3) their first important policy decision, the long-term regional budget (DPEFR). We use content analysis (Laver et al., 2003) to assess the position of each Governor on a left to right distribution at the moment of the inaugural speeches and of the DPEFR. We then analyze the correlation between the distributions of 1) the electoral results and the inaugural speeches and 2) the inaugural speeches and the DPEFR, under the hypothesis that greater similarity can be interpreted as greater accountability. The analysis detects some erosion of accountability from the elections to the inaugural speeches, and a more serious one from the inaugural speeches to the DPEFR. A series of ANOVA tests suggests that the Region's relative economic position/dependency on transfers from the central governments partly explains such loss of accountability.

Ceramic multilayer based on ZrB2/SiC system for aerospace applications.

The work of this PhD thesis is focused on the processing and characterisation of ZrB2/SiC based multilayer materials, produced by tape casting and sintered without pressure assistance for aerospace applications. The multilayer components were processed in order to be used as external part of a thermal protection system; because of they directly face the atmosphere, in order to withstand high temperature, high heat fluxes and oxidizing environment, they have to show good oxidation and thermal shock resistance, high emissivity, thermal management capability, suitable strength, stiffness and hardness. The development of materials was directed along three main concepts: SiC based multilayer system was developed for the back shield part of the re-entry vehicle which was moderately loaded; ZrB2/SiC composite multilayers showing different ZrB2:SiC ratio were mainly designed for the front shield where the operating condition should be more severe (that means both higher temperature and thermal loads respect to those expected for the back shield). Moreover, in the context of development of reusable TPS to be used for consecutive missions, hybrid multilayer with ZrB2/SiC composite layers in between SiC ones have been prepared: the aim was provide for the degradation of SiC/SiO2 external part inserting an underlying material showing good mechanical and thermal properties at the higher temperature (over 1700°C). These three kinds of ceramic multilayer were processed and characterized from mechanical point of view; short and long term oxidation resistance have been detailed investigated. Tests under re-entry conditions have been performed

Causes and Consequences of Bailing out Expectations of Subcentral Governments: Theory and Evidence from the Italian Regions

This paper examines the strategic interactions among the central and a subcentral government where incomplete information forces both to form expectations about the other’s behaviour, especially the probability that the central government will bail out the local one. Various determinants and outcomes of the strategic interaction are explored. The model generates empirical restrictions about the central government’s transfer decisions and the lower government’s spending behaviour. These restrictions are tested on a sample of 20 Italian Regions. Data show that bailing out expectations are a quantitatively important component of local government spending.Expectations; intergovernmental relations; transfers; local public spending; bailing out; positive analysis

Comparing the growth effects of marginal vs. average tax rates and progressivity

The paper compares the appropriateness and explanatory power of marginal tax rates, average tax rates and tax progressivity as measures of the impact of taxation on growth. Data are organized as a panel of 25 industrialized countries from 1970 to 1998. Contrary to previous empirical research, but consistently with theory, we find that marginal effective tax rates and tax progressivity have a negative influence on economic growth. This negative correlation turns out to be robust after controlling for state and policy variables. Average tax rates, on the other hand, seem not to affect output dynamics. © 2002 Published by Elsevier Science B.V

Designing the Smart Operator 4.0 for Human Values: A Value Sensitive Design Approach

Emerging technologies such as cloud computing, augmented and virtual reality, artificial intelligence and robotics, among others, are transforming the field of manufacturing and industry as a whole in unprecedent ways. This fourth industrial revolution is consequentially changing how operators that have been crucial to industry success go about their practices in industrial environments. This short paper briefly introduces the notion of the Operator 4.0 as well as how this novel way of conceptualizing the human operator necessarily implicates human values in the technologies that constitute it. Similarly, the design methodology known as value sensitive design (VSD) is drawn upon to discuss how these Operator 4.0 technologies can be design for human values and, conversely, how a potential value-sensitive Operator 4.0 can be used to strengthen the VSD methodology in developing novel technologies

Value-oriented and ethical technology engineering in Industry 5.0: a human-centric perspective for the design of the Factory of the Future

Manufacturing and industry practices are undergoing an unprecedented revolution as a consequence of the convergence of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics, cloud computing, virtual and augmented reality, among others. This fourth industrial revolution is similarly changing the practices and capabilities of operators in their industrial environments. This paper introduces and explores the notion of the Operator 4.0 as well as how this novel way of conceptualizing the human operator necessarily implicates human values in the technologies that constitute it. The design approach known as value sensitive design (VSD) is used to explore how these Operator 4.0 technologies can be designed for human values. Expert elicitation surveys were used to determine the values of industry stakeholders and examples of how the VSD methodology can be adopted by engineers in order to design for these values is illustrated. The results provide preliminary adoption strategies that industrial teams can take to Operator 4.0 technology for human values

Fiscal rules vs. political culture as determinants of soft budget spending behaviors: Evidence from Italian and French regions

The main purpose of this paper is to investigate whether, and to which extent, the rules introduced by central governments effectively restrain the spending behaviour of the decentralized authorities. In this paper, the authors provide an innovative comparative analysis by considering two countries that share the same degree of economic development and many cultural traits - France and Italy. Yet, these two countries differ in one crucial respect. France has a tradition of strong centralization,This paper analyses intergovernmental transfers in France and Italy to assess how soft budget spending behaviors may result from slacks in institutional constraints or from phenomena related to political culture, like administrative practices or implementation of rules. It innovates on the previous literature, which concentrated on single countries, by adopting a comparative perspective. We estimate two separate but identical autoregressive forecasting model on French and Italian data to evaluate the extent to which regional administrators of each country can expect to be bailed out given the fiscal rules and institutions they face. This allows to proxy the bailout expectations in both countries and their role in determining soft budget spending behaviors. A larger impact of expectations is taken as evidence of greater discretion in fiscal decisions over and beyond the formal fiscal rules in place, evincing a more lax political culture. The estimates indicate that soft budget constraints and bailing out expectations are a quantitatively important component of local government spending in both countries, regardless the different degrees of stringency of fiscal rules and the type of grants and expenditures (total, current and capital) examined

Defining the Intelligent Manufacturing Enterprise

Manufacturing enterprises encounter pressure to digitalize and increase their intelligence as their environments demand increased productivity and agility. Based on existing research on intelligent enterprises, manufacturing enterprises, and data technologies, developing the definition of an intelligent manufacturing enterprise is required. Current research lacks historically derived definitions of these dynamic fields, as well as a model of their overlap. An explanatory model is proposed to define the intelligent manufacturing enterprise, its characteristics, and the capabilities needed to become such an enterprise. This model is derived through qualitative and quantitative methods utilizing content analysis. This paper describes the content analysis methodology as well as the derived definition of the intelligent manufacturing enterprise