The Wall Street Walk when Blockholders Compete for Flows

Publicly traded corporations are a¤ected by a core agency problem: managers pay the full cost of e¤ort in running the corporations but shareholders enjoy most of the bene?ts. When ownership is dispersed individual shareholders have little incentive to monitor managers and little ability to in?uence them. Holders of equity blocks (?blockholders?) are a natural solu- tion to this problem. Because they own many shares they have both the incentive to monitor and the ability to in?uence management. Several well-known papers (e.g. Grossman and Hart (1980), Shleifer and Vishny (1986), Admati, P?eiderer, and Zechner (1994) and Kahn and Winton (1998)) have shown that blockholders can increase ?rm value through monitoring and activism. Activism can take the form of bringing forth shareholder proposals, proxy voting against management, informal negotiations with management, jawboning etc. These activities are collectively referred to as the use of ?voice?by blockholders.

A spatial multilevel analysis of Italian SMEs Productivity

In this paper, we adapt multilevel analysis methods to investigate the spatial variability of SMEs productivity across the Italian territory, and account for differences in the socio-economic context. Our results suggest that to properly capture the variability of the data, it is important to allow for both spatial mean and slope effects. Social decay has the expected negative impact. However, while this effect is larger on firms with smaller capital intensity, firms with higher capital intensity seem to be less affected by geography. Greater territorial heterogeneity emerges among those firms with lower capital to labour ratios.Firm heterogeneity, Spatial variability, Socio-economic Context, Multilevel Analysis

Convergence in TFP among Italian Regions - Panel Unit Roots with Heterogeneity and Cross Sectional Dependence

This paper performs a number of tests to estimate convergence in total factor productivity (TFP) among Italian regions during the period 1970-2001. We generate the regional TFP series using growth accounting methodologies, and then apply a range of panel unit root tests to analyse the process of convergence. We extend the existing literature by incorporating three main improvements. Firstly, we control for the heterogeneity arising from the different economic structure of each region. Secondly, we account for the cross-sectional dependence due to common shocks or spillovers among different regions at the same time. Finally, we look for clubs of convergence using tests of poolability both on economic and statistical grounds.

Caffeine. cognitive and physical performance enhancer or psychoactive drug?

Caffeine use is increasing worldwide. The underlying motivations are mainly concentration and memory enhancement and physical performance improvement. Coffee and caffeine-containing products affect the cardiovascular system, with their positive inotropic and chronotropic effects, and the central nervous system, with their locomotor activity stimulation and anxiogenic-like effects. Thus, it is of interest to examine whether these effects could be detrimental for health. Furthermore, caffeine abuse and dependence are becoming more and more common and can lead to caffeine intoxication, which puts individuals at risk for premature and unnatural death. The present review summarizes the main findings concerning caffeine's mechanisms of action (focusing on adenosine antagonism, intracellular calcium mobilization, and phosphodiesterases inhibition), use, abuse, dependence, intoxication, and lethal effects. It also suggests that the concepts of toxic and lethal doses are relative, since doses below the toxic and/or lethal range may play a causal role in intoxication or death. This could be due to caffeine's interaction with other substances or to the individuals' preexisting metabolism alterations or diseases

Estimating Verdoorn law for Italian firms and regions

In empirical regional economics, returns to scale are typically estimated at the regional level in search for evidence on alternative theories of growth and agglomeration. However, returns to scale may also have a firm-level dimension. In this paper, we exploit micro level data and estimate the dynamic Verdoorn law in a multilevel-setting, where returns to scale are obtained simultaneously for the micro and the regional level. Using Italian firm-level data and the NUTS-3 level of aggregation, we estimate the classic and augmented versions of Verdoorn law for all sectors and separately for manufacturing. Our results show that increasing returns to scale co-exist at both levels, with some degree of regional heterogeneity across the Italian peninsula.Returns to scale, Verdoorn Law, Multilevel models, Italian firms

Generative Adversarial Network based machine for fake data generation

This paper introduces a first approach on using Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) for the generation of fake data, with the objective of anonymizing patients information in the health sector. This is intended to create valuable data that can be used both, in educational and research areas, while avoiding the risk of a sensitive data leakage. For this purpose, firstly a thorough research on GAN’s state of the art and available databases has been developed. The outcome of the project is a GAN system prototype adapted to generate raw data that imitates samples such as users variable status on hypothyroidism or a cardiogram report. The performance of this prototype has been checked and satisfactory results have been obtained for this first phase. Moreover, a novel research pathway has been opened so further research can be developed

Theories of the effects of delegated portfolio managers' incentives

Delegated portfolio managers, such as hedge funds, mutual funds and pension funds, play a crucial role in financial markets. While it is well-known that their incentives are misaligned with those of their clients, the consequences of this misalignment are understudied. This thesis studies the effects of delegated portfolio managers' incentives in the real economy, in corporate governance and in portfolio allocation. In the first paper, 'Do institutional investors improve capital allocation?', I show that delegated portfolio managers' misalignment of incentives - which I model as their career-concerns - has real and positive economic effects. I find that delegated portfolio managers allocate capital more efficiently than other investors who do not face similar incentives; this promotes investment, fosters firms' growth, and enriches shareholders. In the second paper, 'The Wall Street walk when investors compete for flows"', Amil Dasgupta and I show a negative side of delegated portfolio managers' career concerns. When delegated portfolio managers hold blocks of shares in firms, the more they care about their careers, the less effectively their exit threats discipline firm managers. Our result generates testable implications across different classes of funds: only those funds who have relatively high-powered incentives will be effective in using exit as a governance mechanism. Finally, the third paper, 'Investment mandates and the downside of precise credit ratings', co-authored with Jason Roderick Donaldson, studies whether the misalignment of incentives between delegated portfolio managers and their investors are tempered with contracts based on precise credit ratings. Surprisingly, we find that while, at equilibrium, portfolio managers write contracts making reference to credit ratings, this is inefficient; in particular, as the rating's precision increases everyone is worse off

Testing for convergence from the micro-level

Empirical convergence analysis is typically envisaged from a macro aggregate perspective. However, researchers have recently highlighted how investigating convergence at the disaggregate level may yield interesting insights into the convergence debate. In this paper, we suggest an approach that allows exploiting large micro panels to test for convergence. Compared to the traditional convergence analysis, this approach allows obtaining beta- and sigma-like convergence parameters for both the micro and the macro level of interest. We provide a practical example that analyses productivity convergence across firms and provinces using a large sample of Italian firms