Pooling sovereignty under the subsidiary principle

This paper investigates the decision whether to centralize public policy in an economy with two levels of government. I show that centralization based on the subsidiarity principle emphasizes rather than resolves a conflict of interest between jurisdictions. The extent of the conflict of interest depends on spillovers and differences in tastes for public spending. Spending decisions are determined by negotiation between local representatives in the centralized legislature. If an agreement cannot be reached, policy is determined non-cooperatively by local governments. Results show that pooling sovereignty by the subsidiarity rinciple fails to fully internalize spillovers and may lead to a misallocation of public resources

The political economy of municipal consortia and municipal mergers

This paper analyses both the policy and welfare consequences of municipal mergers vs municipal consortia in the presence of spillovers and inequalities in the districts size. Citizens of different municipalities have a common interest in internalising spillovers, but conflicting interests on how to reach that goal. We address the question of when, from a welfare point of view, the central government should legislate in favour of municipal mergers and when, instead, it should prefer municipal consortia. Results provide some useful insights for the design of local governments reforms

The political economy of municipal consortia and municipal mergers

This paper analyses both the policy and welfare consequences of municipal mergers vs municipal consortia in the presence of spillovers and inequalities in the districts size. Citizens of different municipalities have a common interest in internalising spillovers, but conflicting interests on how to reach that goal. We address the question of when, from a welfare point of view, the central government should legislate in favour of municipal mergers and when, instead, it should prefer municipal consortia. Results provide some useful insights for the design of local governments reforms

Perequazione orizzontale semi-volontaria

Nel presente modello di federalismo fiscale, si studia il caso in cui giurisdizioni che differiscono nelle loro capacità fiscali negoziano il livello dei trasferimenti inter-giurisdizionali. L’articolo mostra come la regola negoziale prescelta redistribuisca, di fatto, il potere di veto tra le giurisdizioni, influenzando il livello di perequazione tra i territori. Pertanto, le difficoltà incontrate dal legislatore nell’implementazione dei meccanismi di perequazione orizzontale, previsti da alcune leggi, dipendono da una sbilanciata determinazione del potere di veto tipicamente a favore dei territori con capacità fiscali sopra la media. Un problema, questo, da considerare nella progettazione dei meccanismi di perequazione orizzontale

The Effects of Mafia Infiltration on Public Procurement Performance

We examine the effects of Mafia infiltration on public procurement performance, based on a sample of 68,063 public work contracts (PWC) awarded by Italian municipalities over the period 2012-2017, of which 687 are identified as Mafia-infiltrated, either because of being awarded by municipal councils subsequently dissolved due to Mafia infiltration, or because of being won by Mafia-owned firms. (...

Thermophysical Properties of Fe-Si and Cu-Pb Melts and Their Effects on Solidification Related Processes

Among thermophysical properties, the surface/interfacial tension, viscosity, and density/molar volume of liquid alloys are the key properties for the modelling of microstructural evolution during solidification. Therefore, only reliable input data can yield accurate predictions preventing the error propagation in numerical simulations of solidification related processes. To this aim, the thermophysical properties of the Fe-Si and Cu-Pb systems were analysed and the connections with the peculiarities of their mixing behaviours are highlighted. Due to experimental difficulties related to reactivity of metallic melts at high temperatures, the measured data are often unreliable or even lacking. The application of containerless processing techniques either leads to a significant improvement of the accuracy or makes the measurement possible at all. On the other side, accurate model predicted property values could be used to compensate for the missing data; otherwise, the experimental data are useful for the validation of theoretical models. The choice of models is particularly important for the surface, transport, and structural properties of liquid alloys representing the two limiting cases of mixing, i.e., ordered and phase separating alloy systems