Does the Underground Economy Hold Back Financial Deepening? Evidence from the Italian Credit Market

The paper investigates the relationship between underground activities and financial deepening. The access to external finance requires entrepreneurs to disclose credible information through formal documentation. This requirement may be impossible to oblige to for many informal producers who lack a proper book-keeping of their operations. For the same reason irregular workers may find difficult to borrow for financing both consumption and housing purchase. Using panel data on Italian regional credit markets we find a strong negative impact of the share of irregular employment on outstanding credit to the private sector. According to our estimates a shift of 1 per cent of the employees from regular activities to irregular ones corresponds to a decline of about 2 percentage points in the volume of business lending and of 0.3 percentage points in outstanding credit to households, both expressed as ratios to GDP. Conversely, the feedback effects from financial deepening to the size of the informal sector are weak and statistically not significant. Through a difference-in-difference approach exploiting the regularisation program for immigrant workers launched in 2002 we also identify a negative effect of the irregular labour on banks' entry decisions in the local credit markets, now defined in terms of provinces.irregular employment, bank lending, school drop-out, entry, branching, regularisation programme

Bad Loans and Entry into Local Credit Markets

Is deregulation sufficient to grant free entry in local credit markets? Economic theory suggests at least two ways in which asymmetric information between incumbents and entrants can work as an endogenous barrier to entry. First, entrantsÂ’ pool of applicants contains a larger share of potential customers who are not creditworthy because it includes all those would-be borrowers who were previously rejected by mature banks in the market. Second, since a substantial amount of the information used by banks to screen loan applicants and monitor borrowers is generated through repeated interaction with their customers and the local business community, incumbentsÂ’ creditworthiness tests are likely to be more accurate. Other things being equal, entrants are therefore expected to experience higher loan default rates than incumbents. Using a unique database of 7,275 observations on 729 individual banksÂ’ lending in 95 Italian local markets, we find that both adverse selection and informational disadvantage play a significant role in explaining entrantsÂ’ loan default rates. We argue that these endogenous barriers can help to explain why in many local credit markets by domestic and foreign banks was slow, even after substantial deregulation.Credit Markets, Barriers to Entry, Winner's Curse, Asymmetric Information

Entry decisions and adverse selection: an empirical analysis of a local credit markets

During the last decades there has been a widespread relaxation of legal entry barriers into the banking industry, with potential benefits for financial integration and competition. Obstacles to banks' geographical and business expansion have been removed and branching has been substantially liberalized. This paper analyzes the determinants of entry decisions into local credit markets using a unique data set before and after deregulation of the Italian banking industry. We estimate an entry model à la Poisson and find evidence that spreads between loan and deposit rates drive entry only for newly chartered banks, but does not affect the decision to open branches of banks operating in other markets. Branching by outside banks is instead positively correlated with business opportunities in the provision of financial services which do not require the acquisition of substantial proprietary information. Both these results are consistent with the hypothesis that in credit markets incumbents have an informational advantage over new entrants.Entry, deregulation, informational barriers, count data, overdispersion

Relationship lending in a financial turmoil

We investigate whether the shape of relations between banks and firms has had a detectable effect in mitigating the credit contraction that followed Lehman's default in September 2008. Using micro data on a large sample of Italian firms, we analyze the relation between firms' debt concentration and credit availability. We show that firms borrowing from a higher number of banks suffered on average a larger contraction in bank credit and a higher probability of experiencing a reduction in outstanding bank debt. The same results hold for firms diversifying their borrowing, concentrating a smaller proportion with the main bank. The stability of the bank-firm relationship, measured by its duration, also appears to have been of some value in mitigating the credit restriction. Our results also suggest the existence of a different regime in credit supply towards firms experiencing a reduction in outstanding bank debt. If there is a contraction in credit, the decrease is limited if relations are more intense i.e. a lower number of financial institutions from which the firm borrows, more concentrated lending and relations of greater duration. The opposite is true for firms with positive credit growth.relationship lending, financial crisis

Mathematical models for farm tractor rollover prediction

This paper deals with the estimation of the rollover limit of a farm tractor. The rollover phenomenon is investigated by considering the static stability of the farm tractor on a sloped surface. Three mathematical models are derived to understand the basic features of the rollover mechanism. The models are able to predict the (static) rollover limit for any orientation of the farm tractor with respect to the slope. The effects of tyre stiffness (vertical and lateral) and nonsymmetric implement positioning are analysed. The classical architecture of the farm tractor equipped with a pivoting front axle is compared with the adoption of a passively suspended front axle. In case of a front axle suspension, the rollover limit of the vehicle can be improved, especially when employing non-symmetric implements

Awake Da Vinci robotic partial nephrectomy: First case report ever in a situation of need

We report a unique case of a robotic partial nephrectomy performed under continuous spinal anesthesia (CSA). A 63-year-old woman, active smoker with mild obesity and previous right pneumonectomy, was diagnosed with a growing 5.5-cm renal right cystic tumor. Being at high risk for general anesthesia, a loco-regional approach was indicated. Therefore, after multidisciplinary discussion, a robotic-assisted partial nephrectomy under CSA was considered mandatory. After T4-T5 sensory and motor block, retroperitoneoscopic robot-assisted surgery was successfully performed. Postoperative period was uneventful, with optimal pain control. This unique case demonstrates the feasibility of robotic surgery under CSA, for imperative indications

Electronic nose predicts high and low fumonisin contamination in maize cultures

The ability of an electronic nose, based on a 6 metal oxide semiconductor chemical sensors array, to diagnose fungal contamination, to detect high fumonisin content and to predict fumonisin concentration was evaluated in vitro. Maize cultures were inoculated with Fusarium verticillioides, F. proliferatum, F. oxysporum, F. semitectum, F. solani and F. subglutinans. Sterilised maize cultures were used as reference. Fungal colonies and fumonisin content of the maize samples were used as covariates for statistical analyses and for electronic nose training. Univariate and multivariate exploratory data analysis showed that the electronic nose discriminated the inoculated maize culture samples according to their fumonisin content. Partial Least Square was also implemented to build a multivariate regression model based on EN signals for quantitative fumonisin prediction. The EN could correctly recognize high and low fumonisin content of maize cultures and provide a fair quantitative estimation. The validity of EN technology to perform a rapid screening of maize cultures in order to identify levels of fumonisin contamination below the acceptability threshold was established. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Nanostructured metal oxide gas sensors, a survey of applications carried out at SENSOR lab, brescia (Italy) in the security and food quality fields

8partially_openopenPonzoni A. ; Comini E. ; Concina I. ; Ferroni M. ; Falasconi M. ; Gobbi E.; Sberveglieri V. ; Sberveglieri G.Ponzoni, Andrea; Comini, Elisabetta; Concina, Isabella; Ferroni, Matteo; Falasconi, Matteo; Gobbi, Emanuela; Sberveglieri, V.; Sberveglieri, Giorgi

Robust Optimization of Road Vehicle Suspension Considering the Variation of Tire Vertical Stiffness

Tire vertical stiffness is influenced by many factors. The inflation pressure, tire dimension, and usage of run-flat tire are considered in this paper. Robust multi-objective optimization technique is used to optimize the suspension performance considering the variation of the tire vertical stiffness. Three objective functions, discomfort, road holding, and working space are used to evaluate the dynamic behavior of the suspension considering a two-degree-of-freedom quarter-car model excited by a random road profile. The Pareto-optimal solutions in terms of suspension spring stiffness and damping coefficient are obtained and compared with the one computed by means of a deterministic approach. Solutions obtained by means of the robust optimization method are proven to be less sensitive to the possible variations of the tire vertical stiffness without influencing significantly the expected performance