Measuring equality of opportunity by Shapley value

Equality of opportunity is a political ideal which requires that ex-ante inequalities, and only those inequalities, should be eliminated. Justice requires leveling the playing field by rendering everyone's opportunities equal in an appropriate sense, and then letting individual choices and their effects dictate further outcomes. In this paper we propose a methodology to decompose the path-independent Atkinson index of equality through Shapley value seeking for a measure of overall inequality produced by the marginal contributions of the opportunity and the responsibility component.Equality of opportunity, Shapley decomposition, Atkinson index, path independency.

Perverse cross-subsidization in the credit market

We show how asymmetric information and borrowers' heterogeneity in wealth may produce equilibria in which, due to decreasing absolute risk aversion, hard working poor borrowers subsidize richer borrowers. In particular, a model of adverse selection and moral hazard in a competitive credit market is developed with private information on borrowers' wealth. Because of the ambiguous effect of decreasing risk aversion on the willingness to post collateral, both separating and pooling equilibria are possible in principle. Under separation the poor borrowers bear the cost of separation in terms of excessive risk taking. In a more likely pooling equilibrium poor hard-working borrowers subsidize richer ones

Organic farming in Italy

History and situation of OF in Italy: The recent growth of organic sector in Italy can be considered a success story that deserves to be properly known and analysed. It is the result of several circumstances: the numerous food scandals which have afflicted Europe, the search for technical and economic alternatives by farmers, who have not yet decided to give up, the abundant flow of subsidies (direct and indirect ) which have been channelled into the entire organic food chain. Nevertheless, it also represents the outcome of the first steps made by few pioneers who since the early ‘50s had started to criticize the path into which the so called technological progress and the agricultural policies were leading Italian and European farming. These pioneers were old and new farmers, medical doctors, shop owners and traders, food processors and consumers, veterinarians and agronomists, with some rare scientists, all of whom for more than 30 years have been struggling to convince the surrounding people and the Institutions that another food system is possible

Inequality of Opportunity in the Credit Market

Credit market imperfections can prevent the poor from making profitable investments. Under asymmetric information observable features, such as wealth and collateral, play an important role in determining who gets credit, in violation of the Equality of Opportunity principle. We define equality of opportunity as the equal possibility of getting credit for a given aversion to effort. We first establish that, due to larger cross subsidization in high collateral classes of borrow- ers, richer individuals are more likely to get credit for a given aversion to effort. Our second result is that Inequality of Opportunity is associated with an inefficient allocation of resources among classes of borrowers. The marginal borrower in classes that post more collateral exerts less effort in equilibrium (and therefore produces lower aggregate surplus) than the marginal borrower in lower collateral classes. This suggests that public credit policies should be targeted at poorer classes of would be borrowers both for equity and efficiency reasons, which rarely occurs in practice.equality of opportunity; credit; moral hazard; crosssubsidization; collateral

Inequality of opportunity in the credit market

Credit market imperfections can prevent the poor from making pro table investments. Under asymmetric information observable features, such as wealth and collateral, play an important role in determining who gets credit, in violation of the Equality of Opportunity principle. We de ne equality of opportunity as the equal possibility of getting credit for a given aversion to e¤ort. We rst establish that, due to larger cross subsidization in high collateral classes of borrowers, richer individuals are more likely to get credit for a given aversion to e¤ort. Our second result is that Inequality of Opportunity is associated with an ine¢ cient allocation of resources among classes of borrowers. The marginal borrower in classes that post more collateral exerts less e¤ort in equilibrium (and therefore produces lower aggregate surplus) than the marginal borrower in lower collateral classes. This suggests that public credit policies should be targeted at poorer classes of would be borrowers both for equity and e¢ ciency reasons, which rarely occurs in practice.equality of opportunity; credit; moral hazard; cross subsidization; collateral.

The performance of local government in the execution of public works

This paper aims at analysing the procurement of public works paying attention to the level of government involved. Such an issue has not received so far attention in the literature on fiscal federalism nor in the public works procurement literature. We focus the attention upon the execution stage of public works: indeed, their efficient provision and their capability to deliver the planned benefits are severely affected by the problems arising at the execution stage because of the incompleteness of the underlying contract. The main result is that local governments seem to be less efficient in the management of the execution process, suffering from longer delays than central government. This phenomenon is more severe for small municipalities and when the contract is mainly financed with external resources.public procurement; local government; soft budget

Interlinguistic and intercultural mediation in healthcare settings

The paper investigates the role of interlingustic intercultural mediators in healthcare settings, where they act both as responders, affiliating with the patient in a two-party interaction, and as translators/coordinators, formulating the affective gist of the mediator-patient conversation for the doctor

Terminology and Interpreting in LSP Conferences: A Computer-aided vs. Empirical-based Approach

Conference interpreters are called to work in highly technical communicative events, therefore they need to acquire specialized knowledge in terms of terminology (LSP), in order to produce adequate target texts. The goal of the study is to compare two different methodologies for the creation of glossaries to be used during simultaneous interpreting in the medical domain; one is more empirical and represents the most frequently adopted approach among conference interpreters; the second is supported by WordSmith Tools for the selection of contexts of use. The glossaries created with WordSmith Tools will be compared with those created manually, and both will be tested in the translation booth for completeness, clarity, and adequacy

Skilled-based and knowledge-based strategies in Television Interpreting

Television Interpreting and Conference Interpreting have always been regarded as profoundly different in terms of the expected performance and the interpreting strategies utilized. Television interpreting is a multi-faceted activity, requiring a particular mind-set and special communicative skills: television interpreters produce their own text, in an attempt to ensure coherence and convey the same effect that the speaker wants to obtain, with little or no possibility of using décalage due to the pragmatic context. The paper investigates how the flow of discourse is managed by television interpreters, with a special focus on the use of prosody and discourse markers. The analysis is conducted on a corpus of recorded texts, interpreted in simultaneous mode by a professional conference interpreter, working for public television. The typology of the interpreted event is the press conference interview, characterized by a rapid question and answer format. Through this analysis, we shall outline a profile of television interpreters and their interpreting strategies

Judge, Jury, and Executioner: Drone Warfare and the Expansion of American Executive Authority (2001-2020)

This paper examines how the United States’ proliferation of unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs), or drones, have allowed the executive branch to concentrate its power to wage the post-9/11 War on Terror. This paper will examine the proliferation of drone warfare during the George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump presidential administrations and how they have expanded executive authority. Although historians have emphasized the moral and legal consequences of drone warfare such as its civilian casualties and potential violations of U.S. and international law, they have paid little attention to its impact on the distribution of power among the three branches of American government. Drones’ contribution to the expansion of executive authority is significant because they have allowed the president to unilaterally act as judge, jury, and executioner. Drawing on legal documents, Justice Department memos, transcripts of congressional hearings, statements made by politicians, the National Security Archive’s digital collection on Anwar al-Awlaki, newspaper articles, and scholarly accounts, this paper will argue that America’s transition to drone warfare has expanded the war powers of the executive branch. When we rethink America\u27s expansion of the targeted killings of suspected terrorists through the use of drones, it encourages us to think about how the War on Terror has given the executive branch the power to wage war almost unchecked. The executive branch as the sole arbiter of targeted killings has spawned problems in the American democratic system of checks and balances, and drones have been an influential tool in allowing this to occur