Costs and efficiency of highway concessionaires: a survey of Italian operators

Measuring the productivity of highway concessionaires is very relevant, especially when a price cap regulation is applied where tariff increases are based on expected improvements of productivity. Output may be measured in terms of traffic or network length, or a combination of both, while quality of service should ideally be accounted for. To measure productivity we consider only operating costs, as amortization and financial costs depend upon the original highway design and historical costs. A cross section analysis of the Italian concessionaires shows that: 1) operating costs depend on both traffic and capacity; 2) economies of scale are relevant but their estimate is very sensitive to the model specification; 3) there are large differences in efficiency among operators, indicating that there could be significant room for yardstick competition. We subsequently consider the main economic data regarding the major Italian concessionaire (Autostrade spa) over two decades. Revenues increased greatly, even more than traffic, while operating costs remained substantially stable in real terms, as the automation of toll collection allowed the company to reduce the number of collectors by almost half. Finally, a comparison between Italian and French concessionaires shows that the latter have much lower operating costs, which cannot be entirely explained by economies of scale or lower personnel costs.Highway; Regulation; Productivity; Price-cap

Micro-economic Analysis of the Physical Constrained Markets: Game Theory Application to Competitive Electricity Markets

Competition has been introduced in the electricity markets with the goal of reducing prices and improving efficiency. The basic idea which stays behind this choice is that, in competitive markets, a greater quantity of the good is exchanged at a lower and a lower price, leading to higher market efficiency. Electricity markets are pretty different from other commodities mainly due to the physical constraints related to the network structure that may impact the market performance. The network structure of the system on which the economic transactions need to be undertaken poses strict physical and operational constraints. Strategic interactions among producers that game the market with the objective of maximizing their producer surplus must be taken into account when modeling competitive electricity markets. The physical constraints, specific of the electricity markets, provide additional opportunity of gaming to the market players. Game theory provides a tool to model such a context. This paper discussed the application of game theory to physical constrained electricity markets with the goal of providing tools for assessing the market performance and pinpointing the critical network constraints that may impact the market efficiency. The basic models of game theory specifically designed to represent the electricity markets will be presented. IEEE30 bus test system of the constrained electricity market will be discussed to show the network impacts on the market performances in presence of strategic bidding behavior of the producers.Comment: Accepted for publication in the European Journal of Physics B. Presented at the Int. Conf. NEXT-SigmaPhi, 13-18 August 2005, Cret

Nanofriction behavior of cluster-assembled carbon films

We have characterized the frictional properties of nanostructured (ns) carbon films grown by Supersonic Cluster Beam Deposition (SCBD) via an Atomic Force-Friction Force Microscope (AFM-FFM). The experimental data are discussed on the basis of a modified Amonton's law for friction, stating a linear dependence of friction on load plus an adhesive offset accounting for a finite friction force in the limit of null total applied load. Molecular Dynamics simulations of the interaction of the AFM tip with the nanostructured carbon confirm the validity of the friction model used for this system. Experimental results show that the friction coefficient is not influenced by the nanostructure of the films nor by the relative humidity. On the other hand the adhesion coefficient depends on these parameters.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figures, RevTex

Walking on Uneven Paths : the Transcultural Experience of Migrant Children in France and Ireland

This thesis foregrounds the application of anthropological documentary methods and ethnographic investigation in examining the world of child immigrants and the cross-cultural dilemmas they encounter upon entering the formal educational system of the ‘host’ country- in this case, a primary school setting in Dublin and Paris. The specificity of the primary school classroom as an ethnographic site facilitates a sustained audio-visual examination of immigrant children as they work to re-build their identities in a new and unfamiliar environment. Such a richly textured space opens up potential avenues of exploration for the researcher: what, for example, can intercultural pedagogy learn from the child who is dealing with two or more languages and for whom the past and present have been unexpectedly and irreversibly transformed? How are embodied cultural memories from the past carried and expressed in the immediate present? How are the values of the ‘host’ culture transmitted and what pressures, if any, are placed on immigrant children to prematurely verbalise their personal stories? How do immigrant children dramatise between themselves and with their teachers the conflicted dynamics of their cultural transformation? How does the cinematic process generate a milieu for young migrant actors to be multi-vocal? The thesis comprises five chapters together with an introduction and a conclusion. Chapter one provides a critical overview of the concept of childhood and the role of migrant children’s’ agency in the construction of a transcultural identity. Drawing on a number of scholars in cultural anthropology, visual anthropology and cultural studies, the chapter elaborates and explains certain terms and concepts used throughout the thesis: the ‘transcultural’, the ‘anthropology of experience’ and ‘cross-cultural ethnographic film practice’. Simultaneously the chapter introduces the role of the DVD artefact as an essential and integrated component of the thesis throughout, offering the reader a viewing source of all moving image material, referenced in each of the five chapters. Chapter two introduces film fieldwork conducted in a primary school in Paris in which migrant children, newly arrived in France, and who do not speak French are compelled to learn the language, since it is a compulsory requirement for integration into the French school system. The thematics and critical concepts of this chapter include: the post-colonial school system in France, the effects of linguistic assimilation, the tropes of observational cinema, migrant children’s experience of intercultural modes of communication and the role of the somatic in the acquisition of new languages and cultural practices. Chapter three functions as the main field site in the dissertation, comprising the core ethnographic work conducted in a mono-denominational primary school, in the inner city of Dublin. Juxtaposing classrooms (in Paris and Dublin), a contrast is created between two European models of ‘multicultural’ education and cultural integration. Divided into five sections, chapter three includes thematics and critical concepts, such as observational participant cinema, storytelling and personal memory, transcultural pedagogy, the role of religion, the cultural life of Irish educators, and the role of multicultural literacy. The fourth chapter engages with the subject of a migrant domestic sphere, conducting visual fieldwork with an Algerian family recently reunified in Ireland. The thematics and critical concepts of this chapter include the politics of the migrant domestic space, intergenerational tensions, the practise of cinema-verite, the cultural politics shaping Algerian and Berber minorities, the construction of adolescence and the performance of migration and memory. The fifth and final chapter merges storytelling with an anthropological analysis of migrant children’s stories. Thematics and critical concepts throughout this concluding chapter include: memory and remembrance; childhood strategies of agency and resistance; the politics of heteroglossia; children’s everyday lived experience, the role of participant cinema and the interview

Disaster, traces of displacement, and mizuaoi seeds

Curated by socio-cultural anthropologist Fuyubi Nakamura, the exhibition entitled A Future for Memory: Art and Life after the Great Japan Earthquake at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC in British Columbia addresses the sociocultural role of art produced in situ in the aftermath of the triple disaster which occurred in the Tōhoku region of northeast Japan in 2011. The exhibition’s curatorial project was born in the affected regions through anthropological research, and the selections of works brought to British Columbia are by The center for remembering 3.11; Lost & Found Project; Lost Homes Scale Model Restoration Project; Chihiro Minato; Atsunobu Katagiri; Masao Okabe; Rias Ark Museum of Art; Tsunami Ladies film project team. This article engages with the conversations that the curator, artists, and collaborators wove through the exhibition. The construction of social memory building on the experiences of a drastically changing environment is its main theme

Advancing Social Equity and Promoting Black Self-determination: A Community Garden Opportunity Plan for Richmond, VA

Urban agriculture provides a variety of economic, environmental, and social benefits. Recognizing these benefits, the City of Richmond administers a community garden program known as “Richmond Grows Gardens.” Through this program, underutilized city properties are permitted for use as community gardens. However, an emerging concern is the potential for community gardens to perpetuate underlying structures of social and racial inequality through displacement and social exclusion. Considering these concerns, this plan investigates the implementation of community gardens in Richmond and establishes a methodology for ranking existing and available community garden sites based on the social and racial demographics of their surrounding communities. Furthermore, interviews with garden stewards reveal how decisions are made on the design, infrastructure, and process of community garden sites in Richmond, Va. Ultimately, this plan reinforces the idea that community gardens provide important opportunities to advance social equity and promote black self-determination. Community gardens are community assets that demonstrate collective power and, when implemented with intentionality, give communities the tools they need to define themselves. Accordingly, this plan establishes a credible vision for the future of community gardens in the city and provides pertinent recommendations and implementation strategies to ensure that community gardens advance social equity and black self-determination by anchoring community power

Costs and efficiency of highway concessionaires: a survey of Italian operators

Measuring the productivity of highway concessionaires is very relevant, especially when a price cap regulation is applied where tariff increases are based on expected improvements of productivity. Output may be measured in terms of traffic or network length, or a combination of both, while quality of service should ideally be accounted for. To measure productivity we consider only operating costs, as amortization and financial costs depend upon the original highway design and historical costs. A cross section analysis of the Italian concessionaires shows that: 1) operating costs depend on both traffic and capacity; 2) economies of scale are relevant but their estimate is very sensitive to the model specification; 3) there are large differences in efficiency among operators, indicating that there could be significant room for yardstick competition. We subsequently consider the main economic data regarding the major Italian concessionaire (Autostrade spa) over two decades. Revenues increased greatly, even more than traffic, while operating costs remained substantially stable in real terms, as the automation of toll collection allowed the company to reduce the number of collectors by almost half. Finally, a comparison between Italian and French concessionaires shows that the latter have much lower operating costs, which cannot be entirely explained by economies of scale or lower personnel costs

Coopération et gouvernance dans deux districts en transition

Disponible en ligne : http://www.ceris.cnr.it/ceris/workingpaper/2007/WP10_07_RAGAZZI_INTERNET.pdfWorking paper CERIS-CNR ; 11Industrial district are often described as systems of firms in static equilibrium, in which changes in the environment or in the power of stakeholders can break the cooperation mechanism and lead to the crisis and even death of the district. The authors analyse two industrial districts, Biella in Italy and Grasse in France, in which the worsening of competition has induced a deep evolution in the strategic behaviour of firms and in the asset of the district. Starting from this evidence they support the thesis that harder competition does not lead to a break in the district atmosphere, but to a change in its governance, in the mechanisms of interaction and level of commitment towards collective strategies.L'objectif de ce papier est de mettre en évidence que l'évolution des normes de compétitivité auxquelles sont soumis certains districts industriels contribuent à faire évoluer les formes de coopération traditionnelle. Ce texte s'appuie sur la comparaison des trajectoires de transition de deux districts industriels, l'un en France et l'autre en Italie

La dualité coopérative dans les districts industriels : une comparaison France-Italie

Des études menées au cours des années quatre-vingt-dix sur certains districts italiens du textile ont montré que l'intensification de la concurrence et les conséquences négatives qui en résultent avaient conduit à une intensification de la compétition au sein des districts et à un affaiblissement de la coopération. Nos propres travaux menés sur deux districts, l'un en France, l'autre en Italie, nous conduisent au contraire à penser que les mutations de l'espace concurrentiel peuvent stimuler le développement de relations de coopération entre entreprises au sein d'un même district. En fait, nous soutenons que les mutations à l'œuvre dans les districts reflètent plutôt une transformation des formes de coopération liée à une nécessité structurante