In many industrialised economies, there is growing concern about the relocation of economic activ... more In many industrialised economies, there is growing concern about the relocation of economic activities abroad. This paper analyses whether this concern is justified. The authors show that theory predicts ambiguous effects of relocation on (the employment and production levels of) the country of origin. Therefore, whether such effects are positive or negative is an empirical question. A survey of empirical works shows no convincing evidence that outward foreign investment is harmful. Rather, there often exist complementarities between foreign and home production, so that investing abroad might actually increase domestic production and employment.
Corruption in the public sector erodes tax compliance and leads to higher tax evasion. Moreover, ... more Corruption in the public sector erodes tax compliance and leads to higher tax evasion. Moreover, corrupt public officials abuse their public power to extort bribes from the private agents. In both types of interaction with the public sector, the private agents are bound to face uncertainty with respect to their disposable incomes. To analyse effects of this uncertainty, a stochastic dynamic growth model with the public sector is examined. It is shown that deterministic excessive red tape and corruption deteriorate the growth potential through income redistribution and public sector inefficiencies. Most importantly, it is demonstrated that the increase in corruption via higher uncertainty exerts adverse effects on capital accumulation, thus leading to lower growth rates.
This paper explores the rational for advertising restrictions in the market for professional serv... more This paper explores the rational for advertising restrictions in the market for professional services. Professional services are characterised by considerable asymmetric information between professionals and consumers. This justifies regulation in such markets, for instance through licensing, qualifications requirements, and other minimum quality standards. However, once consumers' protection is guaranteed by the previous regulatory instruments, it is not clear why prohibiting professionals to disclose information through advertising should be welfare improving. In fact, both economic theory and empirical evidence support the opposite view. By "truthfully" advertising, professionals can provide very useful information to consumers. This helps them to identify the services and the professionals best suited to their needs, reducing time and energy spent in search activity. In turn, professionals would operate in a more competitive environment, which would decrease prices...
Miscoordination of buyers might prevent entry in an industry with an incumbent and a more efficie... more Miscoordination of buyers might prevent entry in an industry with an incumbent and a more efficient potential entrant. Buyers' power therefore favours entry by eliminating coordination problems. We also identify a mechanism which facilitates entry: if the potential entrant could credibly offer to pay a penalty for unfulfilled orders, miscoordination would be eliminated. Without the penalty, we show that downstream competition also facilitates entry. The stronger the competition among buyers the less likely that miscoordination arises.
We show that when the researcher’s (observable but not contractible) contribution to innovation i... more We show that when the researcher’s (observable but not contractible) contribution to innovation is crucial, a covenant not to compete (CNC) reduces e.ort and profits under both spot and relational contracts. Having no CNC allows the researcher to leave for a rival. This alleviates a commitment problem by forcing the firm to reward a successful researcher. However, if the firm’s
Abstract We extend the literature on exclusive dealing by allowing the incumbent and the potentia... more Abstract We extend the literature on exclusive dealing by allowing the incumbent and the potential entrant to merge. This uncovers new effects. First, exclusive dealing can be used to improve the incumbent's bargaining position in the merger negotiation. Second, the incumbent finds it easier to elicit the buyer's acceptance of exclusivity. Third, despite allowing the more efficient technology to find its way into the industry, exclusive dealing reduces welfare because (i) it may trigger entry through merger whereas independent entry would be socially optimal and (ii) it may deter entry altogether. Copyright 2009 The Authors. Journal compilation 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. and the Editorial Board of The Journal of Industrial Economics.
We extend the literature on exclusive dealing by allowing the incumbent and the potential entrant... more We extend the literature on exclusive dealing by allowing the incumbent and the potential entrant to merge. This uncovers new effects. First, exclusive deals can be used to improve the incumbent’s bargaining position in the merger negotiation. Second, the incumbent finds it easier to elicit the buyer’s acceptance than in the case where entry can occur only by installing new capacity. Third, exclusive dealing reduces welfare because (i) it may trigger entry through merger whereas de novo entry would be socially optimal, and (ii) it may deter entry altogether. Finally, we show that when exclusive deals include a commitment on future prices they will increase welfare.
We extend the literature on exclusive dealing, which assumes that entry can occur only by install... more We extend the literature on exclusive dealing, which assumes that entry can occur only by installing new capacity, by allowing the incumbent and the potential entrant to merge. This uncovers new effects. First, exclusive deals can be used to improve the incumbent's bargaining position in the merger negotiation. Second, the incumbent finds it easier to elicit the buyer's acceptance. Third, exclusive dealing, despite allowing the more efficient technology to find its way into the industry, reduces welfare because (i) it may trigger entry through merger whereas independent entry would be socially optimal, (ii) it leads to a sub-optimal contractual price when the exclusive dealing include a price commitment, (iii) it may deter entry altogether.
In the elderly patients, cognitive impairment is often associated with diabetes, especially with ... more In the elderly patients, cognitive impairment is often associated with diabetes, especially with memory loss. The underlying mechanism of this phenomenon have not been cleared up. Metabolic changes can play an important role, because either low or high blood sugar levels can affect the cognitive performance. Here we report our preliminary data from an ongoing study on cerebrovascular deficits in diabetic elderly patients.
The aging of population has been characteristic for the industrial countries during the last year... more The aging of population has been characteristic for the industrial countries during the last years. It is essentially due to two factors: the increase of life span and the decrease of births. Today the health conditions of the older population are better than in the past, but in octagenarians morbidity and disability globally increased. Therefore, aging of the population involves also more expenses for all the health care services, i.e., both for each older patient's family, and for the community. In departments of geriatric medicine it is right to consider two kinds of patients: older patient and geriatric patient. Multidimensional assessment and global intervention performed by a multidisciplinary team can obtain much better results for the geriatric patients, than the traditional medical strategies. Several reviews show also that departments of geriatric medicine achieve better results, than of the common internal medicine. Geriatric medicine departments have different aspect...
Authors have considered the prevalence of hypertension (HT), myocardial infarction (MI) and strok... more Authors have considered the prevalence of hypertension (HT), myocardial infarction (MI) and stroke (S), in elderly subjects with diabetes, impaired fasting glucose (IFG) and normal fasting glucose (NFG), respectively. A high occurrence of diabetes in elderly subjects has been found. MI and S were more frequent in diabetic group than in IFG and NFG ones. HT proved to be elevated in the total pool, especially in older olds, and with a higher prevalence among those with diabetes. A 5-year follow-up has been carried out. The index of survival for MI and S was lower in subjects with diabetes. The subjects affected by both MI and S displayed the worst index of survival in all the three categories considered, therefore, it can be stated that such an association is a determinant factor of mortality.
In many industrialised economies, there is growing concern about the relocation of economic activ... more In many industrialised economies, there is growing concern about the relocation of economic activities abroad. This paper analyses whether this concern is justified. The authors show that theory predicts ambiguous effects of relocation on (the employment and production levels of) the country of origin. Therefore, whether such effects are positive or negative is an empirical question. A survey of empirical works shows no convincing evidence that outward foreign investment is harmful. Rather, there often exist complementarities between foreign and home production, so that investing abroad might actually increase domestic production and employment.
Corruption in the public sector erodes tax compliance and leads to higher tax evasion. Moreover, ... more Corruption in the public sector erodes tax compliance and leads to higher tax evasion. Moreover, corrupt public officials abuse their public power to extort bribes from the private agents. In both types of interaction with the public sector, the private agents are bound to face uncertainty with respect to their disposable incomes. To analyse effects of this uncertainty, a stochastic dynamic growth model with the public sector is examined. It is shown that deterministic excessive red tape and corruption deteriorate the growth potential through income redistribution and public sector inefficiencies. Most importantly, it is demonstrated that the increase in corruption via higher uncertainty exerts adverse effects on capital accumulation, thus leading to lower growth rates.
This paper explores the rational for advertising restrictions in the market for professional serv... more This paper explores the rational for advertising restrictions in the market for professional services. Professional services are characterised by considerable asymmetric information between professionals and consumers. This justifies regulation in such markets, for instance through licensing, qualifications requirements, and other minimum quality standards. However, once consumers' protection is guaranteed by the previous regulatory instruments, it is not clear why prohibiting professionals to disclose information through advertising should be welfare improving. In fact, both economic theory and empirical evidence support the opposite view. By "truthfully" advertising, professionals can provide very useful information to consumers. This helps them to identify the services and the professionals best suited to their needs, reducing time and energy spent in search activity. In turn, professionals would operate in a more competitive environment, which would decrease prices...
Miscoordination of buyers might prevent entry in an industry with an incumbent and a more efficie... more Miscoordination of buyers might prevent entry in an industry with an incumbent and a more efficient potential entrant. Buyers' power therefore favours entry by eliminating coordination problems. We also identify a mechanism which facilitates entry: if the potential entrant could credibly offer to pay a penalty for unfulfilled orders, miscoordination would be eliminated. Without the penalty, we show that downstream competition also facilitates entry. The stronger the competition among buyers the less likely that miscoordination arises.
We show that when the researcher’s (observable but not contractible) contribution to innovation i... more We show that when the researcher’s (observable but not contractible) contribution to innovation is crucial, a covenant not to compete (CNC) reduces e.ort and profits under both spot and relational contracts. Having no CNC allows the researcher to leave for a rival. This alleviates a commitment problem by forcing the firm to reward a successful researcher. However, if the firm’s
Abstract We extend the literature on exclusive dealing by allowing the incumbent and the potentia... more Abstract We extend the literature on exclusive dealing by allowing the incumbent and the potential entrant to merge. This uncovers new effects. First, exclusive dealing can be used to improve the incumbent's bargaining position in the merger negotiation. Second, the incumbent finds it easier to elicit the buyer's acceptance of exclusivity. Third, despite allowing the more efficient technology to find its way into the industry, exclusive dealing reduces welfare because (i) it may trigger entry through merger whereas independent entry would be socially optimal and (ii) it may deter entry altogether. Copyright 2009 The Authors. Journal compilation 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. and the Editorial Board of The Journal of Industrial Economics.
We extend the literature on exclusive dealing by allowing the incumbent and the potential entrant... more We extend the literature on exclusive dealing by allowing the incumbent and the potential entrant to merge. This uncovers new effects. First, exclusive deals can be used to improve the incumbent’s bargaining position in the merger negotiation. Second, the incumbent finds it easier to elicit the buyer’s acceptance than in the case where entry can occur only by installing new capacity. Third, exclusive dealing reduces welfare because (i) it may trigger entry through merger whereas de novo entry would be socially optimal, and (ii) it may deter entry altogether. Finally, we show that when exclusive deals include a commitment on future prices they will increase welfare.
We extend the literature on exclusive dealing, which assumes that entry can occur only by install... more We extend the literature on exclusive dealing, which assumes that entry can occur only by installing new capacity, by allowing the incumbent and the potential entrant to merge. This uncovers new effects. First, exclusive deals can be used to improve the incumbent's bargaining position in the merger negotiation. Second, the incumbent finds it easier to elicit the buyer's acceptance. Third, exclusive dealing, despite allowing the more efficient technology to find its way into the industry, reduces welfare because (i) it may trigger entry through merger whereas independent entry would be socially optimal, (ii) it leads to a sub-optimal contractual price when the exclusive dealing include a price commitment, (iii) it may deter entry altogether.
In the elderly patients, cognitive impairment is often associated with diabetes, especially with ... more In the elderly patients, cognitive impairment is often associated with diabetes, especially with memory loss. The underlying mechanism of this phenomenon have not been cleared up. Metabolic changes can play an important role, because either low or high blood sugar levels can affect the cognitive performance. Here we report our preliminary data from an ongoing study on cerebrovascular deficits in diabetic elderly patients.
The aging of population has been characteristic for the industrial countries during the last year... more The aging of population has been characteristic for the industrial countries during the last years. It is essentially due to two factors: the increase of life span and the decrease of births. Today the health conditions of the older population are better than in the past, but in octagenarians morbidity and disability globally increased. Therefore, aging of the population involves also more expenses for all the health care services, i.e., both for each older patient's family, and for the community. In departments of geriatric medicine it is right to consider two kinds of patients: older patient and geriatric patient. Multidimensional assessment and global intervention performed by a multidisciplinary team can obtain much better results for the geriatric patients, than the traditional medical strategies. Several reviews show also that departments of geriatric medicine achieve better results, than of the common internal medicine. Geriatric medicine departments have different aspect...
Authors have considered the prevalence of hypertension (HT), myocardial infarction (MI) and strok... more Authors have considered the prevalence of hypertension (HT), myocardial infarction (MI) and stroke (S), in elderly subjects with diabetes, impaired fasting glucose (IFG) and normal fasting glucose (NFG), respectively. A high occurrence of diabetes in elderly subjects has been found. MI and S were more frequent in diabetic group than in IFG and NFG ones. HT proved to be elevated in the total pool, especially in older olds, and with a higher prevalence among those with diabetes. A 5-year follow-up has been carried out. The index of survival for MI and S was lower in subjects with diabetes. The subjects affected by both MI and S displayed the worst index of survival in all the three categories considered, therefore, it can be stated that such an association is a determinant factor of mortality.
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Papers by Massimo Motta