We develop an agency model of organized crime accounting for the main trade-offs involved by the introduction of an accomplice-witness program. We characterize the optimal policy and identify its main determinants in a framework where public officials can be dishonest. Our predictions are tested...

We develop an agency model of organized crime accounting for the main trade-offs involved by the introduction of an accomplice-witness program. We characterize the optimal policy and identify its main determinants in a framework where public officials can be dishonest. Our predictions are tested...

We develop an agency model of organized crime accounting for the main trade-offs involved by the introduction of an accomplice-witness program. We characterize the optimal policy and identify its main determinants in a framework where public officials can be dishonest. Our predictions are tested...

The impact on vertical contracting of a type-dependent reservation utility is investigated within a sequential monopolies environment with asymmetric information. The welfare and private properties of contracts controlling both the retail price and the sales level are compared with those...

Exploiting three earthquakes in Italy as quasi-experiments, we analyze the response of homeowners’ consumption to transfers targeted to finance housing repair and reconstruction. To the extent that funds are made available up-front, these transfers are akin to loans, mainly affecting the...

In concurrence with the recent credit crisis, the Italian government tried to stimulate R&D expenditures through tax credit. We rely on this policy to identify the firm response to an exogenous countercyclical fiscal shock. Large heterogeneity by the size of cash is observed for firms in...

A law issued to combat political corruption and Mafia infiltration of city councils in Italy has resulted in episodes of large, unanticipated, temporary contractions in local public spending. Using these episodes as instruments, we estimate the output multiplier of spending cuts at provincial...

<i> Convergenza: un'utopia per le regioni europee? </i> (di Antonio Acconcia) - ABSTRACT: Looking at the distribution of income per capita across a large set of European regions since 1975 up to 1999, we conclude for a substantial stability of regional inequalities. It seems that on average the process...

<i> Regional Development and Public Spending: the Case of Italy </i> (by Antonio Acconcia, Alfredo Del Monte) - ABSTRACT: In Italy redistribution and regional policies have been implemented since World War II; poorer regions have been receiving large amount of public funds, namely public consumption...