Pasquale Scaramozzino

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• PhD in Economics, LSE
• Professor at University of Rome Tor Vergata

This paper analyses the evolution of debt of Italian firms from 2010 to 2020 with special focus on the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic. We use quantile regressions to assess the vulnerabilities of the most indebted firms. On average Italian non-financial companies (NFCs) reduced their indebtedness over the sample period, a trend which continued...

We contrast the net fiscal position (NFP) of immigrants versus natives using data from the European Survey on Living Conditions for 2007–2015. Using a quantile regression approach, we find that European and non-European migrants have a different fiscal position from natives only on the extreme tails of the NFP distribution. Non-EU migrants contribu...

Monetary authorities have the advantage over the private sector because of the longevity of their institutions and their exclusive power to issue fiat money. These defining features of central banking have, however, been overlooked by much of the recent literature on the effects of monetary policy. Counter-cyclical demand management policies can th...

In the current age of hyper-specialisation in the economic profession, the range of interests of Giancarlo Marini stands out for their breadth and originality. Marini gave significant contributions to monetary and fiscal policy and their interactions, public finance, international finance and currency crises, public and environmental economics, pri...

What is the role today of monetary and fiscal policy? The past few years have seen an intensification of the debate on the scope and rationale of economic policy, stimulated by the responses to the massive economic shocks which affected the global economy since the beginning of the current century (notably the financial crisis of 2007–08, the COVID...

The theoretical framework that informs dividend studies is somewhat loose. This makes it difficult to test competing views on dividend behaviour. One view is that it reflects a useful discipline on managerial autonomy to invest; another view is that it represents a constraint on investment due to misinformed or short-term investors. As a first step...

This paper analyses the evolution of debt of Italian firms from 2010 to 2020 with special focuson the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic. By means of quantile regressions, our approach investigates several heterogeneities to assess the vulnerabilities of the most fragile firms. We find that, on average, Italian non-financial companies (NFCs) reduc...

This research analyzes the role that air pollution plays, controlling for other socio-economic factors, in the movement of the population among Italian provinces. In spite of the increased prominence of environmental degradation in the public policy debate, empirical evidence on the effects of air quality on the attraction or retention of people is...

This paper applies the Economic Fitness and Complexity approach to analyze the underlying factors behind the wide and persistent economic disparities across the Italian regional units. Measures of regional fitness are obtained from their revealed comparative advantage and their patent performance. Southern regions tend to be characterised by a lowe...

We devise a “nudging” natural field experiment to test the impact of a simple form of advertising on environmentally responsible products with/without the increase of the responsible product price. We find that the simple use of a small shelf poster explaining the importance of buying a green product (with/without a concurring price increase) gener...

The economics of dividend policy has focused on the single tight narrative that dividends keep managers honest, mitigating concerns that they over-invest. This article provides a critique of that agency narrative, arguing that pressure from short-term focused investors, executives and board members pushes the firm into preemptive actions of returni...

We locate a giant ‘school report‐like’ scorecard poster with domain‐specific social and environmental responsibility scores of the ten leading world food companies, measured by the Oxfam ‘Behind the Brands’ world campaign, at the entrance of selected supermarkets. We test the impact of these scores on consumers’ choices by means of a randomized fie...

Background and aims Endogenous pain modulation can be studied in humans by conditioned pain modulation (CPM): pain induced by a test stimulus is attenuated by a distantly applied noxious conditioning stimulus. The detection of impaired CPM in individual patients is of potential importance to understand the pathophysiology and predict outcomes. Howe...

Development and growth are complex and tumultuous processes. Modern economic growth theories identify some key determinants of economic growth. However, the relative importance of the determinants remains unknown, and additional variables may help clarify the directions and dimensions of the interactions. The novel stream of literature on economic...

Development and growth are complex and tumultuous processes. Modern economic growth theories identify some key determinants of economic growth. However, the relative importance of the determinants remains unknown, and additional variables may help clarify the directions and dimensions of the interactions. The novel stream of literature on economic...

We devise a ‘nudging’ natural experiment to test the impact of a simple form of advertising on environmentally responsible products with/without the increase of the responsible product price. We find that the simple use of a small shelf-poster explaining the importance of buying a green product (with/without a concurring price increase) generates s...

This paper presents a game theoretic morphological analysis of the strategic interactions between environmental enforcement authorities and polluting firms. The models explore the role of discretion that such authorities enjoy, either in deciding how to pursue environmental violations (investigative and prosecutorial discretion) or in judging them...

Economic integration is generally thought to favour convergence in the economic performance of previously separated regions; but this is far from universally true, as the experience of the members of the Eurozone testifies. The paper considers the two sharply contrasting cases of East and West German convergence following reunification and the endu...

The economic literature on end-of-life choices assumes that the utility of future generations is internalized by current generations through gifts and bequests. This explanation, however, cannot account for the decision to buy cemetery plots. This paper uses an original data set to look at the determinants of the grave prices in the US. "After-life...

This paper analyzes the impact of production complexity and its adaptability on the level of output and on its rate of growth. We develop an endogenous growth model where increased complexity raises the rate of economic growth but has an ambiguous effect on the level of output. Our empirical measure of production adaptability captures the proximity...

This article examines the relationship between federal transfers and fiscal deficits in India. The current system of transfers has been criticized on the grounds that it distorts the incentives for states to promote fiscal discipline. We analyze the relationship between transfers, state domestic product, and fiscal deficit for a panel of states dur...

The concept of product space has encountered broad interest within the development community, as an analytical tool against which to assess countries’ potential to diversify their production and export structures. It has received far less attention in the economics literature, and its assumptions and building blocks have not been put to scrutiny. T...

Aabstract Background and purpose Central hypersensitivity, defined as an increased excitability of the central nervous system, is considered as the main factor behind facilitation of central pain processes and is probably a very important factor in the induction and maintenance of chronic pain. Widespread hyposensitivity is less studied than hyper...

This paper examines the relationship between federal transfers and fiscal deficits in India. The system of federal transfers has been criticized on the grounds that it distorts the incentives for states to promote fiscal discipline. We analyze the relationship between transfers, state domestic product, and fiscal deficit for a panel of states durin...

This paper analyzes the role of complexity in production on the level of output and on its rate of growth. We develop an endogenous growth model with human capital accumulation, where increased complexity could exert either a positive or a negative effect on the level of output but always a positive effect on its rate of growth. Our empirical measu...

This paper analyzes the role of complexity in production on the level of output and on its rate of growth. We develop an endogenous growth model with human capital accumulation, where increased complexity could exert either a positive or a negative effect on the level of output but always a positive effect on its rate of growth. Our empirical measu...

This article examines the relationship between federal transfers and fiscal deficits in India. The current system of transfers has been criticized on the grounds that it distorts the incentives for states to promote fiscal discipline. We analyze the relationship between transfers, state domestic product, and fiscal deficit for a panel of states dur...

This paper analyzes the effects of policy reform on the structure of India’s trade in manufactures, from 1990 to 2006. It computes comparative advantage indicators on the basis of disaggregated trade flow data and assesses the effects of trade liberalization on the evolution of India’s pattern of trade specialization. Industries where import tariff...

The activation of 5-hydroxytryptamine-3 (5-HT-3) receptors in spinal cord can enhance intrinsic spinal mechanisms of central hypersensitivity, possibly leading to exaggerated pain responses. Clinical studies suggest that 5-HT-3 receptor antagonists may have an analgesic effect. This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover study teste...

One of the major features of the oil market during the 1990s was the relative stability of the long-term oil price. While the spot price exhibited sharp price volatility, that volatility was only partially transmitted to the back end of the futures curve which was anchored around the $20--22 per barrel range. However, as oil prices rose sharply dur...

During the last decade, a multi-modal approach has been established in human experimental pain research for assessing pain thresholds and responses to various experimental pain modalities. Studies have concluded that differences in responses to pain stimuli are mainly related to variation between individuals rather than variation in response to dif...

Quantitative sensory tests are widely used in human research to evaluate the effect of analgesics and explore altered pain mechanisms, such as central sensitization. In order to apply these tests in clinical practice, knowledge of reference values is essential. The aim of this study was to determine the reference values of pain thresholds for mecha...

Since the early 1990s, India has embarked on economic reforms that have progressively opened up the country to international trade. This paper analyzes the effects of reform on India's trading structure from 1990 to 2006. It computes comparative advantage indicators on the basis of disaggregated trade flow data, and assesses the effects of trade li...

Assessments of spinal nociceptive withdrawal reflexes can be used in human research both to evaluate the effect of analgesics and explore pain mechanisms related to sensitization. Before the reflex can be used as a clinical tool, normative values need to be determined in large scale studies. The aim of this study was to determine the reference valu...

This paper examines the inflationary consequences of a currency changeover in the catering market. Empirical evidence from the Michelin Red Guide shows that: (i) differently from restaurants in non-euro countries, restaurants in the euro area experienced abnormal price increases just after the changeover; and (ii) among restaurants in the euro area...

This paper develops a model of investment in education and school-to-work transition under uncertainty. The main predictions of the model are tested for Brazilian households using PNAD data. Increased uncertainty on labour market outcomes is shown to be associated with higher levels of schooling by young people, consistent with a real options appro...

Using conditional quantile regression methods, we test for the existence of a non-linearity in the determinants of capital structure. We show that the size of the firm has a positive impact on the debt-equity ratio for low leverage firms and a negative impact for high leverage firms. Asset tangibility has a positive influence for low quantiles, whe...

This note argues that positive discounting is necessary for intergenerational equity, and that the choice of the discount rate should be based on the principle that individuals of different generations should be treated in a symmetrical fashion.

This paper provides a survey on studies that analyze the macroeconomic effects of intellectual property rights (IPR). The first part of this paper introduces different patent policy instruments and reviews their effects on R&D and economic growth. This part also discusses the distortionary effects and distributional consequences of IPR protection a...

In this paper we investigate the process of convergence/divergence across Indian states. After surveying the main economic reforms implemented during the last decades in the Indian Union, we conduct an econometric study of the determinants of economic growth in the neoclassical frame of the Solow model. One of the main novel aspects of our converge...

We examine the relationship between technological complexity and wage inequality, using an efficiency wage model that adopts Kremer's O-ring production function. The model has two main implications: (i) when the production process becomes more complex, within-task wage differences increase between plants, and (ii) between-task wage differences incr...

This paper shows that the explicit consideration of the “expected inflation effect” makes it more likely that increases in wage and price flexibility reduce employment variability. This result, obtained in a monopolistic competition model with synchronized contracts, casts doubts on some existing consensus in the literature pointing towards the opp...

This paper is concerned with international reserves. It makes two main points. Firstly, excess reserves cannot be regarded as a substitute for sound fundamentals because the former may destabilize the economic system in the longer term. Secondly, reserve accumulation financed by public debt can lead to a potential debt crisis in developing countrie...

This article presents an indirect approach to investigate the possible existence of measurement error bias in the harmonized index of consumer prices for the UK and Italy. Our empirical results show that there is no significant evidence of a bias for the UK or for Italy prior to the introduction of the Euro. Since January 2002, however, the inflati...

This paper examines the pattern of international trade specialization in Indian manufacturing since the mid-1980s by using data on trade flows. Low-technology sectors still dominate the categories for which India exhibits the largest degree of trade specialization. By contrast, high-technology sectors are prevalent among the categories for which In...

This paper develops a novel approach to the analysis of vulnerability in the context of food security. The proposed methodology incorporates recent developments in the analysis of risk management. It can be applied to estimate the probability that a household or a community might fall below a critical food security threshold at some time in the fut...

The economic boom of the USA in the 1990s was remarkable in its duration, the sustained rise in equipment investment, the reduced volatility of productivity growth, and continued uncertainty about the trend growth rate. In this paper we link these phenomena using an extension of the classic model of implementation cycles due to Shleifer (1986). The...

This paper presents a model of coordination failures based on market power and local oligopoly. The economy exhibits a multiplicity of Pareto-ranked equilibria. The introduction of uncertainty generates an endogenous equilibrium selection process, due to a strategic use of information by firms. The economy is more likely to settle on some equilibri...

This paper presents a model of coordination failures based on market power and local oligopoly. The economy exhibits a multiplicity of Pareto-ranked equilibria. The introduction of uncertainty generates an endogenous equilibrium selection process, due to a strategic use of information by firms. The economy is more likely to settle on some equilibri...

Knowledge of how South Korean firms choose their capital structures has particular value due to the country's specific corporate structure and the role of leverage in the evolution of its financial crisis of 1997 and recovery. Using a large panel for the years 1992–2001, we investigate the evolution and determinants of Korean firms' capital structu...

The article provides empirical confirmation of the thesis that the introduction of the euro was exploited for unjustified price increases in sectors characterized by imperfect markets. Official statistics appear to have greatly underestimated such increases. In particular, they do not reflect the strong negative impact of speculation on the economi...

This paper shows that the migration of educated workers abroad can convey a positive signal about the ability of native talents. When there is uncertainty about the distribution of talents in the donor country and/or about the effectiveness of its education system, migrants may reveal information about their talents. This may enhance the reputation...

This paper examines the inflationary consequences of a currency changeover in a simple model of the catering market. It is shown that the change in cash denomination acts as a coordination device shifting the industry to a high-price equilibrium. Empirical evidence based on data from the Michelin Red Guide strongly supports the predictions of our m...

The future of the welfare state is under threat. There is a growing consensus that current systems cannot survive, not only because of their heavy pressure on public finances but also for motives of disincentive. In particular, the alleged adverse effects on private saving are thought to undermine seriously efficiency and growth. Special attention...

The observed practice of discounting the future should not be rationalised on the grounds of myopia or selfishness. A positive rate of pure time preference is necessary to ensure that heterogeneous generations are treated in an egalitarian fashion. A zero social discount rate would yield intertemporal allocations which are biased against the curren...

This paper looks at the relationship between technological complexity and wages. Using a panel of UK establishments, we find that wages increase with the degree of complexity, measured both by the task ratio and by the presence of integrated process controls. Our findings are consistent with Kremer's (1993) "O-Ring" production function, which impli...

Macroeconomic models of fluctuations based on self-fulfilling equilibria require that expectations and beliefs are common knowledge to all economic agents. If instead we assume that there is some noise in the firms' perception of the fundamentals then the results change significantly, even if the noise is small. Using Shleifer's (1986) implementati...

This paper presents a model of macroeconomic co-ordination failures based on market power and local oligopoly. The economy exhibits a multiplicity of Paretoranked equilibria. We show that the introduction of uncertainty generates an endogenous equilibrium selection process, due to a strategic use of information by firms. This result can be importan...

The authors applied an optimization model (direct search) to find the optimal combination of bupivacaine dose, fentanyl dose, clonidine dose, and infusion rate for continuous postoperative epidural analgesia. One hundred ninety patients undergoing 48-h thoracic epidural analgesia after major abdominal surgery were studied. Combinations of the varia...

The observed practice of discounting the future should not be rationalised on the grounds of myopia or selfishness. A positive rate of pure time preference is necessary to ensure that heterogeneous generations are treated in an egalitarian fashion. A zero social discount rate would yield intertemporal allocations which are biased against the curren...

Objective: To test the following hypotheses: there is a correlation between spread of epidural analgesia as assessed postoperatively by pinprick/cold test and postoperative pain intensity; block of pinprick/cold sensation is associated with absence of postoperative pain. Design: Correlation analysis on prospectively collected data. Setting: Univers...

In this article, overlapping generations are extracting a natural resource over an infinite future. We examine the fair allocation of resource and compensations among generations. Fairness is defined by core lower bounds and aspiration upper bounds. The core lower bounds require that every coalition of generations obtains at least what it could ach...

The risk/benefit ratio of adding fentanyl, adrenaline and clonidine to epidural local anaesthetics for improving intraoperative analgesia is unclear. This meta-analysis was performed to clarify this issue. Trials retrieved by search were considered if they were prospective, controlled, epidural analgesia (without combining general anaesthesia) was...

Unlabelled: It is controversial whether adding CO2 or sodium bicarbonate to local anesthetics enhances the depth of epidural blockade. Repeated electrical stimulation is a reliable test for assessing epidural analgesia and evokes temporal summation. We used this test to investigate the analgesic effect of lidocaine, with or without CO2 or bicarbon...

Environmental resources can be depleted at a socially sub-optimal rate in a decentralised economy with incomplete markets. Pollution is an inevitable consequence of the production process: hence, when markets for tradable pollution rights are missing, there is in principle a clear rôle for government intervention. In particular, the welfare of unbo...

This paper examines how firms interact with their rivals. The main novelty of the authors' approach is that they let conjectural variations depend on the actual ability of other firms to react, which they measure by both the physical capacity and financial status of firms. The authors' main findings are twofold. First, physical and financial capaci...

Despite massive regional policy efforts, GDP per capita in Southern Italy has only briefly converged on Northern Italian levels in the 1960's. Failure of convergence since then is associated with a policy switch from investment toward income maintenance, with reduced wage sensitivity to regional labor market conditions and with increases in rent-se...

This paper analyzes the investment behavior of firms in the presence of irreversibility and of a dividend payout constraint. Estimation of investment equations for a panel of U.K. firms shows that the Q model performs well over regions of the sample space where neither constraint is likely to be binding. The constraints are able to account for the...

In order to identify patient-, anesthesia-, and surgery-related factors influencing the probability of hypotension and bradycardia after epidural blockade, an observational study was conducted on 1050 nonpregnant patients. Backward stepwise logistic regression was performed on the variables hypotension (systolic blood pressure < 90 mm Hg) and brady...

In order to identify patient-, anesthesia-, and surgery-related factors influencing the probability of hypotension and bradycardia after epidural blockade, an observational study was conducted on 1050 nonpregnant patients. Backward stepwise logistic regression was performed on the variables hypotension (systolic blood pressure <90 mm Hg) and bradyc...

This paper investigates the distributional implications of debt policy in an overlapping generations model with heterogeneous asset holders. The issue of new debt to be repaid by future taxation redistributes resources amongst agents, even for small degrees of wealth inequality, via its impact on the equilibrium conditions in capital markets. Copyr...

A multivariate analysis of inadequate extradural analgesia was carried out prospectively on 1051 patients undergoing lumbar extradural anaesthesia for surgery performed on structures innervated by T10-S5. Ninety-six patients (9%) experienced pain during surgery. Age, extradural fentanyl, diazepam sedation and duration of surgery had no significant...

This paper sets forth a continuous-time OLG model in order to analyze intertemporal trade-offs in the use of environmental resources. This theoretical framework proves to be particularly appropriate in examining the externalities arising from consumer heterogeneity and disconnectedness across generations. We characterize the trade-off between capit...

The controversies about the factors determining the spread of epidural analgesia are partly due to inappropriate methodology or sample size of previous studies. We performed a multivariate regression analysis on 803 ASA class 1-2 non-atherosclerotic adults, undergoing lumbar epidural anaesthesia according to a predefined standardised procedure. The...

In this paper we consider the relationship between the firm's choice of capital structure and the unionisation status of the labour force. Empirical estimates of Tobit models explaining the firm level debt-equity ratio betwee 1986 and 1990 lend support to the view that unionisation is associated with lower leverage. This finding is robust the analy...

This paper demonstrates that inflation expectations may be destabilizing even in models with both rational expectations and flexible prices. The proposition that increased wage (price) flexibility may exacerbate employment and output fluctuations is also analytically confirmed in a variety of macroeconomic models with nominal inertia. Active demand...