Monday Lunch Seminars
Monday Lunch Seminars
Monday Lunch Seminars Aleksey Tetenov (Collegio Carlo Alberto)
"Statistical hypothesis testing and private information" Abstract This paper provides a rationalization for using classical one-sided hypothesis tests for approving innovations (e.g., new pharmaceuticals, new government programs). I consider this problem of statistical decision making in a setting where proponents of innovations (i) stand to benefit from approval decisions even if their innovations have a negative effect, (ii) possess private…
Monday Lunch Seminars Giovanna Nicodano, Luca Regis (University of Torino)
"Firm combinations, insolvency and tax policy" abstract This paper examines endogenous default costs in parent subsidiary structures (PS), and their sensitivity to tax policy. We show that PS lead to inefficiently high default costs relative to conglomerates when interest is deductible from taxes, due to their higher leverage. The introduction of intercorporate dividend taxation is…
Monday Lunch Seminars Matteo Richiardi (Universita’ di Torino)
"Rel(a)ying on your team-mates is not enough: On sequential contributions to team production under competition" abstract Many tasks require the input by more than one person very often with members of the team contributing sequentially. However, team production is plagued by disincentive problems. In this paper we investigate individual incentives to team production with sequential contributions and competing teams.…
Monday Lunch Seminars Roberto Marfe’ (Swiss Finance Institute and University of Lausanne, Institute of Banking and Finance)
"Realized Expectations and the Equilibrium Risk-Return Trade Off" abstract This paper considers a simple, closed form and parsimonious continuous-time general equilibriummodel with investors featuring “catching up with the Joneses” preferences under incomplete information.Investors have unbiased beliefs about economic growth in the long-run, but underestimatelong-run reversion depending on the evolution of economic conditions as suggested by…
Monday Lunch Seminars Andrei Savochkin (Collegio Carlo Alberto)
"Decision-Making Under Subjective Risk" Abstract: The primary objective of this paper is to develop a framework in which a decision-maker may have subjective beliefs about the "riskiness'' of prospects, even though the risk structure of these prospects is objectively specified. Put differently, we investigate preferences over risky alternatives by postulating that such preferences arise from…
Monday Lunch Seminars Edoardo Grillo (Collegio Carlo Alberto)
"Reference Dependence and Electoral Competition" abstract "We consider a model of electoral competition in which two parties compete to get the support of a mass of voters. Each party is represented by a politician whose valence is unobservable. All voters prefer politicians with high valence, but ideological biases may lead them to vote according to party's affiliation. Candidates can…
Monday Lunch Seminars Jeffrey Ely (Northwestern University), Daniel Garrett (Toulouse School of Economics), Toomas Hinnosaar (Collegio Carlo Alberto)
"Overbooking" Abstract We consider optimal pricing policies for airlines when passengers are uncertain at the time of ticketing of their eventual realized willingness to pay for air travel. Auctions at the time of departure efficiently allocate space and a profit maximizing airline can capitalize on these gains by overbooking flights and repurchasing excess tickets from…
Monday Lunch Seminars Luca Regis
cancelled
Monday Lunch Seminars Allan Drazen (University of Maryland, Collegio Carlo Alberto, NBER, CEPR)
"How Do Elected and Appointed Policymakers Act When in Office?Citizens, Candidates, and Leaders"
Monday Lunch Seminars Esteban Jaimovich (Collegio Carlo Alberto)
"When Warm Glow Burns: Motivational (mis)allocation in the non-profit sector"
Monday Lunch Seminars Elisa Luciano (Collegio Carlo Alberto & Università di Torino)
"Equilibrium price of immediacy and infrequent trade" abstract The paper studies the equilibrium value of bid-ask spreads and time-to-trade in a continuous-time, intermediated financial market. The endogenous spreads are the price at which brokers are willing to offer immediacy. In case intermediaries pay trading costs, it includes them too. We determine equilibrium trading policies, returns…
Monday Lunch Seminars David Rivers (University of Western Ontario)
"On the Identification of Production Functions: HowHeterogeneous is Productivity?" (Note: the seminar is on Thursday) abstract The estimation of production functions suffers from an unresolved identification problem caused by flexible inputs, such as intermediate inputs. We develop an identification strategy for production functions based on a transformation of the firm’s short-run first order condition that solves…
Monday Lunch Seminars Giovanni Mastrobuoni (Collegio Carlo Alberto)
"Crime is Terribly Revealing: An Evaluation of Predictive Policing" abstract An increasing number of police departments around the world are trying to use predictive policing as a way to improve clearance rates at times of shrinking budgets. The police department of Milan has been working on a software that predicts future crime since 2008. This…
Monday Lunch Seminars Paolo Buonanno (University of Bergamo)
"On the Historical and Geographic Origins of the Sicilian Mafia" Abstract This research attempts to explain the large differences in the early diffusion of the mafia across different areas of Sicily. We advance the hypothesis that, after the demise of Sicilian feudalism, the lack of publicly provided property-right protection from widespread banditry favored the development…
Monday Lunch Seminars Valeria Miceli (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore)
"Do Sovereign Wealth Funds Herd in Equity Markets?" abstract With $4.4 trillion of assets at end-2010, feared and courted by governments all over the world, characterized by low levels of transparency and often accused of hidden motivations, sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) are today among the most controversial players in global financial markets. SWFs are government…
Monday Lunch Seminars Theodoros Diasakos (Collegio Carlo Alberto)
"Informational Herding in the Provision of Public Goods"
Monday Lunch Seminars Marcello Sartarelli (University of Alicante)
"Do Performance Targets A ffect Financial Support to Schools? Evidence from Discontinuities in Test Scores"
Monday Lunch Seminars Marina Di Giacomo (Università di Torino)
"Bilateral Trust and the Ownership Structure of Foreign Direct Investments: Evidence from European Firm Level Data" abstract It is often argued that the foreign direct investments (FDIs) have positive effects on host countries. In particular, multinationals tend to have some competitive advantage based on superior technology or other firm-specic knowledge and, therefore, inward FDIs are…
Monday Lunch Seminars Roberto Leombruni (University of Torino and LABOR)
"For a Fistful of Euros. Tales of Ordinary unemployment" abstract In most developed countries the insurance against involuntary unemployment is a pivotal policy in the support of workers. In Italy, it has just a marginal role; furthermore, it is currently questioned for the very low coverage it grants to its target population. In this paper we…