Since the Great Recession, many Eurozone nations have seen their public debt levels increase greatly. By 2010, a member of the monetary union found itself unable to continue servicing its debt and made investors fear for the euro currency. The crisis was resolved thanks to a bailout of supranational organizations. Regardless, government debt from European nations is perceived as risk-free. The European Central Bank, through unconventional monetary policy and the mass purchase of government bonds, has managed to bring nominal interest rates to historical lows and governments have been able to continue borrowing without causing inflation on goods and services. Stock and commodity prices have, since 2010, increased more than the Eurozone's aggregate output. Similarly, home prices have increased more than aggregate GDP since the implementation of the euro. Given the historical precedents of currency and debt crises, it is necessary to question if investors should rationally expect the repayment of the real value lent to the various Eurozone governments.
Defence date: 26 June 1987 ; Examining board: Prof. Jean Blondel ; Prof. Maurizio Cotta ; Prof. Gosta Esping-Andersen ; Prof. Peter Flora ; Prof. Massimo Paci ; First made available online: 14 September 2015
In two articles the author presents some key elements from his recently completed thesis about functional, non-intrusive information infrastructures for interorganisational public policy implementation. The development of these information infrastructures requires a new approach, chain-computerisation, based on new concepts and practices. This methodology is vital for public administration, if the problems associated with interorganisational policy implementation are to be overcome. Chain-computerisation recognises the impossibility in many interorganisational settings of implementing government policy, because no single organisational actor has authority over the system. Thus, for example, a Dutch requirement that prisoners serving longer prison sentences must notify the Benefits system so that benefit paid can be adjusted, cannot be enforced because this multi-agency setting is too complex to allow adequate co-ordinated control. What is needed is an informational solution which automatically signals to the Imprisonment system that a prisoner is receiving benefits. Such highly automated communication systems can also protect privacy, in this particular example by signalling that a note must be sent by the prisoner to his benefit agency rather than by triggering enforcement by the Imprisonment system without the prisoner concerned knowing it. This methodology can be seen as emerged from 'lessons learned' during the period that the author was responsible for the development of information policies at the Dutch Ministry of Justice. Chain-computerisation is explained here by means of examples taken from the penal and social welfare systems, but it should be emphasized that the methodology of chain-computerisation can be applied to many other situations where public policy is to be implemented by close co-operation of many autonomous public and private organisations.
This essay examines the political destiny and function in government of the civic institutions and élites of formerly independent urban polities once they had settled into the new political context of the Italian regional states in the fifteenth century. Research conducted from the 1970s onwards has established the greater weakness of Padua's municipal institutions and élite in relation to Venice, as compared to the experience of many other cities of the Terraferma dominion. The essay focuses on the profile of issues connected with land in the Paduan civic council's activity in the later fifteenth century, also seeking to gauge the extent of its autonomy in policy-making and its perception of its role, especially in relation to the action of Venetian authority. The archival material used concerns both the activity of the Paduan council and the more general conduct of government in Venice and Padua.
This PhD thesis investigates the role of the reduction of fiscal autonomy and uncertainty in the allocation of resources in driving the behaviour of Italian municipalities in non-autonomous regions and of the central government. Focusing on the uncertainty of grants to compensate the abolition of the property tax on main dwellings, we construct a regression discontinuity (RD) and regression kink (RK) design to test how the behaviour of municipalities changes depending on whether they are in a "bad" state (when they manage fewer resources after property tax reform) or in a "good" state (when they manage more resources after property tax reform), and also in light of the "partisan effect" (the mechanism that allows central governments to allocate more resources to the lower layer of government politically aligned with it). An empirical analysis of Italian municipalities suggests that: 1. Municipalities acted differently in terms of waste tax implementation. Their behaviour depended on the benefits or costs they assumed af- ter the abolition of the property tax on main dwellings: in particular municipalities that suffered a loss of resources increased the waste tax more; 2. Property tax reform led to an imperfect substitution between the prop- erty tax on the main dwelling and the waste tax, with a consequent loss in equality; 3. Despite the weakness of the ex-post control and the absence of pun- ishment for lying municipalities concerning the definition of a compen- satory grant may allow the presence of a weak "partisan effect", the reform of the main dwelling property tax was transparent in resources allocation.
Nine years have passed from the explosion of the most severe financial crisis since the Great Depression, yet most European economies are stagnating if not sinking. Given the constraints on fiscal policies, the burden of restoring growth and employment has shifted from governments to the European Central Bank, which at first implemented a loose monetary policy by lowering short-term interest rates. Once the zero lower bound was attained, the ECB decided to purchase government securities and private bonds. The effects of such unconventional measures on investment, inflation and employment is what this Master's dissertation will assess. Post-keynesian economics will provide the main theoretical reference to better understand how central banks operate in a developed credit-based economy and how the economic environment is supposed to react. The mainstream view will be challenged by arguing that unconventional monetary policies such as the Quantitative Easing have no significant effects in increasing aggregate demand. It will be showed that asset purchasing programmes lead to perverse outcomes consisting in increasing financial instability via the substitution of safe with risky assets. At last, this encourages corporations in exploiting carry trade opportunities and accelerates the already worrisome dominance of the financial sector.
The dissertation investigates the process of anti-corruption policy implementation in Italian local health agencies from a public management perspective. In detail, it is aimed at empirically investigating the implementation of the anti-corruption policy in Italian Local Health Agencies by following a nested research design, which ends up with a controlled comparison of two Local Health Agencies in order to shed light on the process of implementation of a new anti- corruption regulation issued by the Italian Government in November 2012 after several recommendations coming from international bodies such as the Council of Europe's anti-corruption monitoring body (GRECO). The perspective embraced by the author during the investigation is a public management perspective, that focusing on the achievement of the desired outputs of the implementation process in Italian Local Health Agencies aims at testing a "managerial quality hypothesis" as a tentative framework to investigate the ultimate role that public managers exert on the successful achievement of policy implementation and management. Various factors are controlled during the investigation, including relevant regional healthcare features and critical agencies' features- e.g. the levels of healthcare spending per inhabitant, important regional Quality of Government indicators like the regional levels of perceived impartiality and corruption of healthcare, as well as particular agencies' features like human resource and financial capacities. Finally, the results and conclusion sections are aimed to trace the process of implementation in the particular agencies and to provide insights for the improvement of anti-corruption policy implementation and management at a sub-national level of government in Italy. The results of the study show that the complex system of accountability and punishment introduced by the law, however claiming a bottom-up approach to the problem, still seems to result in practice as a typical top-down implementation with several implications on the successful achievement of the desired goals of the implementation process in Italian Local Health Agencies.
Public investments have been hit hard worldwide by the budgetary constraints aimed at mitigating the impact of the financial crisis. Recent studies carried out by prominent research institutions have shown the adverse effects on output growth of a shortfall in public infrastructure. To commit resources to public infrastructure is essential to select public projects capable of delivering quality and cost-effective services as to increase total productivity path. A crucial step is to engage in feasibility assessments prior to expenditure decisions. The recent overhauling of the appraisal for public investment enacted in Italy is consistent with this goal. The paper briefly discusses strengths and weaknesses of the new framework.
One of the thorniest issues in the recent historiography of Venice's mainland empire is the quality and justice of its governance. Michael Knapton has depicted the Terraferma cities — Vicenza, Verona, and especially Padua — as dominated by the Dominante, which governed harshly, and taxed heavily for the benefit of the capital, while others have viewed the mainland state as a patchwork of jurisdictions, with Venice retaining local custom and leadership wherever these served the interests of the central government. This paper argues that Venice's policy was in large measure the affirmation of custom, using the ancient institutions of the commune of the mainland cities as the basis for its rule, and confirming the remnants of the signorial élites as its new aristocratic governing class, which filled the offices of local government, especially the councils and judiciary. Fifteenth-century Padua prospered under this arrangement.
The connection between the public library and local government derives from the former's genetic heritage. The case of Sweden would appear to be exemplary in this regard. Our interest derives not only from the evident connection between the development of library services and the high level of autonomy of local bodies, but also from the administrative policy choices implemented to enable local authorities to exercise the autonomy conferred efficiently and on these administrative initiatives' repercussions on library legislation. Sweden has a long-standing tradition of autonomy. Lay and ecclesiastical institutions intermingled until the two administrative spheres were separated in 1862. Simultaneously, town and provincial councils were endowed with powers to levy taxes for their administrative activities and to draw up their own budgets. The wide-ranging reforms introduced since the 1950s have drastically reduced the number of local authorities. This process was engendered by the awareness that an efficient response at local level to the request for services deriving from a modern industrial society entails first and foremost a concentration of resources, possible only for territorial bodies endowed with a sufficiently large population to assure, through taxes, adequate revenues. As regards libraries, state subsidies to town libraries were suspended in 1965, while provincial (or county) libraries are disciplined by a law of 1966 which envisages joint financing by the state and the provincial administration. The new library law enacted in 1996 (no. 1596 of 20 December 1996) is what we in Italy would call a "framework" law and consists of only ten incisive sections. This is a guideline law containing statements of principles, aimed above all at public libraries. The establishment of both town and county libraries is mandatory. As regards financing, local councils fund town library and school library services, while the counties, assisted by the state, fund the provincial library services. The state finances the university libraries, lending centres and special projects. The law pays specific attention to handicapped users and ethnic minorities.
A Malta, come in molti altri Paesi dell'Europa meridionale, i flussi migratori degli ultimi anni hanno reso le scuole molto più multietniche e multilingui rispetto a quanto lo erano in passato. La presenza dei migrant learners richiede l'impiego di misure didattiche inclusive e di politiche linguistiche che possano facilitarne l'integrazione e far sì che la scuola valorizzi le loro esperienze personali, anche a beneficio dei discenti di nazionalità maltese. In questo lavoro si prende in considerazione il caso specifico della scuola maltese, prendendo spunto anche da esperienze di altri paesi del bacino mediterraneo. Si constata che il numero crescente di migrant learners ha stimolato uno sforzo notevole da parte delle autorità educative locali per migliorare il quadro normativo delle politiche di integrazione a favore degli alunni migranti e delle loro famiglie. Tuttavia, sono necessarie ulteriori misure pratiche e utili per la scuola, sia per portare ad una conoscenza più approfondita del fenomeno e dei vantaggi che se ne possono trarre, sia per migliorare la preparazione di presidi e di insegnanti e i rapporti che essi instaurano con i genitori dei migrant learners. ; peer-reviewed
The aim of this work is to present and investigate a model that departs from three considerations. First, fiscal policy and debt sustainability are two sides of the same coin: the former is the policy instrument that government manages in the present time to achieve its social objectives, whereas, the latter is the repercussion of the former in the long run. Second, fiscal policy has a direct impact on industries capital accumulation because it affects the available income and, therefore, their savings; such an impact can be evaluated through the intertemporal optimization of industries saving decisions. Finally, fiscal policy has to be characterized on both the revenue and the spending side: revenues are determined through a unique tax rate, while spending is represented as an industry-based subsidy with a fixed fraction, Φ, that must be re-invested in capital. The production function in each industry is assumed AK and investment is subjected to quadratic adjustment costs. The consequences of assuming a convex adjustment cost function are twofold: the model does not display growth in the long run and the invested capital due to the public incentivization program hyper-crowds out private saving, consequently the optimal Φ is 0. Another advantage, due to the simplicity of the framework, is that the notion of debt sustainability, contrary to the majority of literature on fiscal policy sustainability, is defined unambiguously therefore it is always possible to determine whether a certain public debt can be sustained. In section 4, the model is solved as a Nash bargaining problem by assuming an explicit welfare function and it is found that the optimal government size results undetermined whenever the optimal Φ is 0. However, in the conclusions, it is proposed a way to modify slightly the model in order to overcome the problem of the hyper-crowding-out and letting the designed public program of capital incentivization work effectively.
Dottorato di ricerca in Diritto dei mercati europei e globali. Crisi, diritti, regolazione ; La ricerca risponde alla domanda: cosa fa del coinvolgimento delle città nel policy-making e nel rule–making europeo un'occasione per il processo di integrazione? La questione è di natura "discorsiva", sia rispetto alla politica e sia rispetto al diritto, ma presuppone la risposta ad una domanda dicotomica: esiste o non esiste una politica urbana europea? Per rispondere a queste domande occorre, in primo luogo, fare chiarezza sulla definizione di città europea rilevante e far emergere il ruolo del "territorio" e della "crisi" per l'identità dell'Unione europea (cap. 1). Inoltre, vuol dire supportare la tesi dell'origine urbana dell'Europa e dell'ingresso della città nella storia dell'Unione europea (cap. 2 e capitolo 3). Questi capitoli costituiscono la Parte I. In secondo luogo, significa provare l'esistenza di una politica urbana europea così come immaginata e comprenderla attraverso le sue componenti di base. Qual è il suo fine e la sua materia (cap. 4)? Come è possibile ricostruire la peculiare organizzazione e gli strumenti serventi la politica stessa nonché i poteri che ne derivano (cap. 5)? Chi sono i suoi destinatari (cap. 6)? Questi capitoli costituiscono la Parte II. In terzo luogo, sono presentati alcuni casi studio per dare riscontro di quanto teorizzato sul funzionamento della politica urbana (Parte III). I casi sono strutturati secondo un modello standard e permettono la ricostruzione in dettaglio del funzionamento della politica urbana europea e l'emersione del dialogo tra città (le reti) e tra queste e la Commissione europea (cap. 7, 8 e 9). ; The research question is: which are the elements that let the involvement of cities in the European government and in the policy-making to be an occasion for the European integration process? This is a qualitative inquiry and it presumes the answer to a dichotomous further question: does or does not a European urban policy exist? To see all the potentialities in cities and in the European urban policy means, first of all (Part I), to clarify the definition of the European city relevant for legal disciplines and bringing out the role of the "territory" and that of the "crisis" for the identity of the European Union (ch.1). It means, furthermore, to support the thesis in favour of the urban origin of Europe and of the entrance of the city in the history of the European Union (ch.s 2 and 3). Secondly (Part II), it means proving the existence of a European urban policy and describing it through its main goals and competences, institutional subjects involved in the government (and/or governance) and its tools and beneficiaries (ch.s 4, 5, 6). Thirdly (Part III), it means to identify "case studies" able to give feedback on what has been theorized about the functioning of the urban policy and on the role of cities for legitimation and integration. The cases are structured according to a standard model and allow detailed reconstruction of the functioning of European urban policy and the emergence of dialogue between cities and between them and the European Commission (ch.s 7, 8 and 9).
Uscito a pezzi dalla pesante crisi finanziaria e industriale del 1907, che aveva messo a nudo i limiti della struttura economica del Paese, il capitalismo industriale italiano elaborò un programma, portato avanti fino al primo dopoguerra, che prevedeva l'instaurazione di un governo di tecnocrati. Questo avrebbe dovuto trainare il Paese fuori dalla crisi, pianificarne l'economia e trasformarlo in una grande potenza industriale, con forti connotazioni imperialistiche. Segnali in tale direzione si erano registrati anche nei decenni precedenti, tra fine Ottocento e inizi Novecento, quando ebbe inizio un processo di concentrazione nel settore siderurgico e meccanico. Un percorso peraltro stimolato dalle commesse statali sempre più consistenti (Galli Della Loggia, 1970; Battilossi, 1999; Amatori e Colli, 1999; Bolchini, 2002). La crisi industriale e finanziaria del 1907 e la recessione a livello mondiale che ne seguì, accelerarono la soluzione tecnocratica, che prevedeva un'alleanza, più o meno stretta, con una parte della classe politica e l'entrata in guerra. Negli anni immediatamente seguenti il conflitto, il potere dei tecnocrati sulla scena politica italiana sembrò accrescersi notevolmente, soprattutto quando il governo progettò un programma di espansione economica nelle regioni del Caucaso, nei Balcani e nel Levante ex ottomano, territori in grado di fornire materie prime e di assorbire la produzione italiana in eccesso rispetto alle richieste di un mercato interno asfittico. La collaborazione tra mondo imprenditoriale, bancario e politico non produsse il risultato sperato. La caduta del governo Nitti e il ruolo destabilizzante e filotedesco della Banca Commerciale Italiana nell'Est europeo e nel Caucaso furono tra le cause principali che impedirono il decollo del progetto tecnocratico, provocando una dura reazione da parte dei fratelli Perrone alla guida del gruppo Ansaldo.Heavily Weakened by the financial and industrial crisis of 1907, which showed all the limits of the economic structure of Italy, the Italian industrial capitalism developed a program that continued until the early after World War, which was taking into account the establishment of a government of technocrats. This should had to take the country out of crisis, establish an economical plan and turn it into a major industrial power, with strong imperialist characteristics. Signals in this direction were also recorded in the previous decades, from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, when a process of concentration of the main groups of entrepreneurs and capitalists began in the steel and mechanical industry. A path anyway enhanced by more and more orders from the government (Galli Della Loggia, 1970; Battilossi, 1999; Amatori and Colli, 1999; Boldrini, 2002). The industrial and financial crisis of 1907 and the global recession that followed, accelerated the technocratic solution, which were looking for a more or less closer alliance, with a part of the political class and going into war. Soon after the war, the political power of the technocrats in Italy seemed to grow significantly, especially when the Government developed a program of economic expansion in the regions of the Caucasus, Balkans and on the countries of the ex East Ottoman, these territories could provide raw materials and, with respect of an internal market completely saturated, to absorb the exceeding Italian production. The collaboration within the world of business, banking and politics did not produce the desired result. The fall of the Nitti´s Government and the pro German and destabilizing role of the Italian Commercial Bank in Eastern Europe and on the Caucasus were the major drivers against the launch of the technocratic project, inducing a though reaction by the Perrone brothers leading the group Ansaldo. ; L'obiettivo del saggio è di accertare se l'intervento dello Stato fascista nell'economia del paese sia stato effettuato, oltre che dai ministeri deputati a tale funzione e dai vertici del partito fascista, in primis da Mussolini, anche dalle strutture centrali e periferiche del sistema corporativistico.Il potere contrattuale della classe operaia, già del tutto esautorato dalla riforma sindacale del fascismo, dalla creazione cioè di un unico sindacato, fu eliminato definitivamente in seguito all'autonomia della Confindustria nei confronti del Consiglio Nazionale delle Corporazioni e delle Corporazioni, ad eccezione della breve e timida parentesi collaborazionistica avviata dopo il 1936. Tra i motivi di questo cambiamento nell'atteggiamento degli industriali bisogna ricordare che nella seconda metà degli anni Trenta l'economia italiana registrava un deciso orientamento bellico per cui si avvertì l'esigenza di un maggiore impegno della classe operaia per rispondere alle esigenze di una parziale riconversione degli impianti e di una maggiore produttività. Si trattava comunque di aperture molto timide. Nella sostanza, la Confindustria restò arroccata sulle sue posizioni. Del resto era impensabile che tecnocrati e industriali potessero chiedere una partecipazione molto allargata delle Corporazioni al piano industriale varato dal governo.The objective of the test is to determine whether the intervention of the fascist state in the economy of the country has been made, not only by prosecutors appointed to this function and the heads of the fascist party, first by Mussolini, also from the central and peripheral structures corporatist system.The contractual power of the working class, already completely ousted from the union reform of fascism, namely the creation of a single trade union, was permanently deleted after the autonomy of the Confederation against the National Council of Corporations and the Corporations, except for short and timid brackets started after 1936. Among the reasons for this change in the attitude of the industrialists have to remember that in the second half of the thirties the Italian economy registered a strong orientation war that came the need for greater commitment working class to meet the needs of a partial conversion of the plants and increased productivity. It was still very timid openings. In essence, the Confederation remained entrenched in their positions. Moreover it was unthinkable that technocrats and industrial might ask a very enlarged participation of the guilds to plan launched by the government
Per affrontare la generale condizione di crisi socio-economica, le comunità e le città riscoprono il valore strategico dei fattori localizzativi, quale condizione che favorisce la partecipazione delle piattaforme urbane alla competizione globale. Le istanze energetiche ed ambientali rilanciano il costruire nel costruito, suggerendo interesse prioritario per i vuoti urbani come le aree industriali dismesse. Se il locale non incide su queste priorità, è pronto un ritorno al protagonismo dello Stato. Nello scenario metropolitano di Roma, per esempio, si evidenzia il comprensorio di Colleferro, company town del Novecento, con vaste aree industriali dismesse: reti ed infrastrutture adeguate, paesaggi significativi quale esito della specifica storia industriale del sito. Il piano provinciale intende coinvolgerle per potenziare la piattaforma metropolitana di Roma: un intenso confronto locale e territoriale ricerca proposte operative. Da un lato si intende coinvolgere la filiera istituzionale su programmi urbanistici di intervento, riferimento di normativa consolidata ma non sempre efficiente nelle sue diverse caratterizzazioni, dall'altro si cerca di arricchire di valore la dimensione edilizia ritenuta più praticabile. Le criticità ambientali sono ampiamente governabili, ma di fronte ai tempi della crisi, il governo locale deve manifestare intensità e slancio, anche in vista delle possibilità di investimento che si prospettano con la nuova politica annunciata dalla BCE. ; In order to overcome the general socio-economic crisis, communities and cities are rediscovering the strategic role of location factors as a condition that promotes the participation of urban platforms to global competition. Energy and environmental policy improves the urban regeneration, suggesting priority interest for empty spaces such as the industrial brownfields. If local government doesn't affect these priorities, the return to the central leadership is already. In the scenario of metropolitan Rome, for example, the twentieth century company town of Colleferro highlights, with vast industrial brownfields, acceptable utilities and infrastructures, significant landscapes as the outcome of site-specific industrial history. The provincial plan intends to involve those wastelands to enhance the metropolitan platform of Rome: as a consequence an intense local and territorial debate is searching for operational proposals. On the one hand the debate intends to involve governments about some urban renewal programs, based on established rules but not always efficient in their various characterizations, on the other one the goal is valuing the building scale because considered more feasible. The critical environmental issues are largely manageable, but in the face at the times of the crisis, the local government must demonstrate strength and leadership, also in view of the investment opportunities that lie ahead with the new policy announced by the ECB.
