Eleonora Lorenzini

Food Competition in World Markets: Some Evidence from a Panel Data Analysis of Top Exporting Countries

This paper investigates the relationships between export price and income elasticities, average unit values (AUVs) and market shares for the top world food exporters in the time period 1992-2011 using a panel data framework. Emerging countries and Spain show a high price elasticity unlike other advanced countries. Moreover, an inverse relationship between price elasticities and AUVs is found to exist. The overall analysis enables the conclusion that advanced countries can maintain a specialization in low-tech sectors only if high prices, as indicators of high quality, are accompanied by a rigid foreign demand and a satisfactory income elasticity of exports.

Innovation and e-commerce in clusters of small firms: The case of a regional e-marketplace

This paper goes into the black box of a Regional Electronic Marketplace (REM) and studies it from a multiplicity of points of view. It identifies the critical success factors for the establishment of an REM and its evaluation, analyses the determinants of firms’ satisfaction and economic performance inside the REM and proposes policy suggestions. The analysis is based on micro-level data collected via a questionnaire submitted to firms, on interviews with relevant agents and accountancy data. Results show that REMs deserve support as an instrument of territorial development in the establishment and in the adoption phase. Policy makers should promote policies aimed at financing the acquisition of know-how and technical infrastructure but also work as ‘territorial animateurs’, identifying possible pilot enterprises characterised by high export orientation, commercial vision and linkages inside and outside the cluster, and then encouraging its adoption amongst less innovative firms.

Verso una revisione dei criteri di merito del diritto allo studio universitario: i risultati di una simulazione

This paper aims at stimulating the debate on the likely revision of the Italian system of university student grants, with particular attention to the possible solutions capable of promoting a more meritocratic system. After a survey of the current legislation on the students’ right to education and of the role of State and Regions on this subject, a statistical analysis is performed on a sample of 1,413 students belonging to three cohorts of freshmen enrolled in the BA programme at the University of Pavia in the academic years 2002/2003, 2003/2004 and 2004/2005. A first result of the analysis is that the high school degree grade is a good predictor of the probability of maintaining the grant for the first year (on the basis of current criteria), as well as for the whole three-year cycle of studies. The high school grade is also a good predictor of the probability of getting the BA degree in regular time and with a high mark (99/110 or more). Consequently, we argue that policy makers should consider the hypothesis of re-introducing the high school degree grade as a criterion for selecting freshmen eligible for grants. We also assess the hypothesis of establishing more restrictive merit criteria for obtaining university scholarships. The analysis proposes some solutions tions capable of stimulating students to obtain better results, while at the same time maintaining a good number of students eligible for grants.

Measuring the Success Factors of a Website: Statistical Methods and an Application to a “Web District”

In this paper we propose a statistical methodology to address the issue of measuring success factors of an ecommerce application, and in particular of a regional e-marketplace, using as a measurement framework based on the customers’ satisfaction. In the first part of the paper, two different ranking methods have been compared in order to identify the more appropriate tool to analyse the opinions expressed by the visitors: a novel non parametric index, named the Stochastic dominance index, built on the basis of the cumulative distribution function alone, and a qualitative ranking based on the median and on the Leti Index. SDI has resulted to be more convenient for comparison purposes and, according to this measurement tool, the higher satisfaction has been expressed for the quality of the products. Then, a logistic regression has been performed to understand the impact of the different satisfaction factors on the overall satisfaction. The empirical evidence confirms the literature on the importance of the different success factors, showing that Website user friendliness and Information about purchase mechanisms have the major impact on the overall satisfaction.