Giandemetrio Marangoni

Infrastructure and Performance of the Italian Economic System

This paper aims to analyze the consequences for the Italian economy of the recently started process of modernization and extension of the countrys infrastructure. The planned measures are expected to increase the competitiveness of Italian businesses, and to improve the quality of life. In the short term, investments in infrastructure will increase the construction sectors production and, consequently, activate income and employment multipliers. The Italian economic system being highly differentiated from a territorial viewpoint, the impact of new investments on its economic system has been analyzed by means of a biregional model that accounts for the peculiar productive structure of the 20 Italian regions.

Financialization: critical assessment based on Catholic social teaching

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to address financialization in the light of Catholic social teaching (CST) and investigate the issues surrounding corporate governance and the impact that the priority of shareholder value poses for achieving ethical outcomes in routine economic interactions. Design/methodology/approach - The approach ventures beyond an accounting of the enormous costs of the recent global collapse of financial markets in search of an ethical evaluation as to how this all came about. The ethical evaluation proceeds along two tracks: individual action and system of rules. Findings - Six suggestions as to how to reconcile what is known from CST and what is observed in everyday economic affairs have been offered. Research limitations/implications - The paper is limited to reconciling financialization and issues of corporate governance with CST. Practical implications - The practical desirability and the ethical goodness of a financialized system are commented on and the paper contributes to a better understanding of the origins of the financial market collapse. Originality/value - The global collapse of financial markets linked to the introduction of new financial products in which the return is emphasized and the risk glossed over provides a unique opportunity to contribute to the dialogue on what needs to be done to address the broader problem of financialization.

Sectoral Rates of Profit and Productive Structure

This paper analyzes an economic system in which rates of profit are not uniform but differ from one sector to another, and discusses the acceptable intervals of variation of the rates of profit compatible with non-negative prices. The investigation is conducted in a Leontief price model with fixed capital. The limits of variation of the rates of profit are ascertained using a mathematical algorithm based on the properties of Z matrices and dominant-diagonal matrices.

What of Financialisation

The attempt to introduce corporate social responsibility (CSR) takes place in a new and different economic context increasingly dominated by finance and, above all, by an increasingly diffused ‘financial way of thinking’ on economic issues. Deregulation and globalisation have had a significant impact on the way we generally conceive economic problems. Besides the effects on structural change, we may understand this change as a shift in both rules and morality, which legitimised the adoption of a strict monetary calculation over the many immaterial and social issues implied in economic choices. Such question is particularly evident in and relevant for corporate governance.