Massimiliano Castellani

Tribal Art Market: Signs and Signals

In this paper, we present a model for the marketability of a Tribal artwork and we test this model empirically using a unique hand-collected dataset, which comprises the worldwide Tribal art market auctions between 1999 and 2008. Our results show a significant relationship between the probability of an artwork to be sold and several signs and signals. The effect of the auction estimated prices on the probability of sales is nonlinear, and allows us to divide the Tribal art market into two price regimes. In the low-price regime, the effect of the auction estimated price on the probability of sales is negative. In the high-price regime, the effect of the auction estimated price on the probability of sales is positive.

Pricing Visitor Preferences for Temporary Art Exhibitions

This paper focuses on the initiatives that museum managers may implement to maximize the profits of museums located in tourist destinations and that host temporary art exhibitions. These initiatives have direct effects on visitor demand and indirect effects on the tourist destination. Classifying visitors into residents, excursionists and tourists, the authors evaluate their preferences and willingness to pay for managerial initiatives. They focus specifically on for-profit museums that host temporary exhibitions in medium and small tourist destinations. Visitor preferences are priced through discrete choice experiments submitted to a sample of (actual and potential) visitors to Castel Sismondo Museum in Rimini, Italy.

Abnormal Returns of Soccer Teams: Reassessing the Informational Value of Betting Odds

We analyze the links between soccer match results, betting odds, and stock returns of all listed European soccer teams. Using an event-study approach, we measure positive (negative) abnormal returns following wins (ties and losses). Additionally, we analyze the role, which we find to be nonsignificant, of betting odds in shaping market reactions to unexpected results. We propose an alternative econometric approach, using seemingly unrelated regressions models, to take into account the problem of overlapping events. Abnormal returns following unexpected results are then found to be statistically significant and to magnify the positive (negative) effects of wins (losses).

Estimating Tourism Effects on Residents: A Choice Modelling Approach to the Case of Rimini

For tourist destinations, sustainable economic development requires, together with the attainment of economic efficiency, environmental protection and social cohesion. This latter aspect implies that the local community has to be actively involved in the planning and in the management of the tourism sector, and that (the great part of) tourism earnings have to be fairly distributed among the residents.

Reconsidering psychic return in art investments

Measuring the psychic return of art investments is a debated issue in Cultural economics. Several works suggest Jensen’s alpha as a measure of the psychic return. Since the Jensen’s alpha is defined in the CAPM framework, its uncritical application as a measure of the psychic return may be problematic when the CAPM hypotheses do not hold. Applying an opportunity cost framework and the analytical tools of portfolio theory, we propose a new psychic return measure, which is not affected by the same issues as Jensen’s alpha. Psychic return estimates based on our measure are provided for several art market indexes as an empirical application.

Tourism Investments under Uncertainty: An Economic Analysis of ‘Eco-Monsters’:

‘Ecological monsters’ can be the legal outcome of rational choices made by three players: a firm, a policymaker and Nature. The firm asks the local policymaker for permission to undertake a real investment project in a stochastic framework, with real options and environmental externalities. The model consists of a non-cooperative game and its solution implies a bizarre outcome, both for the firm when it interrupts and abandons the investment project and for the policymaker when it is unable to avoid eco-monsters. Policy implications and partisan effects are explored.

Event Clustering and Abnormal Returns: Reassessing the Informational Value of Bets

We analyse the links between soccer match results, bets and stock returns of all listed European soccer teams. Using an event study approach, we measure abnormal returns following wins, ties and losses. Wins are associated with positive abnormal returns, and ties and losses with negative abnormal returns. Additionally, we analyse the role of bets in shaping market reactions to unexpected results, which we find to be non-significant. We propose an alternative econometric approach, using seemingly unrelated regression models, to take into account the problem of overlapping events. While our results concerning match results are confirmed, abnormal returns following unexpected results are found to be statistically significant and to magnify the positive (negative) effects of wins (losses).

The Wise Use of Leisure Time. An Endogenous Growth Model With Leisure Services

In this paper, starting from the Uzawa-Lucas endogenous growth framework with production of physical and human capital, we develop and investigate a model with an additional sector for the production of leisure services. In turn, our three-sector model builds on and extends Ladron-de Guevara et al. [1999] - where the utility function depends only on consumption of physical goods and on ‘pure’ leisure - by introducing consumption of leisure services. As the latter is a time- consuming activity, the model also generalizes the standard time allocation problem, in that total available time can be allocated among work, education, purely free time and leisure activities in our framework. We characterize analytically the Balanced Growth Paths of this general model, particularly in terms of time allocation and growth. We carry out a comparative analysis across different Service Economies that are supposed to be at their equilibrium, including an ‘Industrial Economy’ without service sector, as well across possibly multiple equilibria of the same economy. Part of the analysis is based on an intuitive yet rigorous framework for determining and representing Balanced Growth Paths in the space of time allocation decisions.

Intermodal Competition and Temporal Interdependencies in Passenger Flows: Evidence from the Emerald Coast

As travellers commonly perceive available transport modes (e.g. planes and ships) as substitutes, forcing transportation providers into competition for the same routes, this chapter analyses the effects of intermodal competition on the time series of passenger flows. Our conceptual framework suggests negative correlations of arrivals, both within and across transport modes, during low-season periods, and positive correlations during high-season periods. Using daily passenger arrivals at the airport and seaport of Olbia, from 2005 to 2008, and Threshold-VAR models to test these suggestions, the findings support our conceptual framework.

The wise use of leisure time. A three-sector endogenous growth model with leisure services

In this paper, starting from the two-sector Uzawa-Lucas model, we study a three-sector endogenous growth model with leisure services. By extending the endogenous growth model with leisure developed by Ladron-de Guevara et al. [1999], our model generalizes the standard time allocation problem, in that it explicitly accounts for the way total time is allocated between work, education, purely free time and time spent on leisure services, where the latter represents therefore an additional time-consuming activity. Accordingly, service consumption is tied to a production sector for leisure services in our model. We fully characterize Balanced Growth Path (BGP) equilibria in terms of time allocation and growth, and show that multiple BGPs are possible. Since service production plays an important role in economic development, we carry out a comparative analysis of the dynamic performance of different economic systems - Post-Industrial Economy vs. Service Economy - along a BGP.