Matteo Migheli

Open Access, Social Norms & Publication Choice

The aim of this paper is to shed light on scholarly communication and its current trajectories by examining academics’ perception of Open Access, while also providing a reference case for studying social norm change. In this respect, the issue of publication choice and the role of Open Access journals casts light on the changes affecting the scientific community and its institutional arrangements for validating and circulating new research. The empirical investigation conducted also offers a useful vantage point for gauging the importance of localised social norms in guiding and constraining behaviour. JEL classification: K19, Z13, O33, L17

Capabilities and Functionings: The Role of Social Capital for Accessing New Capabilities

This paper connects two relatively recent streams of research in social science: the capabilities approach and the literature on social capital. The aim is to show that these are strictly connected in a dynamic process linking functionings and capabilities through social capital. The ability to attain new capabilities is enhanced by the possession of social capital; hence investing in its accumulation allows individuals to improve their welfare. Furthermore, new capabilities allow the individual to create new connections and access new networks, accruing his or her stock of social capital and opening the door to the possibility of attaining new capabilities. The paper hypothesizes that a dynamic spiral interweaves social capital, capabilities and functionings.

Supporting the Free and Competitive Market in China and India: Differences and Evolution over Time

This paper analyzes the support to market competition by Indian and Chinese citizens. In particular, I study the individual preferences with respect to some characteristics of a free and competitive market. The paper aims at establishing whether preferences in these countries are different and their evolution over the time. This is an important issue, as the economic literature shows that peoples preferences and policies tend to go hand in hand. This means that the analysis of todays preferences and their evolution over time can be useful to forecast tomorrows policies. The main findings of this paper are that Indians and Chinese are different in supporting competition. The Chinese express preferences that are more in line with a free and competitive market than Indians do. The detected time path reveals that this support has been decreasing over time during the last two decades. The two populations appear to be in favour of a capitalistic, but strictly regulated market. This can mean that the future economic policies of these Asian giants will tend to this direction. Apparently there are no risks for some form of capitalism, but it is likely the two countries will not adopt completely free and competitive market institutions.

Do the Vietnamese Support the Economic Doi Moi

ABSTRACT Each reform implies social and economic changes. After experiencing war and reunification, today Vietnam is implementing a comprehensive and deep process of renovation (doi moi), but a revolution needs the support of the population to be successful. This article investigates whether the Vietnamese are supportive of some of the main features of a market economy. In particular the preferences for competition, ownership of firms (either private or public) and income inequality as an incentive to productivity are studied here. The data allow us to conclude that the doi moi is not at risk, but the population tend to contrast income inequality.

Exogenous Individual Characteristics and Social Capital in Western Europe

This paper investigates the link between some individual characteristics and voluntary association membership. This latter is considered a measure of social capital. Among the formers we included gender, age, geographical location and received religious education. The listed characteristics have been found to affect several economic variables; also social capital is proved to exert some effects on economic determinants. Our findings are that most of the exogenous features are strongly linked to investment in social capital.

Competition among parties and power: an empirical analysis

According to commonsense wisdom, under proportionality a small centrist party enjoys an excess of power with reference to its share of seats (or votes) due to the possibility of blackmailing the larger ones. This hypothesis has been challenged on a theoretical ground, with some empirical support. In this paper we use simulation to test its validity. Our results strongly provide evidence that the hypothesis is actually wrong. What occurs is a transfer of power from the periphery of the political spectrum towards the center, but the major gainers are the large centrist parties and not the small ones.

PLURALITY, PROPORTIONALITY, GOVERNABILITY AND FACTIONS

Common sense suggests that majoritarian parliaments produce more efficient governments than proportional ones, because fewer decision‐makers are involved. Empirical evidence offers only limited support for this claim. A possible explanation is that the true decision‐makers are not actually the parties, but rather the factions within them. We consider some stylised real proportional cases, i.e. Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, and use simulation to assess the weight that factions must have for governability to be lower in first‐past‐the‐post than in threshold proportionality. Overall, our results provide support for the hypothesis suggested.

Socialisation, trust and reciprocity among young people

SummaryThis paper analyzes the contribution of youth’s different time allocations to positive behaviors in exchanges. Psychologists highlight that time spent within voluntary organizations fosters positive development. The paper aims at deepening the knowledge of the psychological bases of the observed outcomes of a basic trust game. Undergraduate students played a basic trust game; after this, information about the use of their spare time was collected. Higher passed amounts positively correlate with time spent in youth organizations. The main novelties of the paper are: the way social capital is measured and the strong link with the psychological literature.

Il porto moderno: confronto tra Genova e Rotterdam tra possibilità di sviluppo e vincoli fisici

The port system is today one of the main pillars of transportations and trade. Italy is located at the centre of the Mediterranean See and of Europe, therefore the development of modern and competitive ports is of great importance for the country. The harbour of Genoa is a natural candidate to become one of the most important ports in the world. This positioning would constitute a factor of competitiveness and development for both the city of Genoa and the country as a whole. This paper analyzes first the determinants of success of a modern port and offers a comparison between the Ligurian port and that of Rotterdam. This comparison highlights the strengths and weaknesses of Genoa’s harbour with respect to Rotterdam’s. By means of a simulation, this paper shows the possible consequences of an enlargement of the Ligurian port.

The Faster the Better: When the Payoff Depends on Reaction Times in a Natural Experiment

This paper experimentally investigates how people take risk with other people’s money, and specifically, whether risk-taking is influenced by information about others. Before choosing the degree of risk another person must bear, subjects get information about the other person’s gender and self-reported level of extroversion. There is no evidence that information about gender has an effect, and matters more for choosing on behalf of one’s-self than for choosing on behalf of others. Extroversion, however, has a significant effect. Here it matters more for choosing on behalf of others than on behalf of one’s-self. I also find that the own risk choices have a strong effect on choosing on behalf of others.