Sergio Beraldo

The Relationship Between Competition and Trust: An Essay in an Historical and Theoretical Perspective

Competition is generally claimed to be good for social welfare, even though this claim is rarely coupled with a plain account of the circumstances under which it is actually true. Both the original connotation of the verb ‘to compete’ and the non-technical common use of the word, are grounded on the intuition that competition is a race (Blaug 2001). The view that the by-product of such a race is good beyond any reasonable doubt, is not questioned even in presence of those situations in which an impoverishment of the quality of the good supplied is observed as an effect of the race itself (e.g. Alsberg 1931).

Life is Now! Time Discounting and Crime: Evidence from the Italian Regions (2002-2007)

This paper tests the relationship between time preferences and crime rates as posited by Davis (1988), whose theoretical analysis suggests that individuals’ attitude towards the future significantly affect their propensity to commit crime. Our empirical analysis is based on a panel of Italian regions for the period 2002-2007. Various proxies for time preferences are considered: the consumer credit share out of the total amount of loans to households, the share of obese individuals out of the total population, and the rate of marriages out of the total population. In line with the theoretical prediction, our empirical analysis confirms that where people are more impatient and discount the future more heavily, property and violent crimes are higher. Results are robust to a number of alternative specifications including covariates drawn from the literature on the determinants of crime.

Non-Profit Organizations, employment and the Mezzogiorno

The aim of this paper is to outline, particularly for the Mezzogiorno, employment perspectives offered by non-profit sector, being more and more important within the Italian economy, both for its amount of services offered and for its amount of employed job units. This analysis points out the persistence of some structural weakness which characterizes non-profit in Italy, such as a substantial presence of very small organizations, which on average employ few paid job. This sector highlights a clear geographic differentiation of job opportunities, as we can notice for economy as a whole, and an increasing resort to flexible job contracts. A promising role seems to be performed by social cooperatives, being more and more important within non-profit. Also in this case, however, significant differences have to be underlined between the two Italys macro-areas, as a result of their lower expansive capacity in the Mezzogiorno, linked too to a lower inclination to be in the market, compared to the Centre-North.

Are genetically modified foods bad for my health?. Consumer evaluation and preferred information source

We investigate the impact of competing information on the consumer’s evaluation of food products containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs). We provide three main results. First, we show that introducing mandatory labels to identify whether or not a food product contains GMOs significantly reduces the consumer evaluation. Second, providing additional information on GMOs with respect to labels significantly affects evaluation. Third, no matter what kind of information previously received, the consumer prefers to seek additional information from the information source they trust the most, i.e., their general practitioner (GP). Overall, these results indicate that the crucial issue for regulating GMOs is not the presence of the label per se, but the availability of the necessary information to make good use of the label content in order to assess potential health risks deriving from genetically modified foods. In particular, our findings suggest that this can be achieved by properly informing (and convincing) GPs and other health professionals that the risks for human health are minimal.

Good standing and cooperation

Indirect reciprocity is generally considered one of the leading mechanisms to explain how cooperation may emerge by natural selection. The basic intuition is that establishing a reputation of being a helpful individual increases the probability of being in turn helped. Two models have been proposed to describe how indirect reciprocity may work: the standing model (Sugden, 1986/2004) and the image-scoring model (Nowak and Sigmund, 1998a,b). Although there is evidence that the former model would perform better under a wide set of circumstances, it is often maintained that it requires individuals with an implausibly large capacity of processing recursive information. In this paper I argue that this is not actually the case. I then suggest that the information needed by the image-scoring model, under reasonable assumptions, may be sufficient for the standing model to work. Finally I emphasize that even if the hypothesis of indirect reciprocity is unable to give a fair account of the ecological bases of cooperation, it has inspired a deal of research precious to social sciences.

Are Genetically Modified Foods Bad for My Health? Individuals’ Valuation and the Choice Among Different Information Sources

We investigate the role of information on consumers’ valuation for food products containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs), using data from a specifically designed survey. We provide three main results. First, we show that introducing mandatory labels to identify whether or not a food product contains GMOs, significantly reduces consumers’ valuation. Second, adding to the label additional information on GMOs significantly affects valuation. Third, no matter the sign of the information previously received, consumers are more willing to trust General Practitioners (GPs), the information source they prefer most. Overall, these results indicate that the crucial issue is not the presence of the label per se, but the availability of the necessary information to make good use of the label content to assess potential health risks deriving from GM foods. In particular, our findings suggest that this can be achieved by properly informing (and convincing) GPs and other health professionals that risks for human health are minimal.

Differences in IQ Predict Italian North-South Differences In (Among Other Things) Income: A Comment

I provide a discourse on the article by Prof. Lynn (2010), which suggests that differences in intelligence explain per capita income levels across the Italian regions. To emphasize that his article is affected by flaws leading to false conclusions. This is clear as soon as some basic principles underpinning any rigorous scientific analysis are employed to discuss his findings.

National Civil Service, Non-profit Organizations and Southern Italy: Some Reflections Starting from an Analysis of Volunteers' Motivation

The aim of this paper is to focus on the motivation differences between«real» volunteers and volunteers of the National Civil Service, by analyzing theanswers given by a sample of 732 volunteers being in Campania and Piedmont.The questionnaires were distributed from October 2008 to May 2009. Evidenceproves that, whereas «real» volunteers are led by an intrinsic motivation (idealmotive), choosing to join the National Civil Service is mainly led by extrinsicmotivations, that is by both the ambition to improve employment perspectivesand the compensation given by the Civil Service. Besides legislators intents, theCivil Service is therefore largely seen as a pattern of active welfare, and not as ameans for organizing voluntary work. As to this aspect, there are not significantdifferences between Central-North and South Italy.

Fiscal Decentralization in Weak Institutional Environments: Evidence from Southern Italy

The quality of the institutional environment is a crucial issue in understanding the effective outcome of fiscal decentralization initiatives. However, there has been so far very little work on the subject. In this paper we contribute to fill this gap by considering the municipalities belonging to three provinces in Southern Italy and proxying the presence of a weak institutional environment with the capture of the local government by Mafia-type organizations. The analysis exploits an unforeseen change in fiscal policy by central government increasing Vertical Fiscal Imbalances and tests whether the effects of the lower tax decentralization on municipal spending are conditioned by the quality of the institutional environment. We find no sensible effects when the institutional environment is weak; on the contrary, a 4-6% increase in average spending per capita is estimated as a consequence of the lower tax autonomy in municipalities not captured by Mafia clans. The evidence is robust both to controls for potential confounding factors and sensitivity analyses. Overall, our findings suggest that some caution is needed before deciding to devolve more fiscal power to lower tiers of government.