Simone D'Alessandro

Functional Distribution, Land Ownership and Industrial Takeoff: The Role of Effective Demand

Abstract In this paper we analyse how the distribution of land property rights affects industrial takeoff and aggregate income through its impact on effective demand. We apply a modified version of the model provided in Murphy et al. (1989, QJE) which allows us to analyse the role of land distribution when it is independent of the distribution of firm ownership. We extend the result of Murphy et al. (1989, QJE) by showing that industrialization and income depend non-monotonically on the distribution of land and by demonstrating that this result is due to the way land distribution affects the distribution of profits among firms. Moreover, we show that there may be a tradeoff between industrialization and income, the latter being associated with a distribution of land which is more equal than that associated with maximum industrialization.

Transition to Sustainability: Italian Scenarios Towards a Low-Carbon Economy

This paper analyzes different policies that may promote the transition to sustainability, with a particular focus on the energy sector. We present a dynamic simulation model where three different strategies for sustainability are identified: reduction in GHG emissions, improvements in energy efficiency and the development of the renewable energy sector. Our aim is to evaluate the dynamics that those strategies may produce in the economy, looking at different performance indicators: rate of growth, unemployment, fiscal position, GHG emission, and transition to renewable energy sources.

Functional Distribution, Land Ownership and Industrial Takeoff

This paper investigates how the distribution of land property rights affects industrial take-off and aggregate income through the demand side. We study a stylized two sectors economy where the manufacturing sector is assumed to be constituted by a continuum of small markets producing distinct commodities. Following Murphy et al. [24] we model industrialization as the introduction of an increasing returns technology in place of a constant returns one. However, we depart from their framework by assuming income to be distributed according to functional groups’ membership (landowners, capitalists, workers). We carry out an equilibrium analysis for different levels of land ownership concentration proving that, under the specified conditions, there is a non-monotonic relation between the distribution of land property rights and both industrialization and income. We clarify that non-monotonicity arises because of the way land ownership concentration affects the level and the distribution of profits among capitalists. Our results suggest that i) both a too concentrated and a too diffused distribution of land property rights can be detrimental to industrialization, ii) landownership affects the economic performance of an industrializing country by determining industrial profits and iii) in terms of optimal land distribution there may be a tradeoff between income and industrialization.

Technology and the environment in the history of the economic thought

This paper explores the way the man–nature relationship and the related environmental problems have been dealt along with the history of the economic thought. We discuss a number of different theoretical frameworks (classical, Marxian and neoclassical economics, Georgescu-Roegens approach and ecological economics) and organise the discussion around the following two crucial points: how the environment influences the economic activity and imposes constraints by means of the scarcity of natural resources; and how the human activity impacts the environment, according to the prevailing technology, and modifies the ecosystem. Throughout this examination, we stress from time to time the role technological progress is found to play according to the various paradigms analysed. Is technological progress always in contrast with environmental sustainability or it may be seen as a tool in the hands of the humankind to make development sustainable?