Presentations - EM PhD students - second year

2 PM, Laboratory 4, Doctoral School of Social Sciences, via Verdi 26

• Stefano Benincasa - Decomposition schemes and organizational learning in complex environments: An experimental investigation.

Abstract

In the constructive theory of economic systems, organizations are conceived as complex entities made up by a number of interdependent activities, in which the relative patterns of division of labor reflect specific decomposition schemes. Prior
theoretical work on the effect of different decomposition schemes on the performance of organizations came to conflicting conclusions. Some studies reported that more than optimal decomposition is evolutionary convenient, while others observed that it induces perturbations and inferior performances. Notably, the evidence is confined to the behaviour of artificial agents in simulations, while the data generating processes underlying human conjectural decomposition and organizational learning remain unclear. In order to address these problems, I plan to experimentally investigate decomposition schemes and organizational
learning in complex environments, operationalized as stylized organizational arrangements and search paths in complex problem spaces generated by NK algorithms.
In addition to provide a unifying experimental design that consent to bring together the previous heterogeneous procedures and to disentangle the controversial effects of decomposition schemes, the study will help to assess the heuristics at the basis of the collective representations of a problem and organizational learning.

• Giacomo Bracci - Prelude to a Monetary Theory of Production: an Input-Output approach.

Abstract

After the Great Financial Crisis, workhorse macroeconomic models have been criticized for neglecting monetary factors in the analysis of business cycle uctuations; however, a new consensus about how to model monetary shocks has not yet been achieved. This project will contribute to a monetary theory of uctuations of output and employment via three papers. The first will compute prices of production in a standard Sraffian input-output model augmented with a banking sector that advances financial capital to firms. The second paper will study an input-output system which will be allowed to reproduce with agents accumulating debt and credit positions that are to be settled in future periods. The third paper will verify the existence of Walrasian equilibria when Sraffian schemes are introduced as budget constraints in agents' optimization problem and variables are defined in discrete
sets. MATLAB programs will be used to compute prices of production, given a set of randomly generated data for inputs and outputs; moreover, artificial neural networks will be implemented to simulate agents decision-making processes. The main goal of this project is to verify whether the presence of a monetary sector has an inuence on cyclical variations of relative prices, distribution, and output.

• Mattia Borsati - Critical Issues facing Highway Concessionaires in Italy: Safety, Financing, and Pricing.

Abstract

Since the privatization of Autostrade S.p.A. at the end of 1999, the Italian motorway system has been managed by many private, public, or mixed capital concession companies. While a range of economic consequences stemming from this franchising process have been extensively investigated, less attention has been paid to several critical issues that concessionaires need to manage, including improving road safety, identifying new sources of funding, and achieving profitability by applying regulated toll-fares. The three chapters of my research propose to address these issues. The first aims to determine whether the average speed enforcement system (Safety Tutor), developed and progressively deployed along the Italian tolled network by Autostrade per l’Italia, has measurably contributed to a reduction of highway accidents and fatalities after more than 10 years of operation. The second chapter will analyse whether value capture, a financial instrument designed to tax the increase in land and property values of who passively benefits from transportation value creation, is a feasible means of partially funding highway construction. Finally, the third chapter will examine to what extent variable tolls, charged on a "congestion" basis through a dynamic price-cap mechanism, can provide a more efficient use of motorways without reducing the companies’ profits.

• Piero Ronzani - The behavioral consequences of poverty.

Abstract

People living in extreme poverty is a persistent issue for society as a whole. Until recently, efforts to eradicate poverty has been mainly devoted to economic aspects.
However, scientific community has increasingly recognized the importance of the psychological aspects of poverty. Indeed, by understanding the impact of poverty on cognition and behavior we would be able to break the self-reinforcing cycle of poverty.
Through a series of field and framed experiments, this thesis will study the impact of poverty on individual decision-making processes. The first chapter will analyze the effect of social stigma on loss aversion among poor individuals. Experimental evidence has shown that by manipulating the perception of social stigma it is possible to improve short term cognitive performance and increases willingness to invest in beneficial activities. The second chapter will study how socio-economic status affects intertemporal decisions and risky choices. The third chapter will analyze how financial concerns affect cognitive performance in vulnerable students.
Finally, the fourth chapter will explore how socio-economic status affects parental investments.