July 22, 2024
Four Essays in Applied Economics
Sara Mancini

The PhD thesis of Sara Mancini aims to contribute to the economics literature on applied microeconomics with three chapters.

The first chapter is a joint work with Leonardo Becchetti and Nazaria Solferino published in Industrial and Corporate Change Journal where Sara investigates the critical role of incentives as forces pushing companies towards ecological transition using firm survey data from the Italian Statistical Institute, including a large representative sample of small companies and the universe of those above 250 employees.

Through propensity score matching the paper exploits revealed information of firms that declare to use the incentives for specific ecological transition investments compared to a synthetic counterfactual of “twin” companies matched on selected characteristics. Findings show that domestic and EU incentives significantly increase green investment for both small and medium/large-sized companies, the impact being greatest when considering investment in energy-saving plants and carbon emission reduction.

The second chapter is a joint work with Leonardo Becchetti and Sara Savastano, forthcoming in Environment and Development Economics Journal where Sara evaluates the impact of climate shocks on the well-being of farmer households in a Small Island Developing State in the Pacific (the Solomon Islands). The paper finds that both subjective (self-assessed exposure to climate shocks) and objective indicators (number of past dry spells) of environmental stress significantly reduce the quality of life among households

The third chapter is a joint work with Leonardo Becchetti and Nazaria Solferino, forthcoming in the Italian Economic Journal. The paper analyses the nexus between corporate relational skills and productivity in a comparative analysis on small, medium, and large Italian firms. Findings indicate that the impact of relational skills on added value per worker varies with the size of the firm, even after controlling for relevant factors. Key components of relational skills identified include corporate policies prioritizing workers’ well-being, teamwork attitudes, initiatives supporting local networks, and stakeholder involvement.

Advisor: Leonardo Becchetti
Examiners: Leonardo Becchetti, Giacomo Degli Antoni, Piergiuseppe Morone

April 18, 2024
Essays in Macroeconomics and Finance
Filippo Maurici

This thesis is composed of three essays, each studying topics which are mostly unrelated. Nevertheless, the common thread of these works can be summarized by the role of expectations. We start by considering a theoretical model in which agents take decisions according to the what they consider the worst-case scenario, then we move to analyze the ex post effects of mergers involving banks and fintechs, and, finally, we study how announcements affect economic growth in times of crisis.

Advisor: Lorenzo Carbonari
Examiners: Barbara Annicchiarico, Michele Battisti, Tommaso Oliviero