Maurizio Conti

Bio: Maurizio Conti is an academic researcher from University of Genoa. The author has contributed to research in topics: Employment protection legislation & Economies of scale. The author has an hindex of 16, co-authored 54 publications receiving 759 citations. Previous affiliations of Maurizio Conti include University of Geneva.

Ports and regional development: A spatial analysis on a panel of European regions

Abstract: This paper analyses the impact of port activities on local development for a sample of 621 TL-3 regions located in thirteen European countries and observed over the period 1998–2009. Using a spatial panel econometric framework which controls for spatial fixed effects, the paper provides an estimate of both the direct and indirect (i.e. spillover) effects associated to port activities. Results suggest that ports might have non-negligible effects on local GDP: interestingly, an important share of the effects takes place outside the region where the port is located.

Cost Inefficiency in the English and WelshWater Industry: An Heteroskedastic StochasticCost Frontier Approach.

Abstract: In this study we analyze the evolution of operating cost inefficiency for the English and Welsh water industry over the period 1995-2001 by estimating an heteroskedastic stochastic variable cost frontier. The main aim of this paper is to provide an overall picture of the industry cost inefficiency, as we consider both the water and sewerage companies and the smaller water only companies. The main results of this paper are that industry operating cost inefficiency has decreased over the sample period and that inefficiency differentials among firms have steadily narrowed. This pattern of inefficiency might have been generated by the incentives provided by comparative and capital market competition which became fully operative after the 1994 price review.

Port infrastructures and trade: Empirical evidence from Brazil

Abstract: In this study, we analyse the impact of port infrastructure on trade by estimating a gravity equation for exports (imports) of Brazilian states towards (from) all main Brazil’s trading partners. In particular, we consider exports (imports) of the 27 Brazilian states towards (from) 30 of Brazil’s most important trading partners over the period 2009–2012. By estimating a set of gravity equations with the Poisson pseudo-maximum likelihood estimator, we find that an increase in port infrastructure (as proxied by the piers extension in each Brazilian state normalized by that state’s area) is associated to large increases in Brazilian exports, while the impact on imports is more mixed and generally lower. Our results are robust to controlling for a series of state and country fixed effects.

Have individual stocks become more volatile : an empirical exploration of idiosyncratic risk

Abstract: This paper examines the volatility of common stocks of the Athens Stock Exchange at the market, industry and firm level. Over the period from 1988 to 2009 there has been a considerable increase in firm-level volatility relative to the market volatility, which implies that it takes increasingly more stocks to diversify away idiosyncratic risk. All volatility series move together and they are trended upwards. All three volatility measures show a countercyclical behaviour relative to GDP growth, and they all help to forecast GDP. Correlations among individual stocks have increased over the sample period, yet the explanatory power of the market model for a typical stock is still relatively low. All three volatility series rise during times of low returns. Factors that may be responsible for these findings are suggested.

Shaping the World Economy. Suggestions for an International Economic Policy. By Jan Tinbergen. New York: The Twentieth Century Fund, 1962. pp. xvii, 330. Index. 4.00, cloth.

Abstract: textabstractIn Dutch: Naar een Nieuwe Wereldeconomie: voorstellen voor een internationaal economisch beleid, Rotterdam University Press, Rotterdam, 1965, XV + 335 p. In Spanish: Hacia Una Economia Mundial: sugerencias para una politica economica internacional, Series Biblioteca de Economia No.7, Orbis, Barcelona, 1985, 242 p.

An Exploration of Technology Diffusion

Abstract: We develop a model that, at the aggregate level, is similar to the one-sector neoclassical growth model; at the disaggregate level, it has implications for the path of observable measures of technology adoption. We estimate it using data on the diffusion of 15 technologies in 166 countries over the last two centuries. Our results reveal that, on average, countries have adopted technologies 45 years after their invention. There is substantial variation across technologies and countries. Newer technologies have been adopted faster than old ones. The cross-country variation in the adoption of technologies accounts for at least 25 percent of per capita income differences.