Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli

About: Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli is a education organization based out in Rome, Lazio, Italy. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Politics & Monetary policy. The organization has 692 authors who have published 2493 publications receiving 36411 citations. The organization is also known as: Libera Universita Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli & Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali "Guido Carli".

Interlocking Directorates and Concentration in the Italian Insurance Market

Abstract: The Italian insurance market represents a peculiar and puzzling case within the European Single Market. Since the radical deregulation process in 1992, standard indicators have shown a low degree of market concentration. However, at the same time, Italian insurance costs still remain among the highest in Europe due to the existence of widespread collusive practices, which have been largely documented by both the Italian Antitrust Authority and empirical evidence. The main channel of anti-competitive behavior seems to be related to the exchange of information. To improve the understanding of its structure, our paper studies interlocking linkages among firms operating in the Italian insurance market. Interlock linkages are apparent when single directors sit on more than one company’s board. Thus, interlock linkages can be viewed as a systemic channel of information exchange and a potential source of collusive practices. We distinguish interlock linkages occurring within and between groups operating under a common ownership because companies operating in the insurance sector may be organized in multi-brand holdings. Therefore, we disentangle interlocking directorates as holding business strategies from systemic structures that might represent potential threats for the market competition.

Europe matters … upon closer investigation: a novel approach for analysing individual-level determinants of vote choice across first- and second-order elections, applied to 2019 Italy

Abstract: Are European Parliament (EP) elections still second-order? In this article, we test the classical model at the individual level in contrast to an alternative ‘Europe matters’ model, by investigating the relative importance of domestic vs. European Union (EU)-related issues among voter-level determinants of aggregate second-order effects, that is, individual party change. We do so by relying on an original, CAWI pre-electoral survey featuring a distinctively large (30) number of both domestic and EU-related, positional and valence issues, with issue attitudes measured according to the innovative ICCP scheme (De Sio and Lachat 2020) which includes issue positions, issue priorities and respondents' assessment of party credibility on both positional and valence goals. Leveraging the concept of ‘normal vote’, we estimate multivariate models of electoral defections from normal voting separately for general and European elections, based on issue party credibility. This allows us to assess: (a) the distinctiveness of the two electoral arenas in terms of issue content; and (b) the relative impact of EU-related and domestic issues on defections of Italian voters. Our findings show that although second-order effects are still relevant in accounting for results in EP elections, vote choice in the latter is also partly due to specific effects of certain policy issues, including some related to the European dimension. This indicates that EP elections have their own political content, for which Europe matters even after controlling for the importance that EU-related issues have acquired in national elections.

Platform Party between Digital Activism and Hyper-Leadership: The Reshaping of the Public Sphere

Abstract: The so-called crisis of representation has formed the theoretical framework of many studies on media and democracy of the past thirty years. Many researches have highlighted the crisis of legitimacy and credibility of the ‘traditional’ parties (Katz & Mair, 2018) and communication was considered, at the same time, one of the causes of acceleration towards post-representative politics (Keane, 2013) but also an indispensable tool for re-connecting citizens to politics. Various phenomena have developed within this framework: a) the birth of political aggregations as a result of mobilization in the digital ecosystem; b) the development of digital platforms for democratic participation; c) the birth of parties defined as ‘digital’ or ‘platform’; and d) the growing centrality of digital political activism, both as a phenomenon within the digital communicative ecosystem (also in the context of social media) and as a result of the transformation of social movements. This article studies the role of platform parties as a space for the emergence of authoritarian tendencies (hyper-leadership) but also as an organizational opportunity for the development of new forms of digital activism. In particular, the article presents a research on the use of digital platforms (and their political and organizational consequences) by political parties in Italy, France, and Spain. The study shows the relationships between the evolution of digital ecosystems and the way in which political organization is organised, also highlighting how the new forms of mobilization and aggregation have opened up different yet interconnected public spaces.

On the Non-Neutrality of the Financing Policy and the Capital Regulation of Banking Firms

Abstract: It has been often argued that higher capital requirements are not costly for the banking system, by exploiting a renewed edition of a standard argument from corporate finance, the Modigliani-Miller theorem (1958 and 1963). However, the M&M model must be carefully analysed before endorsing the general statement that “bank equity is not expensive”. In the first part of the paper we argue that banks are not ordinary firms and the M&M framework cannot be easily adapted to analyze their financing (and investment) decisions. It cannot be applied neither before any financing instruments have been issued (ex-ante), nor when debt is already in place (ex-post). In terms of ex-ante analysis we focus on government guarantees (both explicit and implicit) and by using a standard Merton model we formally show how the M&M’s leverage irrelevance theorem is inapplicable. In terms of ex-post perspective we analytically derive the cost of a capital injection for the old shareholders by highlighting how risk-shifting phenomena on banks’ assets, notably when price-to-book values are below one, may increase the overall risk of the bank, and, ultimately, of the financial system as a whole. In the second part of the paper we focus on the key differences between accounting and market-based/financial values. Regulatory capital (which is basically based on accounting values) could be seriously biased when there are significant discrepancies between book values and market values. We argue that market prices (notably price-to-book ratios) should play a primary role in bank supervision. Expectations of future profits embedded in market prices can supply timely information on the effective viability of a bank. To support this thesis we show how a simple model of corporate finance and firm’s valuation can be used to assess bank’s stability by comparing the expectations of bank’s future profits (implicit in market prices) with its cost of funding.

Membership and members’ participation in new digital parties: Bring back the people?

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to evaluate the participation of the membership in new digital parties, i.e., Five Stars Movement and Podemos. Following the pioneering example of the Pirates parties, those two parties rely on digital platform to make crucial decisions. While the literature has extensively dealt with several aspects of party organizations, little has been said on membership participation. The aim of this paper is to inquire whether new (digital) participatory tools are able to boost political participation. Firstly, I evaluate the types of membership that these parties allow. Secondly, I analyze when, under which rules and in which fields direct democracy tolls have been used. Thirdly, I evaluate the overall participation of the membership to internal consultations. The (partial) conclusion that I reach is that, albeit presenting different characteristics, the platform implemented by the parties have tried to expand direct democracy in the internal decision-making. However, the low participation rates indicate that direct democracy risks to be an empty vessel if not coupled with a constant political mobilization.