Research at DiECO

Research activities in applied and empirical economics are developed along two main thematic areas:

• Transport, regulation and sustainable development
• Innovation, intellectual property and development.

The first area focuses on the economic and spatial analysis of passenger and freight transport systems, with particular emphasis on mobility governance processes from a sustainable development perspective, as well as on innovation processes. In line with the objectives of the 2030 Agenda established by the United Nations, it addresses the relationships between developments in the transport sector and their potential impact on social, economic and environmental dimensions. The approach adopted is mainly microeconomic and empirical, based on theoretical, statistical-econometric and agent-based models. The results obtained are interpreted and discussed through the lens of the main theories of transport economics, environmental economics, industrial organisation, and market competition and regulation. In relation to sustainable development, the research group also works on the circular economy and bioeconomy, as well as on education for sustainability. 

The main fields of investigation are:

• the study of the interaction between transport and logistics decisions taken by economic agents and their effects on sustainable development, from a behavioural economics perspective;
• the impact of demographic and territorial dynamics on the demand for and supply of transport and logistics services (with a focus on ageing-related issues);
• the role of product and process innovations oriented towards sustainability;
• the effects of public policies on mobility and on agents’ behaviour, particularly from a sustainability perspective;
• the study of regulation processes and the promotion of competition, as well as innovation, in the transport and infrastructure sectors;
• the analysis of the interaction between transport, tourism and sustainable development;
• the analysis of the characteristics and dynamics of last-mile logistics and reverse logistics, in support of the circular economy;
• the analysis of the socio-economic impacts and market characteristics of the bioeconomy and the circular economy.

Main research areas

• Analysis of the differences between native and immigrant populations in terms of tax contributions and access to public services.
• Evaluation of the effects of public reforms on the modes and levels of access to healthcare services, both in emergency and urgent care and in primary care.
• Study of clinical appropriateness and the overall efficiency of the healthcare system in relation to organisational changes and funding mechanisms, taking account of the population’s health conditions.
• Analysis of fiscal and health policies aimed at vulnerable groups — including older people, low-income families and immigrant populations — with particular attention to removing monetary and non-monetary barriers to access to services.

The research group examines the interactions between the financial sector and the real economy, with a dual focus:

• dysfunctions within the euro area;
• financial innovation and crises;
• inequality.

The approaches employed include, on the one hand, empirical analysis of financial flows and, on the other, heterodox modelling approaches, in particular Stock-Flow Consistent models, Agent-Based models, and their combination.

Research activities in microeconomics focus on the analysis of economic phenomena at the microeconomic level, with particular attention to decision theory, that is, the analysis of decision-making processes, using both mainstream and behavioural approaches. This activity develops along both a theoretical and an experimental dimension, the latter also being enhanced through the initiatives of the InExEC Experimental Economics Research Centre.

The research also includes reflection on decision theory from the perspective of the history of economic thought and economic methodology.

The main fields of investigation are:

• analysis of the influence of emotions or other psychological factors on the choices of economic agents in both strategic and non-strategic decision-making contexts (static and dynamic);
• nudge theory and policies based on such instruments;
• theoretical and experimental issues related to the measurement of utility.

The research group is primarily concerned with analysing the evolving trends in company law and the regulation of financial instruments, focusing its attention on the organisational aspects of business undertakings and their financial structure. The main fields of investigation are:

• the internal organisation of collective business entities, including partnerships and companies limited by shares;
• the regulation of partnerships in the current economic context, with comparative perspectives and possible avenues for reform;
• the financial structure of companies and collective entities, including an analysis of the concept of financial instruments within the Consolidated Law on Finance (Testo Unico della Finanza) and the new rules on the transfer of equity interests, also with reference to new technologies such as DLT;
• directors’ remuneration in listed companies, including an analysis of the effects of the most recent regulation on the behaviour of the parties involved in the relevant decision-making processes;
• environmental and social sustainability and commercial law, including an analysis of the incorporation of new values and principles within company regulation and a study of their effects on the behaviour of the parties involved;
• the regulation of crypto-assets, Initial Coin Offerings, and platforms, as well as their effects on the financial structure of collective business entities and on the role of shareholders;
• the crisis of collective business entities, instruments for identifying signs of crisis and preventing it, crisis regulation mechanisms, and the role of directors and shareholders.

The research group examines various aspects of contract law and the law of persons, including from a comparative perspective across different legal systems. Within these areas, particular attention is devoted to the regulation of new technologies and their impact on fundamental rights. A dedicated research unit, in particular, focuses on the legal implications associated with the use of intelligent robots in the care of older persons.

The main fields of investigation are:

• relational contracts and long-term contracts;
• the regulation of supervening events;
• comparative legal systems and legal transplants, with particular reference to Japanese law;
• animal law and animal welfare;
• elder law;
• the regulation of artificial intelligence systems and automated decision-making;
• data protection and the legal rules governing the circulation of data;
• digital contracts, with particular reference to the supply of digital content and digital services;
• consumer law, with particular reference to consumer credit.

The research group studies the national tax system, with particular attention to interdisciplinary aspects.

The main research fields are:

• tax compliance and prior communications in tax procedures, including with regard to the relationship between international and EU law assumptions and domestic judicial “resistance”;
• the right to good administration in tax procedures;
• new administrative transparency in tax procedures and the digitalisation of the tax relationship;
• the taxation of cryptocurrencies;
• the tax liability of advisers, with regard to both administrative and criminal sanctions;
• “extended” confiscation (or confiscation “for disproportion”) in tax offences.

The research group studies the European legal system, also in relation to its interactions with national legal orders. These interactions have recently come under particular strain as a result of the various crises that have affected EU governance.

The main research fields are:

• the EU legal order and technological innovation as tested by rights, with particular reference to data protection, the spread of digitalisation processes and the use of artificial intelligence;
• the EU legal order as tested by sustainability: economic and energy transition and the mitigation of the climate crisis;
• the EU legal order and its responses to the crises that have occurred over the last two decades, with particular reference to health policy;
• the EU legal order and crisis governance, with particular reference to the fundamental principles of the legal order (fundamental rights, solidarity, accountability);
• the EU legal order in its evolution (Conference on the Future of Europe).

Members of the SECS-P/08 area are engaged in research focused on the study of issues falling within the main macro-areas of the relevant disciplinary sector, as specified below:

• Entrepreneurship, management and innovation management, with particular reference to:
  • growth paths of innovative start-ups and scale-ups, including both aspects related to start-ups (start-up life cycle, business models, fundraising, exit strategies, pivoting and failure) and aspects related to the figure of the entrepreneur and entrepreneurial teams (team formation, entrepreneurial diaspora/migration, international entrepreneurship: born globals and international new ventures);
  • start-up ecosystems;
  • open innovation (corporate–start-up collaborations and innovation outposts);
  • responsible, frugal and inclusive innovation.
• Sustainability, innovation and place-based development, with particular reference to:
  • strategies for the enhancement of local areas and sustainable tourism (the development of “slow” areas, smaller territories, tourism and disability);
  • the circular economy and business strategy;
  • sustainability and CSR (in the luxury/fashion sector, benefit corporations and the wine sector);
  • Smart Cities and Smart Lands (development and place-enhancement strategies; innovation in urban services and new business models; innovative tools for monitoring strategic urban data and for data management);
  • smart governance and innovation in public-private partnership models in support of innovation;
  • digitalisation and sustainability in new luxury supply chains;
  • virtual technology districts in innovation-based and science-based sectors.

The research group is engaged in work focused on the study of issues falling within three main macro-areas:

• Management. The main current projects concern:
  • strategic choices for the continuity of family businesses;
  • governance and leadership in family businesses at both corporate and ownership level;
  • Non-profit corporate governance;
  • Sharing economy and CSR;
  • CSR and the luxury sector;
  • Sustainable development and smart cities.
• Accounting. Current project:
  • Intellectual capital and the performance of family firms: evidence from Italy, France and Spain.
• Planning and control: the main current projects concern:
  • Managerial control systems and the success of innovation partnerships;
  • Preventing crises and managing turnaround processes in SMEs: forecasting the risk of insolvency in Italian SMEs;
  • Management control in SMEs and external consultants;
  • contractual forms, organisational models and operational mechanisms useful for governing business networks;
  • the determinants of the quality of Integrated Reporting;
  • CSR and performance measurement systems;
  • Servitisation strategies and performance measurement systems.

The research group is engaged in studies in Organisation, including Organisation Theory, Information Systems, Human Resource Management, and Organisational Behaviour, as well as in research related to the fields of General Sociology.

The research group is engaged in projects and studies focused on the structural and evolutionary characteristics of financial markets, on issues concerning the management and regulation of financial intermediaries and their relationships with firms, with a particular focus on selected topics in corporate finance. More specifically, the main current projects concern:

• the governance of banks and financial intermediaries, with attention to the quality and diversity profiles of boards;
• the digitalisation of banks and other financial intermediaries, FinTech operators, and BigTech initiatives in the financial sector;
• the management of traditional risks in banks and innovative technological applications (Artificial Intelligence);
• emerging risks for banks: climate change risks and ESG risks;
• the role of financial intermediaries in the sustainable development of firms and the economy;
• the digitalisation of financial instruments and crypto-assets;
• the prospects for bank profitability, as well as liquidity and funding management, in a context of inflation and uncertainty surrounding macroeconomic scenarios;
• issues relating to firms’ financial structure and access to credit;
• the identification of innovative and alternative financial solutions (digital and sustainable) to support firms;
• sustainable finance and its impact on firms’ financial structure and cost of capital;
• the links between performance and environmental certifications and ESG ratings of SMEs, particularly those operating in the fashion and cultural supply chains;
• the impact of climate change on investment and the capital structure of the production system;
• firms’ access to funding sources, equity capital and alternative finance;
• financial education and financial literacy for individuals and firms;
• the impact of sustainable finance, in its various dimensions, on firms’ capital structure and cost of capital;
• the impact of climate change on investment and the capital structure of the production system;
• access to funding sources, equity capital and alternative finance.

The research group operates at the intersection of econometrics, statistics and probability theory, applied mathematics, and decision theory, with particular attention to the development and application of quantitative methods for the analysis of economic phenomena. The main fields of investigation are:

• the analysis of limit theorems in probability theory;
• the properties of statistical estimators in particular cases or under non-standard conditions;
• the study of time-series models, in particular dynamic factor models, SVAR and DSGE models;
• the analysis of interdependencies and shock transmission;
• macroeconomic applications, and applications to commodity markets and to energy and climate issues;
• the estimation and calibration of agent-based models;
• the empirical study of economic and psychological models of decision and measurement;
• the methodology of econometric research;
• ethical behaviour in the economic and, more generally, scientific sphere, including the concepts of open science, reproducibility and robustness of results;
• the development of computational tools and new datasets for econometric analysis.

The research themes of the mathematical-statistical area mainly concern:

• mathematical methods for the economic and actuarial sciences, with particular regard to scalar and vector optimisation, robust optimisation and, more generally, decision sciences;
• static and dynamic risk measures, including in the set-valued framework, and their relationship with backward stochastic differential equations and representation theorems for quasiconvex functionals;
• stochastic optimal control problems and their applications to portfolio selection;
• the analysis of income distribution and the measurement of poverty, inequality and multidimensional well-being through composite indicators;
• the comparison of statistical forecasting models, including through the ROC curve and its generalisations;
• survival analysis, with particular regard to the study of the concentration of survival data.

Attention to applications in economic and management theory, as well as in finance, makes it possible to foster dialogue and collaboration with the other active areas within the department and to develop international collaborations with distinguished researchers in the fields of applied mathematics, operational research and economic statistics.