Archivio istituzionale della Ricerca - Bocconi
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Fifty years of decision analysis in operational research: a review
No full textWe review the development of research in Decision Analysis (DA) over the past fifty years. After presenting the axiomatic foundations and discussing the DA process, we start with value-focused thinking as a problem structuring method. We then analyze the model building phase, with a focus on graphical models for decision-making under uncertainty: belief networks, decision trees, and influence diagrams. Next, we analyze how DA research has dealt with uncertainty focusing on the areas of elicitation, aggregation, and evaluation. We then discuss sensitivity analysis, describing local and global techniques, from one-way sensitivity analysis to the value of information. Finally, we review the literature on information acquisition and discuss the role of information value in this context
The Non-Waivability Principle: Possible Derogations From Collective Bargaining And Re-Assessment Of Individual Bargaining In Assisted Procedures
No full textThis article examines the evolving landscape of Italian labour law, with a focus on the
principle of non-waivability and its gradual adaptation to demands for flexibility and
competitiveness. Traditionally, the Italian labour law framework has been characterised
by a strong non-waivability regime, which protects employees from negotiating away their
rights due to inherent power imbalances vis-à-vis employers. However, recent regulatory
developments have facilitated a shift towards both collective and individual agreements that
allow deviations from statutory provisions, including to the detriment of employees. The article
analyses the implications of this trend, exploring key regulatory models that enhance the
role of assisted individual negotiations and collective bargaining in employment contracts. It
delves into the conditions necessary for lawful waivers of rights, emphasising the importance
of impartial third-party assistance in “protected venues” to ensure employee agency in
negotiations. Additionally, the article discusses the risks and opportunities associated with
the retreat from non-waivability, considering how this shift may fragment employees’ legal
protection. Ultimately, the article advocates for a balanced approach that fosters individual
empowerment within employment relationships, while also underscoring the critical role of
collective protections, thereby encouraging ongoing dialogue among stakeholders to adapt
to the complexities of the modern workforce
Global events demand global data: COVID-19 crisis responses and the future of selling and sales management around the globe
No full textIn the context of the global crisis presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, the authors investigate the perspectives of sales managers
regarding their organizations’ responses to the crisis and future expectations in a post-COVID-19 world. While there has
been much discussion about these topics in the sales literature, very little research has examined them globally by collecting data
from many nations and across many continents. Yet, how can global events be understood without analyzing global data? In
response, the authors convened the first, to their knowledge, global data coalition by hosting video-recorded group interviews
with 76 sales executives representing 27 nations. This inductive investigation, informed by institutional logics, reveals how organizations
accepted new norms, retained old ones, or blended the old with the new in response to the crisis. The results simultaneously
validate certain emerging concepts on a global scale (e.g., customer success management, bricolage) and give rise to
several insights not currently detailed by extant scholarship (e.g., localization, cultural cringe). This work also catalyzes new, relevant
avenues for international research and sheds light on issues facing sales practice globally
How people use statistics
No full textWe document two new facts about the distributions of answers in famous statistical problems: they are i) multi-modal and ii) unstable with respect to irrelevant changes in the problem. We offer a model in which, when solving a problem, people represent each hypothesis by attending “bottom up” to its salient features while neglecting other, potentially more relevant, ones. Only the statistics associated with salient features are used, others are neglected. The model unifies biases in judgments about i.i.d. draws, such as the Gambler’s Fallacy and insensitivity to sample size, with biases in inference such as under- and overreaction and insensitivity to the weight of evidence. The model makes predictions about how changes in the salience of specific features should jointly shape the prevalence of these biases and measured attention to features, but also create entirely new biases. We test and confirm these predictions experimentally. Bottom-up attention to features emerges as a unifying framework
for biases conventionally explained using a variety of stable heuristics or distortions of the Bayes rule
Prefazione a M.T. ANTOGNAZZA-A.MATTIOLI, Il secolo delle donne. Di sogni e diritti ancora da conquistare
No full textLa prefazione introduce il volume come un percorso storico e culturale sulla parità di genere, intesa non come conquista definitiva ma come processo continuo da rinnovare nel tempo. Ripercorrendo le radici costituzionali dell’uguaglianza, viene messo in luce il divario persistente tra norme e prassi, in particolare nei rapporti tra lavoro, famiglia e cura. Centrale è il richiamo a una leadership inclusiva e a politiche pubbliche capaci di tradurre i principi costituzionali in trasformazioni sociali effettive
Contract and Power: Ideologies, Inequalities, and Marginalisation in European Contract Law
No full texthis introductory chapter frames the volume’s central concern with the relationship between contract law and power. It challenges formalistic accounts of contract by examining how power operates through legal rules, market structures, and social hierarchies. Distinguishing between power “to” and power “over”, the chapter explores empowerment, domination, and inequality across stages of contracting, including negotiation and enforcement. It highlights gendered, racialised, digital, and structural forms of vulnerability, and shows how contract law both reproduces and conceals power asymmetries. The introduction positions the contributions as a critical rethinking of European contract law’s normative foundations
Residential Property Prices and Rents in a Spatial Context
No full textThe present thesis explores the relationship between residential property prices and rents in a spatial context.
The first two chapters aims at estimating the spatial consequences of prices and rents when
hit by a national mortgage interest rate shock. In order to identify the e!ect, I leverage a
novel dataset of local prices and rents of residential properties in Italy and a novel shift share
instrumental variable identification design which relies on the di!erent mortgage pick up rates
by di!erent age groups. I find that prices, rents, price-to-rent ratios, population, and tenure
choices all respond to a mortgage interest rate shock in an asymmetric manner both in mag-
nitude and direction. In particular, richer location tends to have all higher responses in the
aforementioned variables. The heterogeneous responses are useful in defining a new nuanced
interpretation of price-to-rent ratios capturing both the financial and consumption nature of
residential properties. I then construct a parsimonious spatial model aimed at capturing the heterogeneous effect of mortgage
interest rates on both prices and rents. A structural estimation of the model, aimed at isolating the effect of the mortgage interest rate hike
between 2021 and 2023, matches the observed heterogeneous responses and implies that a mortgage interest rate positive shock reduces spatial welfare inequality.
The third chapter focuses on the distributional consequences of a property tax hike within an urban location. I exploit the spatial nature of the Italian property tax and the Berlusconi governments fiscal reforms of 2008-2014 to isolate the effect of the property tax on property prices. I find that property taxes reduce price dispersion, thus reducing wealth inequality, in an heterogeneous way across different residential markets
Essays in Human Capital and Innovation
No full textThe diffusion of knowledge and information is a fundamental driver of technological
progress and economic growth. In this dissertation, I investigate how such diffusion
occurs and how it is shaped by the mobility of workers. Across three distinct but
thematically linked studies, I explore the mechanisms through which human capi-
tal—embodied in skilled individuals—transmits knowledge within and across organi-
zations, scientific domains and institutional frameworks. Each chapter focuses on a
specific context where worker transitions play a critical role in facilitating or redirect-
ing knowledge flows: the mobility of bankers, the careers of nuclear scientists, and
the impact of public procurement on innovative activity.
Taken together, these studies aim to show how portable is knowledge and how
it can be effectively harnessed to foster innovation and economic development. As
bank managers are hired by competing banks, they are able to transfer their human
capital (i.e. soft information about clients) to their new employers, thereby improving
the overall allocation of credit in the economy. Viceversa, scientists who cannot do
research in their original field due to funding cuts observe a significant decrease in their
productivity, as their knowledge is not easily transferable to other domains. Finally,
public procurement can be a powerful tool to steer the direction of innovation by
creating demand for specific technologies, but it mainly affects the ability of firms
to obtain further contracts, as opposed to generating new knowledge. Across the
chapters, I employ a range of empirical methods, based on detailed administrative
data (for the case of bankers) or large publicly available datasets (for the cases of
scientists and procurement)
Gardens as Mirrors of Power
No full textThe essay discusses diachronically the close connection that exists between the art of arranging a garden with plants, flowers, paths, pools, fountains, and grottoes and a specific conception and interpretation of power and of its exercise. Indeed, it is possible to look at gardens as metaphors for power, or, more precisely, as a mirror of power; the garden is a place where politics and art combine, where a ruler stages its own power. When analysing diachronically the architecture of the state, and the way the relationship between rulers and ruled is structured, it is possible to identify a corresponding gardens’ design. The way gardens are arranged evolves throughout the centuries, following the evolution of both the exercise of power and state architecture