Archivio istituzionale della Ricerca - Bocconi
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Robust product design and pricing
No full textWe study design and pricing by a monopolist who has no information about the distribution of consumers’ tastes and maximizes her profit under the worst-case scenario. We show that her optimal strategy takes a simple form of dividing the taste space into a finite number of equal-length intervals and serving consumers on a randomly chosen interval. We obtain this result by studying the dual problem of finding a distribution of consumers’ tastes that minimizes the seller’s profit and establishing strong duality. The profit-minimizing distributions exhibit a uniformity property, assigning equal probability mass to a finite number of partition cells of equal width. Through the dual, we also determine the seller’s lowest profit in the Bayesian setting, establish that it is strictly positive, and derive the set of achievable profits
Affine Gateaux differentials and the von Mises statistical calculus
No full textThis paper presents a general study of one-dimensional differentiability for functionals defined on convex domains that are not necessarily open. The local approximation is carried out using affine functionals, as opposed to linear functionals typically employed in standard Gateaux differentiability. This affine notion of differentiability naturally arises in certain applications and has been utilized by some authors in the statistics literature. We aim to offer a unified and comprehensive perspective on this concept
Prime riflessioni circa l'impatto dell'ideologia politica sulla reportistica di sostenibilità
No full textNational Implementation of International Economic Law: Italy
No full textThe Chapter examines Italy's institutional and legal framework and its implementation of international economic law obligations and norms
The Antin IP acquisition of Hippocrates: Scaling-up the business and refinancing the capital structure
No full textThe case analyses the investment and financing strategy implemented by Antin Infrastructure Partners (‘Antin’) in its acquisition and development of Hippocrates Holding (‘Hippocrates’), the largest independent pharmacy platform in Italy. The case, describing the deal that took place in February 2021, requires practical application of technical notions about capital structure optimization and debt sustainability analysis. It offers students the opportunity to gain practical exposure to financial engineering in support of strategic growth, as well as a thorough understanding of how different financing solutions can impact a company’s operational flexibility and risk profile
Three Essays on the Role of Corporate Ownership and Governance in the ESG Transition
No full textThe dissertation consists of three essays, each focusing on a different governance-related lever supporting the ESG transition. The first essay examines how ownership structure and board composition affect incumbent firms’ adaptation to competence-destroying innovation, using the automotive sector’s shift toward electric mobility as a case. It finds that concentrated ownership and diverse boards improve adaptive capacity, while institutional investors with short-term horizons inhibit it. The second essay explores how reputational considerations drive ESG engagement in private firms. It shows that eponymous family firms—those named after founders—are more likely to engage in substantive ESG disclosures and actions, especially when reputational risks are elevated. The third essay investigates how gender diversity on corporate boards, introduced through Italy’s gender quota law, influences international investment patterns. It finds that greater female board representation leads firms to avoid investing in countries with higher gender inequality, driven by directors’ normative commitments to equity.
Together, the three studies illustrate how governance structures—ownership identities, board composition, and diversity— can play a critical role in shaping how firms navigate sustainability-related transitions. By combining quantitative methods with quasi-experimental designs and leveraging both public and private firm settings, this dissertation contributes new insights into how governance can act as a catalyst for strategic change aligned with long-term environmental and social value
Knowledge Domains and the Theory-based Approach: three essays on Strategic Decision-Making
No full textStrategic, high-stakes decisions often occur under situations of fundamental uncertainty, cases where decision-makers cannot predict future outcomes due to a lack of historical data (Rindova & Courtney, 2020; Camuffo et al., 2024b). An early-stage founder developing a venture’s innovation trajectory, an individual choosing her next professional role, or a manager selecting the most promising business activities to invest on at a large corporation will likely face a future ripe with occurrences that they may completely ignore at the time of the decision.
As such, these decision makers require theories—explicit or implicit—to guide their strategies and search (Felin & Zenger, 2009; 2017; Agarwal et al., 2023; Sorenson, 2024; Valentine et al., 2024), to the point that developing such theories becomes a source of competitive advantage (Felin & Zenger, 2009; Camuffo et al., 2024b). Despite evidence pointing to the benefits of applying theory-based approaches, particularly in entrepreneurship (Camuffo et al., 2020; 2024a; Gambardella & Messinese, 2023; Novelli & Spina, 2024), little is known about 1) the factors that reinforce or diminish the effects of this approach; and 2) the mechanisms driving these effects. This thesis addresses these issues to improve the applicability and understanding of the theory-based approach across diverse contexts.
In the first chapter of this thesis, my co-authors and I investigate how awareness of one’s domain, the knowledge coming from one’s background and experiences, interacts with the theory-based approach in determining the direction of search. A field experiment with entrepreneurs reveals that this combination fosters strategic exploration and leads to more distant search. While such exploration has short-term performance costs, it yields significant benefits in terms of sales and funding in the long term, 10 months after the experiment.
The second chapter takes a different angle and investigates how individual mindsets influence the absorption and portability of decision-making frameworks. Data from two randomized controlled trials reveal that individuals with theoretical, abstraction-oriented (educational) domains are better at creating transferable theories of value and applying them to varied contexts and over time. Sustained by more general mental models, these individuals are more likely to select roles requiring greater abstraction (inductive reasoning, deductive reasoning, problem sensitivity skills) in the 2 years following the training. In shedding light on mindsets as a source of heterogeneity, and in providing evidence of the impact of theorizing beyond traditional entrepreneurial outcomes, this study extends our understanding of the benefits of rigorous decision-making approaches, highlighting their “general-purpose” nature.
The last chapter further builds on the idea that theorizing can give rise to performance benefits. This study shifts to the context of large corporations and, particularly, to diversification decisions, introducing the construct of "statistical spillovers", synergies derived from identifying and sharing signals across activities, as a complementary construct to "managerial spillovers", traditional synergies coming from the sharing of resources across activities. Through the provision of two distinct decision-making “algorithms” to address decisions of both types, my co-authors and I provide insights into the processes to adopt, and the organizational structures that can support, portfolio decisions under these two types of spillovers. In making this distinction, we not only introduce the idea of “prediction as value” - to be coupled to the more consolidated “resource as value” – but we also provide an explanation for the recent trend of decentralized, hyper-growth corporates, leveraging on statistical spillovers, vis-à-vis the long-established centralized managerial corporation, built on managerial spillovers
Essays on optimal wealth and income taxation
No full textThis thesis examines the design of optimal wealth and income tax policies, focusing on how the equity-efficiency trade-off of taxation is shaped by margins that, although crucial, have been overlooked in the existing literature: heterogeneity in firms’ market power, households’ portfolio choices, and joint labor supply decisions within couples.
Chapter 1 studies the effects of top wealth taxation on entrepreneurs' choices and macroeconomic aggregates, taking into account that wealthier entrepreneurs operate larger firms and impose larger markups, as observed in the U.S. data. In this chapter I show that entrepreneurs imposing larger markups feature lower production and capital elasticities to the tax. Hence, neglecting the observed markups heterogeneity across entrepreneurs leads to overestimate wage and production losses induced by top wealth taxation. Furthermore, since the burden of top wealth taxation falls onto the entrepreneurs imposing the largest markups, the tax policy reduces the aggregate markup in the economy and increases the labor share of income accruing to workers.
Chapter 2 examines how top wealth taxation affects households’ portfolio composition and the allocation of capital in the economy. To this end, I develop a portfolio choice model calibrated to match households’ portfolio choices across the US wealth distribution. Simulating a top wealth tax, I find that taxed households shift away from high-productivity, high-growth private equity investments toward safer, lower-return assets. This reallocation of capital reduces GDP and long-run growth, highlighting a new channel through which wealth taxation affects the economy.
Chapter 3 presents simulations of optimal income taxes for singles and couples in the US economy. The general—although simple—occupational choice framework employed allows to investigate how labor supply assumptions, participation elasticities, and the government's redistributive preferences shape optimal tax schedules.
Overall, these essays provide new insights into the fundamental trade-offs of income and wealth taxation, emphasizing critical margins that policymakers should consider when designing optimal fiscal policies
Assessing clinical networks through evidence: an empirical analysis of the effectiveness of cancer networks in improving patients’ quality of care and survival
No full textOncology networks are widespread and widely recognized by professionals and policymakers as a valuable model for promoting multidisciplinary care and its continuity to improve patient care in terms of appropriateness, equity and outcomes. However, empirical evidence on whether cancer networks improve patient health outcomes is lacking. In our study, we evaluated whether patients treated in Italy’s oldest oncology network (Piedmont region) receive higher quality care and have better survival rates than patients treated in the same region but outside the network and managed according to usual care.
Methods
A longitudinal cohort study of individuals aged 18 years or older residing in Piedmont with a new diagnosis of cancer of the rectum, colon, bladder, stomach or ovaries between 2010 and 2019 and admitted for curative surgery was analysed. Outcomes included quality indicators, selected based on the international guidelines for each tumour, and survival. Analyses were performed using Administrative health data systematically collected at the regional level were analysed with multivariable logistic models.
Results
From 2010–2019, the proportion of patients treated within the network increased for all malignancies, with wide variations based on tumour type. Overall, the adoption of clinical guidelines, interval times between diagnosis and treatment, and 90-day and 1-year survival displayed better results among patients managed within the network (e.g., 1-year mortality adjusted odds ratio for rectal cancer: 0·73, 95 %CI 0·61–0·88; colon cancer: 0·62, 0·55–0·70; stomach cancer: 0·69, 0·56–0·85).
Conclusion
Empirical evaluation of the effectiveness of cancer networks on health outcomes is challenging, as it depends on a wide variety of factors that are difficult to control for in real-world settings. Our study empirically investigates a large sample of patients treated for common cancers over ten years. Overall, we found a positive association between network patient management with quality of care indicators and survival
Essays on Climate Adaptation, Agriculture, and Health in Developing Countries
No full textThis thesis investigates the human consequences of two critical, yet understudied, aspects of climate change in the developing world: shifts in the timing of the rainy season and ocean acidification. It provides new empirical evidence on whether and how vulnerable populations adapt, the limits of their adaptation strategies, and the resulting impacts on various outcomes.
Chapter 1 examines climate risk in Sub-Saharan Africa. Using microdata from six countries, I show that a one-week delay in the rainy season onset reduces yields by 2% and consumption by 1%. Damages disproportionately harm vulnerable female-managed plots, whereas education and wealth build resilience. Farmers adapt by delaying planting, but this is insufficient due to two informational frictions. Specifically, false onsets—rare but misleading early rains followed by a dry spell—trigger damaging premature planting. Negative impacts are concentrated in locations experiencing long-term climatic shifts, indicating a persistent failure to adapt. Projections suggest cumulative discounted losses from 2025 to 2050 could reach 10% of 2024 real GDP. These findings establish shifts in seasonal timing as a first-order economic threat and highlight the value of short-range forecasts.
Chapters 2 and 3 shift focus to the world's oceans, establishing a causal link between ocean acidification and human health. Chapter 2 shows that increased ocean acidity adversely affects small-scale fisheries in 36 low- and middle-income countries. This shock propagates to households through a nutritional channel: reduced seafood availability leads to higher prices and diminished nutrient consumption by pregnant women, significantly increasing neonatal mortality risk. The analysis finds no evidence of contemporaneous adaptation.
Building on these findings, Chapter 3 investigates long-run adaptation. I find no evidence that historically exposed communities have developed resilience; conversely, they appear more vulnerable. After quantifying the substantial historical mortality burden, I project future impacts: under a high-emissions scenario (RCP8.5) without adaptation, ocean acidification could cause 77.2 million cumulative neonatal deaths by 2100. However, a low-emissions pathway (RCP2.6) could avert nearly 40 million of these deaths. Collectively, these essays demonstrate that subtle environmental changes have economically important consequences, underscoring the need for policies that enhance adaptive capacity and address informational barriers