1,721,886 research outputs found
Shaping Tastes and Values Through the Law: Law and Economics Meets Cultural Economics
Full text linkThis article elaborates on the point made by Guido Calabresi in his recent book “The Future of Law and Economics: Essays in Reform and Recollection”, where he holds that Law and Economics should inform law-makers and policy-makers regarding what tastes and values are more desirable than others. Calabresi invites economists to depart from the approach traditionally embraced in economic analysis holding that “De gustibus non est disputandum”. He proposes instead to dialogue with law-makers in order to openly engage in the promotion of welfare-enhancing tastes and values. My main argument is that recent empirical findings in Economics support Calabresi’s invitation to normatively engage in shaping cultural traits – at least for a specific set of tastes and values
The brown bear population of Abruzzo
No full textThe Ursus arctos population of the Abruzzo National Park seems relatively stable, despite occasional fluctuations. An increase of the bear range has occurred recently for a mean distance of 36km beyond the former range. Invading wild boars Sus scrofa from outside areas may compete for food with the bears.-Author
Shaping tax norms through lotteries
No full textThis work develops a theoretical framework for a behavioral policy against indirect tax evasion that is complementary to the classical deterrence approach. The policy provides incentives to customers in the form of lottery prizes in order to act as third-party tax enforcers. I argue that the policy introduction might successfully overcome the free-riding problem characterizing third-party tax enforcement. A theoretical model based on Tversky and Kahneman's (1992) Cumulative Prospect Theory is presented. The model states the necessary conditions for an effective policy implementation
Institutional quality shapes cooperation with out-group strangers
Full text linkHumans display a puzzling cross-population variation in the ability to cooperate with out-group members. One hypothesis is that impartial institutions substituting kith and kin as risk-buffering providers would favor the expansion of cooperative networks. Here I propose a research design that overcomes the endogeneity between institutions and preferences, making it possible to isolate the causal effects of institutional quality on out-group cooperation. I study a land tenure reform implemented as a randomized control-trial in hundreds of Beninese villages. The reform reduces the village community's discretion in regulating members' access to land by granting formal legal protection to individual rights-holders. Using a lab-in-the-field incentivized experiment (N = 576), I show that the reform significantly increases participants' cooperation with anonymous strangers from other villages. The results illustrate how humans' investments in in-group and out-group relationships are sensitive to cost-benefit evaluations, and emphasize that the institutional environment is a key driver of large-scale human cooperation
Property rights and prosocial behavior: Evidence from a land tenure reform implemented as randomized control-trial
Full text linkI study the first case of a large-scale land tenure reform implemented as a randomized control-trial in rural Benin to isolate the effects of formalizing property rights on trust and cooperation. The reform transformed informal and collective land tenure by registering individual rights over land and making it possible to sell, collateralize, and defend these rights in court. Seven years after the intervention, results of a public goods game and a trust game show that cooperation and trust substantially increase but only for participants in villages served by paved roads who can benefit from access to institutions and government services introduced by the reform. Conversely, in more isolated communities characterized by larger costs to access institutions, the reform significantly reduced prosocial behavior. An analysis of possible mechanisms suggests that subjects in isolated villages perceived the reform as facilitating institutional shopping for wealthy individuals, thus sparking resentment against the replacement of the customary conflict resolution system and increasing the support for banning the land market
La Regia di Gabii nell’età dei Tarquini.
No full textRecent archaeological investigations shed new light on the history of Gabii, the Latin town located 18 km. east
of Rome, which is mentioned in written sources for having been fraudulently taken by Sextus Tarquinius. In the
arx area of this city, a courtyard-fronted tripartite edifice dating to the earliest decades of the 6th century BC
has been discovered. Its exceptional degree of preservation - the remaining structures being higher than two
meters - is mostly due to the way it was eventually destroyed in the context of the political turmoil occurred in
the years following the fall of the Tarquinii's family in Rome: the building was unusually buried under a four
meters high monumental tumulus made of stones. Both functional features of the building and its layout, along
with fragments of revetment plaques representing felines and bull-headed figures, leave no doubt that the building under scrutiny was meant to parallel the Roman architectural complex studied by F. Brown and identified
with the Regia, i.e. the site where the early royal-age cults of Ops Consiva and Mars were celebrated. The
construction of a Regia at Gabii constitutes the first evidence of Rome’s determination to impose her supremacy
over a Latin town, and it must therefore be regarded as an historical correlate to Tarquinius Superbus' expansionist policy, which characterised the last decades of the 6th century BC.
La guerra e le mura di Roma dall’età regia all’età imperiale
No full textWar and the walls of Rome from the age of the kings to the early imperial age
War was certainly one of the most powerful influences in determining the urban form of ancient Rome.The urban landscapes in the vicinity of the ancient city wall, especially the pomerium and the triumphal processional route, reveal the extent to which the layout of ancient Rome was conditioned by the ideology of war. By the time of Augustus the walls, by then in ruins, must have been perceived as monuments to restored peace after a century of bloody civil war
La maison des rois de Rome, in Palais en Méditerranée de myceénes aux Tarquins
No full textDall'800 a oggi sono stati molti gli studiosi che, cercando indizi tra le righe di una fonte letteraria o all'interno di una sequenza di strati di terra, hanno tentato di ricostruire l'impressionante successione degli interventi costruttivi che hanno contraddistinto la lunga e travagliata vicenda delle dimore regali a Roma. Un palinsesto ancora oggi in gran parte da decifrare, ma senza il quale le nostre conoscenze sulle società dell'Italia in età arcaica sarebbero assai più limitate
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