The Demand for Theatre. A Microeconomic Approach to the Italian Case

This paper examines theatre participation in Italy over the period 1995–2006. Explanatory variables are determined by identifying their contributions to both the individual’s decision to attend, and the frequency of attendance. Socio-demographic and socio-economic characteristics, cultural capital, participation in other cultural activities, ticket price and theatre supply are taken into account. Three different models are used: the logistic regression model, the ordered logistic regression model and the finite mixture model. In the first two cases the contribution of each variable is not so different, in the case of finite mixture model the significance of the variables is not the same in the two components. For instance, the variable education, a proxy for cultural capital, is always significant in determining participation, but not in frequency of participation. In general, our results show that participation is not specific to a particular theatrical event since people who attend one arts activity are more likely to attend others. Finally, our results show that traditional socio-economic variables such as income and education are highly correlated with participation in the arts.Demand, Arts participation, Theatre, Italy.

ICT Investments and Technical Efficiency in Italian Manufacturing Firms: The Productivity Paradox Revisited

From the Seventies the importance of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has been a much debated question. A lot of studies are made in order to understand if the ICTs are able to increase economic growth, firm productivity and firm efficiency. In this study both the translog and the Cobb-Douglas production function are used in order to estimate the impact of information and communication technology on technical efficiency (TE) in the Italian manufacturing firms over the period 1995-2003. Results show that ICT investments positively and significantly affect firm technical efficiency. Moreover, group, size and geographical position are able to influence positively TE. Finally, results show that older firms are in average more efficient than younger ones.ICT investment, Productivity Paradox, Stochastic Frontier, Italian manufacturing firms

The affective notes of represented space as motors of emotional and sensorial response

The following essay proposes to investigate the perceptual and emotional aspects related to the visualization of architectural images. The field of research is limited to a well-defined category: figurative representations as the photographic and digital images of contemporary architecture. In particular, two types will be analysed: the un-built architecture produced by Studio MIR and Bloomimages compared with the photographed built architecture. Using figurative images as a tool of reading, the aim of this work is to identify and classify three types of affective spaces capable of generating a specific kind of perception, producing a sensorial classification of atmosphere for architecture. The study of the Psychology of Art, as well as Aesthetics and Neuroaesthetics can be a valuable tool in understanding the phenomena of the present, considering the marked pictoriality of these images. The application of the analytic methodology, developed in these disciplines, can suggest a new way of "looking" at the project, paying attention to the representation of the atmospheres, which characterizes the experience of felt space

Evaluation of sustainability: results from long term experimental arable systems in Tuscany

The research is aimed at implementing a methodology in order to estimate the sustainability of an agricultural system, through the use of Agro-ecological and Sustainability Indicators. The methodology is applied to three stockless, experimental agricultural systems, part of a long-term experiment (MOLTE) managed with diverse typologies (old organic, new organic vs conventional). The results derived from the three different management systems are estimated by considering crop rotation and efficiency in terms of energetic, macro-element (N, P, K) and organic matter flow. These are related to the landscape and biodiversity system, as well as the soil and the environmental system. The research shows that the agro-ecosystems managed with the organic agriculture method has succeeded to attain optimal levels of sustainability. Independently of time duration from conversion, the organic systems are better than the conventional system for all indicators, with the exception of the soil indicators that showed remarkable resilience

All-optical tuning of EIT-like dielectric metasurfaces by means of chalcogenide phase change materials

Electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) is a pump-induced narrowband transparency window within an absorption lin e of the probe beam sp ectrum in an atomic system. In this paper we propose a way to bring together the all-dielectric metamaterials to have EIT-like effects and to optically tune the response by hybridizing them with a layer of a phase change material. We propose a design of the metamaterial based on Si nanoresonators that can support an EIT-like resonant response. On the top of the resonators we consider a thin layer of a chalcogenide phase change material, which we will use to tune the optical response. Our choice is Ge 2 Sb 2 Te 5 (GST), since it has two stable phases at room temperature, namely amorphous and crystalline, between which it can be switched quickly, nonvolatively and reversibly, sustaining a large number of switching cycles. They differ in optical properties, while still having moderately low losses in telecom range. Since such dielectric resonators do not have non-radiative losses of metals around 1550nm, they can lead to a high- Q factor of the EIT-like response in this range . Firstly, we optimize the starting structure so that it gives an EIT-like response at 1550 nm wh en the GST layer is in the amorphous state. Our starting design uses glass as a substrate, but we also consider implementation in SOI technology. If we then switch the thin layer of GST to its crystalline phase, which has higher losses, the EIT-like response is red shifted, pr oviding around 10:1 contrast at 1550nm. This reversible tuning can be done with an ns visible pulsed laser. We discuss the results of the simulation of the dielectric metasurface for differe nt configurations and the tuning possibilit

Individual Decisions and Household Demand for Consumption And Leisure

The standard microeconomic assumption of a household utility function raises two theoretical problems: it contradicts methodological individualism and it ignores economic phenomena like income and consumption sharing, division of labour, externalities and altruism within a household. This paper reviews two approaches, aggregation theory and more recent non-unitary models, to compare the different properties that household consumption and leisure demands have to satisfy in the two basic contexts. The paper also discusses some recent empirical evidence which seems to encourage further investigation in the non-unitary framework.consumption, labour supply, intra- household allocation

Intra-Household Allocation of Time and Resources: Empirical Evidence on a Sample of Italian Households with Young Children

This paper examines the labour supply decision of the household when the presence of pre-school children, creating non-separabilities in the use of time, is explicitly taken into account. A set of nested tests is obtained from the standard household utility model and from the collective one, both including a household production function measuring the quality of time provided to the children. The application of the tests to a sample of Italian households shows that the collective model considered in this paper cannot be rejected. For this demographic group we also find enough evidence against the income pooling hypothesis and against the Slutsky inter-person symmetry condition. However, the identification of the income sharing parameters shows that the distribution of the household non-labour income does not affect the household labour supply system. We also provide a measure of the bias implicit in the standard household utility approach, by comparing the labour supply elasticiticies obtained from the two models.Household labour supply, children

Leaving home and housing prices. The experience of Italian youth emancipation

This paper provides an explanation for the postponement of youth emancipation in the Italian context mainly characterized by a sharp increase in both house and rent prices together with stagnant disposable income over the past decade. We first assemble a unique database related to the housing and rental market which is then matched with household characteristics. We find that the probability of leaving home decreases by about half percentage point and one percentage point for males and females, respectively, for a one-standard-deviation change in house prices. Together with property prices, local labour markets play a prominent role in determining decisions by unemployed youths to postpone the transition. The youngest cohort was mainly affected by the real estate market evolution that occurred in the last decade.coresidence, moving out, real estate market, discrete time duration model.