Managerial Insights

2021-03-08 Donato Masciandaro

Biden and the Fed: a Bubbly New Deal?

Since January, the Fed has entered a new economic phase: it will have deal with the economic policy actions of Joe Biden, assisted by Janet Yellen. Many expect a "New Deal"; perhaps it is no coincidence that a portrait of Franklin Delano Roosevelt now hangs in the Oval Office, behind the new president. But what are the implications for fiscal and monetary policy? Let us start with the similarities and differences between the situation that the Biden-Powell duo must address and the situation Roosevelt faced ninety years ago. The common element could be the considerable economic recession. In truth, ...

Read

2021-02-25 Cecilia Attanasio Ghezzi

Chinese Soccer Falls Flat

It seems that Suning intends to sell Jiangsu, the team that won the Chinese soccer championship last season. And it is certainly seeking funding to deal with the liquidity problems of Inter, it's European crown jewel. The move appears to be part of a plan to divest from "non-relevant" activities implemented by the Nanjing giant Suning.com after the financial problems linked to the pandemic and the invitation from the central government to block investments abroad by Chinese companies. In 2017, there were 20 European clubs in the hands of Chinese investors; today, that number is less than 10, and ...

Read

2021-02-23 Veronica Vecchi, Manuela Brusoni

Public Procurement as a Driver of Economic Growth

In the coming months, Italy will begin to benefit from a considerable volume of resources, in the context of both the Next Generation EU and the new cohesion policy pushed by Prime Minister Mario Draghi. This is an opportunity that the country and its public administration have the duty to exploit productively, to sustain the society and the economy. Using these resources well implies not only selecting priorities and making plans, but also using purchasing tools and logics differently, an area that has always been considered a "minefield" by most of the personnel in the PA. In recent years, purchases ...

Read

2021-02-22 Paola Dubini

An Industrial Plan for Culture?

With the inauguration of the new government led by Mario Draghi, attention now turns to the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR),[1] the document that will guide the allocation of public resources in the coming years, and that – in terms of quantity of resources and speed of effort – is destined to have a very significant impact on the growth model pursued by our country. The Prime Minister's reference to Italy as a "cultural great power," and the role of culture not simply in terms of attracting tourists but of a "humanistic heritage of our identity recognized at the international ...

Read

2021-02-22 Cesare Conti

Towards an Advanced Approach to Enterprise Risk Management

A recent position paper published by the Italian Association of Financial Industry Risk Managers (AIFIRM) in collaboration with PwC demonstrates the presence of an evolved best practice on the subject of Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) in non-financial companies,[1] i.e. of a best practice strictly integrated with ESG policies (environmental, social, and governance factors), with the purpose and performance of businesses. However, unfortunately, the indicators on the spread of that best practice are not comforting, and not only in Italy, to tell the truth.[2] The spread certainly depends on the ...

Read

2021-02-19 Roberto Ruozi

Old and New Challenges for Italian Banks

The pandemic which has tormented us for over a year has also disrupted economic and financial activity, triggering a crisis that it will not be easy to overcome rapidly. Here I would like to attempt to describe some of the consequences of the virus on banks, with particular reference to Italian banks. To this end, it is useful to recall the problems our banks were dealing with before the outbreak of the pandemic, that were the following: low or even negative interest rates; very high credit risk accompanied by the incomplete definition of the formal and substantial treatment of NPLs; excessively ...

Read

2021-02-19 Roberto Ruozi

Old and New Challenges for Italian Banks

The pandemic which has tormented us for over a year has also disrupted economic and financial activity, triggering a crisis that it will not be easy to overcome rapidly. Here I would like to attempt to describe some of the consequences of the virus on banks, with particular reference to Italian banks. To this end, it is useful to recall the problems our banks were dealing with before the outbreak of the pandemic, that were the following: low or even negative interest rates; very high credit risk accompanied by the incomplete definition of the formal and substantial treatment of NPLs; excessively ...

Read

2021-02-15 Gianmarco Ottaviano

After Brexit: A (Still) Long and Winding Road

The "long and winding road" (as the Beatles would say) of the United Kingdom's divorce from the European Union was begun over four years ago, and its principal stages have been summarized in a document that can be downloaded from the website of the Library of the House of Commons.[1] In a referendum held on June 23, 2016, the majority of voters chose to leave the European Union. On March 29, 2017, in a letter to the President of the European Council Donald Tusk, the conservative Prime Minister Theresa May formally activated Article 50 of the Treaty on the European Union (TEU), that allows each ...

Read

2021-01-27 Cecilia Attanasio Ghezzi

The Visible Hand of the State

A 50-second video was enough to revive Alibaba stocks on the Hong Kong stock market: plus 8.5 percent in one afternoon, for a total of 5 billion dollars. On January 20, Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba and one of the richest men in the People's Republic of China, reappeared after almost three months of absence, for an online event with the one hundred best teachers from rural China. He said he was sorry that he could not be present due to the pandemic, and made no mention of his recent disappearance. Then he returned to silence and his absence from the political scene. On October 24, Ma had publicly ...

Read

2021-01-25 Francesco Perrini

For a Sustainable Capitalism

The year 2020 was disruptive for businesses, that are rethinking their role in social and other terms, and considering their activities from the standpoint of greater sustainability. Studies on "business finalism," understood as a process of continuous searching, definition, and redefinition of the meaning of individual, organizational, entrepreneurial, social, and institutional roles of business, trace back to Adam Smith. After having studied social and moral philosophy, as economics was not yet an academic discipline, Smith wrote An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations ...

Read