Managerial Insights

2021-01-07 Donato Masciandaro

Inflation: A Premature Funeral?

Has the time come to celebrate the funeral of inflation and think that monetary and fiscal policy must deal exclusively with economic growth and employment? The debate is not only underway, but also lively: on the one side, the doves, ready with the requiem; on the other, the hawks, ready to swear to the resurrection. What arguments does each side have? Let us start with what we know. Economic analysis tells us in general that a pandemic recession can have both deflationary and inflationary effects. In fact, it all comes from a non-economic shock, in which the unpredictable event (the outbreak ...

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2021-01-04 Andrea Beltratti, Alessia Bezzecchi

Real Estate and Sustainability: One Size Does Not Fit All

The attention to Environmental, Social and Governance criteria (ESG) and to sustainability is a consolidated trend by now. We all take it for granted that eight billion people can live together on the planet earth only following certain basic rules that require not depleting limited resources and managing them with a very long temporal horizon. The lifestyle each of us follows is the necessary condition for well-being and sustainability, and requires adequate buildings, that minimize the use of energy resources, are compatible with landscape constraints, and contribute to a sense of beauty. What ...

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2020-12-21 Cecilia Attanasio Ghezzi

The Big Winner

"If 300,000 people had died of Covid in China, how would the West have reacted?" The editorial in the English-language version of the People's Daily[1] leaves no doubt regarding the feeling of superiority in the People's Republic with respect to the management of the pandemic in the rest of the world. Especially today, with five vaccines in phase 3, four of which have already been approved for limited or emergency use,[2] and a plan to vaccinate 50 million people by the start of February. The government in Beijing wants to be ready for the Chinese New Year holidays, that in 2021 fall on February ...

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2020-12-09 Gianmarco Ottaviano

From Trump to Biden: What Changes for Foreign Trade?

Although the transition is difficult, the world is preparing for a change at the top in the United States, from the Republican president Donald Trump to the Democrat Joe Biden. What can we expect on the international economic relations front once the transition is completed? The question was posed a few days ago by Hillary Clinton, secretary of state with Barack Obama and then the Democratic candidate in the 2016 presidential elections, on the occasion of the opening of the academic year at the European University Institute of Florence. The premise is that before Trump, it was easier for the rest ...

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2020-12-08 Erica Corbellini, Lucia Paladino

The Value of Made in Italy Fashion Production in the Time of Covid-19

Covid-19 has provoked a general slowdown of the fashion industry and a drastic reduction of international trade, creating great difficulties for global manufacturing supply chains. New paradigms of consumption have emerged that require a change in the system, currently dominated by fast fashion and low-cost products. Great attention is now given to elements such as sustainability, the duration of products over time, and geographic proximity to the area of production. This break with the past can represent an opportunity for Made in Italy production, that has always been attentive to the environment, ...

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2020-11-22 Cecilia Attanasio Ghezzi

RCEP: A New Engine for Growth in Asia

It is called the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or RCEP, and it will go down in history as the largest trade deal in the world. 15 countries in the Asia-Pacific area – including China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand – have agreed on free trade in an area that represents approximately one-third of global population and GDP, and does not include either the United States or any countries in Europe. It is also the first time that historic rivals in Eastern Asia have reached an agreement that, according to some estimates, could increase annual global wealth by 186 ...

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2020-11-22 Andrea Beltratti, Alessia Bezzecchi

SESG for Asset/Wealth Management and Real Estate

"We inherit the earth from our parents, but we borrow it from our children," is a sentence used so often in official reports (a famous example is the Brundtland Report of 1987 entitled Our Common Future) that it cannot be attributed with certainty to some great thinker. It is one of the most effective ways to intuitively and comprehensibly describe the concept of sustainability. Having capital and not wasting it, but caring for it and growing it gradually over time. And what is the most precious capital for all of us, especially in the "global village" in which we live? The planet. Thinking in ...

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2020-11-16 Paola Dubini, Alberto Monti

What Will Happen to the Entertainment World?

If there is one thing that Covid-19 has taught us, it is that organizations that deal with culture are also businesses, in the sense that they also have the problem of obtaining the resources necessary to survive and continue their activity. Even when they are publicly-owned or managed, the fact that they can continue to cover their personnel costs does not exempt those who govern them from making decisions regarding the most suitable configuration of processes, necessary investments, and the divestments that are the least painful and impactful on the continuity and overall value generated. Therefore ...

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2020-11-10 Roberto Ruozi

An Overview of the Wirecard Case

The bankruptcy of Wirecard last summer wreaked havoc in the German financial system. Its unexpected explosion regarded a very large fintech listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, and surprised the world above all due to its causes: a colossal fraud that entailed the disappearance of billions of euros from the company's coffers. The reactions of the financial world, creditors, shareholders, stock market and oversight authorities, as well as the political world, were immediate and harsh. As can easily be imagined, a little of everything was said, with varying degrees of relevance. Several months ...

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2020-11-08 Donato Masciandaro

Will There Be a Digital Euro? Yes, and It Will Be Double

Starting in mid-October, the media began to give prominent attention to the first report by the European Central Bank (ECB) dedicated to the possibility of issuing a digital currency, signed by Christine Lagarde and Fabio Panetta, respectively the president of the ECB and a member of the Executive Board. The report presents the various problems that must be faced to define and implement a step that would represent a radical evolution of currency. The approach used by the ECB is to innovate while minimizing risk, a common approach by central bankers. Put differently, the digital euro should solve ...

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