Gaetano Alfredo Minerva -- Working Papers

Recent Working Papers

Bürker M., Mammi I., Minerva G.A. (2018) Civic Capital and Service Outsourcing: Evidence from Italy. Quaderni - Working Paper DSE N° 1125, Università di Bologna.

Abstract: This paper studies whether civic capital acts an effective restraint against opportunistic behavior in transactions by looking at the firm-level degree of service outsourcing in Italy. Our results show that firms tend to outsource more services in areas where civic capital is higher. We claim that the rise in the propensity to engage in transactions with outside service suppliers stems from the decrease in opportunism between the parties involved. We consider a dynamic specification which allows to disentangle state dependence of service outsourcing from firm-level heterogeneity, and we use historical instruments to address the potential endogeneity of civic capital.
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Minerva G.A. (2017) Integration versus Outsourcing with Vertical Linkages. Development Studies Working Papers N° 411, Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano.

Abstract: In the model by Grossman and Helpman (2002) no industry has both vertically integrated and specialized producers in equilibrium. I generalize their model by assuming that final goods producers (irrespective of whether they are vertically integrated with the upstream stage or specialized in the downstream stage only) need a basket of differentiated commodities, in addition to labor, as a fixed requirement for production. I then show the existence of an equilibrium populated simultaneously by vertically integrated and disintegrated firms.
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Minerva G.A., The proximity-concentration trade-off with multiproduct multinational firms.

Abstract: I study the proximity-concentration trade-off faced by two multiproduct multinational firms that operate in two countries under horizontal product differentiation. In this context, characterized by two-way trade and FDI, the trade-off regulates the number of domestic affiliates (concentration) against the number of foreign affiliates (proximity). I show how multinationals' market shares and markups react to changes in trade and investment frictions, and in the degree of product substitutability. Under plausible parameters restrictions, the model is consistent with the stylized fact that, in U.S. and Japan, the number of foreign affiliates is inversely related to the market share held by multinationals in their domestic market.
Best Conferece Paper Award at the 9th FIW Research Conference, University of Vienna.