During recent decades, economists' interest in gender-related issues has risen. Researchers aim to show how economic theory can be applied to gender related topics such as peer effect, labor market outcomes, and education. This dissertation aims to contribute to our understandings of the interaction, inequality and sources of differences across genders, and it consists of three empirical papers in the research area of gender economics. The aim of the first paper ("Separating gender composition effect from peer effects in education") is to demonstrate the importance of considering endogenous peer effects in order to identify gender composition effect. This fact is analytically illustrated by employing Manski's (1993) linear-in-means model. The paper derives an innovative solution to the simultaneous identification of endogenous and exogenous peer effects: gender composition effect of interest is estimated from auxiliary reduced-form estimates after identifying the endogenous peer effect by using Graham (2008) variance restriction method. The paper applies this methodology to two different data sets from American and Italian schools. The motivation of the second paper ("Gender differences in vulnerability to an economic crisis") is to analyze the different effect of recent economic crisis on the labor market outcome of men and women. Using triple differences method (before-after crisis, harder-milder hit sectors, men-women) the paper used British data at the occupation level and shows that men suffer more than women in terms of probability of losing their job. Several explanations for the findings are proposed. The third paper ("Gender gap in educational outcome") is concerned with a controversial academic debate on the existence, degree and origin of the gender gap in test scores. The existence of a gap both in mean scores and the variability around the mean is documented and analyzed. The origins of the gap are investigated by looking at wide range of possible explanations.

The dissertation consists of four papers that aim at providing new contributions in the field of macroeconomics, monetary policy and financial stability. The first paper proposes a new Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) model with credit frictions and a banking sector to study the pro-cyclicality of credit and the role of different prudential regulatory frameworks in affecting business cycle fluctuations and in restoring macroeconomic and financial stability. The second paper develops a simple DSGE model capable of evaluating the effects of large purchases of treasuries by central banks. This theoretical framework is employed to evaluate the impact on yields and the macroeconomy of large purchases of medium- and long-term government bonds recently implemented in the US and UK. The third paper studies the effects of ECB communications about unconventional monetary policy operations on the perceived sovereign risk of Italy over the last five years. The empirical results are derived from both an event-study analysis and a GARCH model, which uses Italian long-term bond futures to disentangle expected from unexpected policy actions. The fourth paper proposes a DSGE model with an endogenous term structure of interest rates, which is able to replicate the stylized facts regarding the yield curve and the term premium in the US over the period 1987:3-2011:3, without compromising its ability to match macro dynamics.

This dissertation explores how diseases contributed to shape historical institutions and how health and diseases are still affecting modern comparative development. The overarching goal of this investigation is to identify the channels linking geographic suitability to diseases and the emergence of historical and modern insitutions, while tackling the endogenenity problems that traditionally undermine this literature. I attempt to do so by taking advantage of the vast amount of newly available historical data and of the richness of data accessible through the geographic information system (GIS). The first chapter of my thesis, 'Side Effects of Immunities: The African Slave Trade', proposes and test a novel explanation for the origins of slavery in the tropical regions of the Americas. I argue that Africans were especially attractive for employment in tropical areas because they were immune to many of the diseases that were ravaging those regions. In particular, Africans' resistance to malaria increased the profitability of slaves coming from the most malarial parts of Africa. In the second chapter of my thesis, 'Caste Systems and Technology in Pre-Modern Societies', I advance and test the hypothesis that caste systems, generally viewed as a hindrance to social mobility and development, had been comparatively advantageous at an early stage of economic development. In the third chapter, 'Malaria as Determinant of Modern Ethnolinguistic Diversity', I conjecture that in highly malarious areas the necessity to adapt and develop immunities specific to the local disease environment historically reduced mobility and increased isolation, thus leading to the formation of a higher number of different ethnolinguistic groups. In the final chapter, 'Malaria Risk and Civil Violence: A Disaggregated Analysis for Africa', I explore the relationship between malaria and violent conflicts. Using georeferenced data for Africa, the article shows that violent events are more frequent in areas where malaria risk is higher.

This dissertation is about collective action issues in common property resources. Its focus is the “threshold hypothesis,” which posits the existence of a threshold in group size that drives the process of institutional change. This hypothesis is tested using a six-century dataset concerning the management of the commons by hundreds of communities in the Italian Alps. The analysis seeks to determine the group size threshold and the institutional changes that occur when groups cross this threshold. There are five main findings. First, the number of individuals in villages remained stable for six centuries, despite the population in the region tripling in the same period. Second, the longitudinal analysis of face-to-face assemblies and community size led to the empirical identification of a threshold size that triggered the transition from informal to more formal regimes to manage common property resources. Third, when groups increased in size, gradual organizational changes took place: large groups split into independent subgroups or structured interactions into multiple layers while maintaining a single formal organization. Fourth, resource heterogeneity seemed to have had no significant impact on various institutional characteristics. Fifth, social heterogeneity showed statistically significant impacts, especially on institutional complexity, consensus, and the relative importance of governance rules versus resource management rules. Overall, the empirical evidence from this research supports the “threshold hypothesis.” These findings shed light on the rationale of institutional change in common property regimes, and clarify the mechanisms of collective action in traditional societies. Further research may generalize these conclusions to other domains of collective action and to present-day applications.

TThis thesis sheds light on the multidimensional development experienced by China in the last decades, investigating to which extent different regions and segments of the society have benefitted from this process. The thesis comprises three independent chapters, each of which addresses this issue from a different angle and with different methodologies. The purpose of the first chapter is to document and analyze the trend and distribution of income, education and nutrition of Chinese individuals between 1989 and 2011. These three dimensions are analyzed separately (dashboard approach) through similar techniques, to preserve the possibility to compare the results of different dimensions. The inequalities observed in the three variables are measured with the Gini index, and are associated to the policies of the government and other explanatory variables. Moreover, the first chapter investigates how each type of inequality is related to the inequality of opportunities, and how the different types of discrimination evolved over time. The discrimination of individuals based on their circumstances (inequality of opportunities) is measured over time with a regression-based decomposition of inequalities. Income, education and nutrition inequalities show different trends, leading to dimension-specific policy implications. The purpose of the second chapter is to measure the Chinese poverty reduction in the multidimensional space and to individuate an informative index of multidimensional deprivation. Two alternative methodologies, the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) and the Multidimensional Synthesis Indicator (MSI), are adopted and compared, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of both indexes. Moreover, an original version of the MSI index is introduced, consistently with the idea of income as a mean, not an end, to achieve well-being. The multidimensional inequality amongst different groups of Chinese people is analyzed through these techniques, which are computed based on CHNS objective data, but result significantly correlated with subjective well-being too. The results, generally consistent with the previous MPI literature, contains also original findings about the intra-household identification of multidimensional deprivation. The purpose of the third chapter is to measure the multidimensional development and convergence of Chinese provinces with composite indexes. The introduction of several MSI indexes of development, based on ten economic and social indicators of development, allows to identify the development trajectory of all the 31 provinces of China between 1993 and 2016. The effectiveness of “harmonious society” policies is investigated in terms of achievements of synergies between social and economic achievements and in terms of convergence amongst provinces, according to the β- and σ-convergence methods. Both multidimensional development and convergence are characterized by generally positive results during the “harmonious society” period; however, inequalities across provinces remains, and interventions to recover the level and distribution of specific dimensions are needed. The results of the three chapters are consistent in highlighting that Chinese reforms have different effects in terms of income and multidimensional well-being. Moreover, the thesis generally points to an improvement of Chinese conditions (despite multidimensional indexes grow more slowly than income) that has been achieved also thanks to the efforts of the central government in pursuing a more balanced and harmonious development strategy. The thesis also indicates which dimensions and regions remain more fragile, providing a possible framework to design anti-poverty policy interventions. The diffusion of multidimensional indexes in future researches about Chinese development could allow to evaluate the trajectory of future reforms, preventing the repetition of unbalanced development strategies.

The dissertation is aimed at offering an insight into the agent-based methodology and its possible application to the macroeconomic analysis. Relying on this methodology, I deal with three different issues concerning heterogeneity of economic agents, bounded rationality and interaction. Specifically, the first chapter is devoted to describe the distinctive characteristics of agent-based economics and its advantages-disadvantages. In the second chapter I propose a credit market framework characterized by the presence of asymmetric information between the banks and the entrepreneurs. I analyze how entrepreneursâ€TM heterogeneity and the presence of Relationship Banking influences the macro properties of the designed system. In the third chapter I work to take the core of Keynesâ€TMs macroeconomics into the computer laboratory, in the spirit of a counterfactual history of economic thought. In particular, I devote much effort in the behavioural characterization of the three pillars of Keynesâ€TMs economics – namely the MEC, MPC and LP – relying on his clear refusal of perfect rationality in the decision making process. The last chapter adds to the literature that assesses the impact of monetary policy under the hypothesis of agentâ€TMs bounded rationality. Indeed, I design a quasi rational process through which inflation expectations are updated, and then I analyze how this hypothesis interacts with the efficacy of different monetary policy regimes.

The objective of this thesis is to analyse the promotive, preventive and transformative role of a conditional cash transfer programme in Peru. In particular, we analyse the unintended impact of Juntos on risk-coping strategies (migration and assets accumulation) and aspirations. Since the way risk-coping strategies and aspirations are formed may determine important consequences in terms of poverty, it is relevant to analyse to what extent conditional cash transfers may affect these dimensions. This thesis shows that the Juntos programme is able, not only to deter domestic migration from rural to urban areas, but also to allow beneficiary households to invest in productive assets and activities used for income generating activities. Additionally, the programme has also a psychological effect on beneficiary children who have higher aspirations about their future studies and work.

This dissertation seeks to contribute to the ongoing debate on the variety of post-socialist developmental trajectories by analyzing specific country cases and factors. The origins of distinct development paths are traced to early policy decisions, formation of tax regimes, and the shifting balance between demand for, and supply of, redistribution. An important feature of the transition economies is the varying propensity of policy-makers to control the speed of market reforms. Policy discretion has been restricted by self-imposed economic transnationalization, i.e., the opening of the financial and production sectors to the penetration of foreign capital. Post-socialist economies have varied with respect to the timing of their transnationalization and to the strength of the associated monetary and financial discipline, which have far-reaching implications for their competitiveness. The examination of existing cases of delayed reforms, such as in Belarus, further uncovers the nuances of formation of divergent post-socialist trajectories. This process is riddled with an inescapable conflict between backward and advanced sectors. Domestic social forces are often unable to reach a negotiated, consensual solution to this conflict, thus opening an avenue for transnationalization. If this conflict is left unresolved, dual economies tend to emerge, and are characterized by the coexistence of a sector of subsidized enterprises with a sector of profit-making and more efficient companies. In order to trace the dynamics of dual economies, the dissertation develops two analytical models encapsulating the factors behind the inter-sectoral conflict and the policy instruments, including taxation and financial repression in the form of directed lending. A continuous use of these policy instruments has clear-cut implications for investment and economic growth over the long run. A case is made to show the conditions under which dual economies are sustained over prolonged periods, but do not necessarily become more efficient and stable. The first model predicts that – ceteris paribus – the speed at which dual economies converge to the income level of the most advanced countries is reduced by the legacies of industrial employment and ideological hostilities towards reforms. The second model, which captures some important properties of the Chinese economy, demonstrates that in dual economies financial repression can lead to economic growth, but it occurs at the expense of savers’ well-being.

Humans are social animals who evolved to live in societies. They are "encultured" actors as their preferences, perceptions and values are shaped by the social context to which they are exposed. Part of economic failures is due to suboptimal social contexts which determine individuals' decisions. These social contexts can be better designed by organizations and governments. The ultimate goal of this research is to emphasize that social context can be detrimental for individual decisions, providing empirically-based behavioral insights for policy makers who wish to implement regulatory policies on corruption, gender gap and injustice. Behavioral and Experimental Economics provides a clean tool to keep the internal validity necessary to disentangle complex behavioral aspects that cannot be easily observed in the field, such as those related to the influence of social environment. This Doctoral Thesis is a collection of three laboratory experimental essays about the interplay between suboptimal social contexts and decisions. The first Chapter investigates the role of group identity in unethical decisions motivated by unfairness. The second Chapter provides evidence of gender stereotype in perceptions of others'risk attitudes. The third Chapter shows that small contextual changes can promote the diffusion of corruption while others inhibit it.

Keynesian economics has devoted particular attention to out of full employment equilibrium phenomena, but the lack of an analytical framework for describing how economic agents interact and organize their production and consumption decisions has made it difficult to establish whether the economic system is self-adjusting at an out-of-full employment equilibrium. One of the purposes of Sraffa's book Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities was to understand the conditions that allow the system to reproduce itself. But how trade takes place remains an open question. For Sraffian economics, the lack of an analytical framework for describing how economic agents interact and organize their production and consumption decisions, has made it difficult to consider out-of-equilibrium behaviour. The present thesis is a first attempt to model Keynes's principle of effective demand with the aid of Sraffian schemes. The notion of effective demand requires the possibility for buyers and sellers to buy and sell thanks to the existence of newly generated or previously accumulated financial purchasing power. Stated differently, the very notion of out-of-equilibrium exchanges may require the emergence of new credit and debt relations. Sraffa's original production schemes have been enriched with algorithmic behavioural functions that describe agent decisions and exchanges of property rights. In the resulting algorithmic model of an economic system (with labour and goods market), decisions of production and consumption are made by a population of algorithmic rational agents (ARAs), divided between producers and workers. The ARAs are characterized by behavioural functions, specific trading rules, and are connected in a network. Exchanges are made by signing virtual contracts that involve the use of financial means. The creation of new financial means of exchange, credit and debt, is endogenous. Production is heterogeneous and conceived as a circular process. The fundamental conclusion is that this digital economic laboratory has generated virtual economies able to converge towards production prices, uniform wage rates but non-uniform profit rates with an unequal distribution. The virtual economies result to be stable and efficient from a technological point of view despite economic policy can improve the performance of the whole economy. The digital economic laboratory is a powerful instrument able to answer different research questions. It represents an answer to the need to develop models able to explore the complexity of out-of-equilibrium behaviour, grounded on bookkeeping principles and computable methods.