In una realtà sempre più globalizzata e di competizione tra città, ospitare un mega-evento è un’opportunità di accelerazione della trasformazione economica, infrastrutturale, sociale e urbana. Questa tesi si propone di valutare se Torino è stata capace di trasformare l’occasione dei Giochi Olimpici Invernali 2006 in una duratura eredità per la città, separando l’effetto dei Giochi in se' e per se' da quello degli investimenti pubblici e della visibilità. Il primo capitolo evidenzia l’importanza di ospitare un evento per l’economia locale e fornisce un quadro generale d’analisi, presentando la scelta della dinamica dei prezzi immobiliari rispetto ad altri metodi usati in letteratura, assieme a quella della tecnica difference-in-differences. Infine, propone il contesto teorico dell’analisi empirica che viene sviluppata nei due capitoli successivi, spiegando le ragioni dietro la scelta del caso delle Olimpiadi di Torino. Il secondo capitolo mira a separare l’effetto differenziale degli investimenti pubblici locali (introducendo una loro nuova misurazione diretta) sull’attrattività della città, distinto da quello dell’ospitare i Giochi di per sé. Il terzo capitolo amplia l’analisi empirica introducendo il ruolo della visibilità internazionale tramite la creazione di un innovativo indice di visibilità basato sui dati forniti dallo strumento Google Trends. / In a context of increasing globalisation and competition between cities, hosting mega-events is an opportunity to accelerate economic, infrastructural, social and urban transformation. This dissertation aims at analysing if Turin was able to transform the hosting of the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in a long-lasting legacy for the city, separating the effect of the Olympics per se from the ones of public investments and visibility. In doing so, the first chapter highlights the importance of event hosting for local economies and provides a general framework of analysis, discussing the choice of housing prices dynamics to evaluate the impact of mega events with respect to other methods used in literature, as well as the one of difference-in-differences technique. Finally, the theoretical background of the empirical analysis that follows in the subsequent chapters is presented along with the choice of the case of Turin’s Olympics. The second paper aims at disentangling the differential effect of local public investments (introducing a new direct measure of them) on city appeal, distinguished from that of hosting the Olympics per se. The third paper extends the empirical analysis introducing the role of international visibility in shaping the legacy of Turin Olympics. In doing so, an innovative index of visibility is constructed using data from the Google Trend Tool.

La ricerca considera il problema dell'effettività dell'aiuto pubblico allo sviluppo secondo una prospettiva istituzionale. Nello specifico,la sostenibilità di accordi cooperativi tra donors and recipients viene considerata con riferimento a modelli istituzionali teorici. Il sistema di incentivi che determina la natura della relazione d'aiuto nel caso del General Budget Support è inoltre considerato con riferimento alla più recente prassi sviluppatasi in Tanzania. / The researches considers that issues that are inherently connected with the type of donor-recipient relationship affect the productivity of aid. This is mainly because incentives embodied in the relation shape party behaviours. The basic elements that characterized the aid relationship and the incentives that aid organization face, are in fact altered according to the institutional set in which money flows. Different aid modalities bear in themselves the potential of acting on the aid relationship by changing the basic rules of the game. General Budget Support (GBS), as a new aid modality represents quite an interesting institution. Getting the “incentives” right for cooperation, in such a context, would imply a rethinking of the basic theoretical model and organizational features on the ground of the evolving practices and specific technology of provision. The research aim is opening a route of possible investigation into the dynamics of incentives related to international cooperation at country level. Tanzania has been chosen among a series of possible cases study as in the Sub Saharan Africa panorama it represents one of most successful cases of GBS implementation. The analysis is grounded on a general institutional analysis that puts at the centre of observation the structure of the negotiations between the group of donors and the recipient government. The framework employed represents an adaptation of the Institutional Analysis for Development. The purpose of understanding the set of explicit and hidden motivations is functional to better delineate the contractual set in which the bulk of relations takes place.Results obtained from the empirical analysis are considered in a theoretical fashion with the purpose of generalizing on the main structural change caused by GBS on the donor-recipient relation. Concepts are taken from NIE and organizational theory to study the governance structure of aid relations.

La tesi è organizzata in tre parti. Ognuna delle quali tratta un aspetto cruciale per la trasmissione della politica monetaria. Nella prima parte si impiega un modello Neo Keynesiano per adattarlo all’economia Italiana. A tal fine, Si stimano le risposte dinamiche, sia simulando il modello e sia utilizzando le serie storiche, impiegando la metodologia SMM. Nella seconda parte sono riportate le nuove evidenze sulla persistenza dell’inflazione, attraverso l’utilizzo di una nuova tecnica di identificazione di un modello “Bayesian VAR”; con l’obiettivo di analizzare gli effetti di vari shock di policy sulle variabili macroeconomiche. La terza parte si propone di fornire le evidenze microeconomiche sull’eterogeneità nelle strategie di determinazione dei prezzi tra le imprese italiane sulla base di un nuovo database longitudinale predisposto dalla Banca d’Italia. L’analisi così articolata si propone di identificare le eterogeneità a livello settoriale e/o territoriale tra le imprese, per trarne importanti implicazioni di policy per l’autorità monetaria. / The thesis is structured in three parts. Each part deals with a crucial aspect for monetary policy transmission. In the first one, I set up a New Keynesian model with to Italian economy. To this end, I estimate the dynamic responses both for the theoretical model and for the data using the SMM technique. Chapter 2 presents new evidence about inflation persistence through a novel technique to identify a Bayesian VAR model, and it analyzes the effects of several policy shocks on the macroeconomic variables. Chapter 3 provides the new micro-evidence on price setting and heterogeneity among Italian companies by using a new longitudinal data provided by the Bank of Italy. This allowed an analysis that captures the regional and sectoral disparities among firms’ price setting. This micro-evidence has a very important policy implication for the monetary authority.

Lo scopo della tesi di dottorato è quello di indagare, analizzare e costruire evidenza empirica sulla rilevanza degli approcci territoriali per affrontare il problema dell'insicurezza alimentare, sulla base del presupposto che l'inefficacia degli approcci tradizionali alla sicurezza alimentare e nutrizionale (FNS) sottolinea la necessità di passare da approcci “one-size-fits-all”, interamente top-down e settoriali ad approcci integrati, contesto-specifici e territoriali. La prima parte definisce un quadro concettuale e di policy per l'approccio territoriale alle politiche di FNS, intervistando anche i principali esperti sui temi della FNS e dello sviluppo regionale. La seconda parte si propone colmare il gap in termini di informazione e di metodi di analisi per la FNS tramite lo sviluppo di strumenti e approcci per misurare e valutare le determinanti strutturali territoriali della FNS. In particolare, nel lavoro si propongono due diversi strumenti: il Territorial Capital Index (TCI) e la matrice di contabilità sociale (SAM). Il lavoro di ricerca conclude che la FNS è un problema complesso e multisettoriale di sviluppo socio-economico caratterizzata da una forte dimensione territoriale che va ben oltre la produzione alimentare ed è il risultato di interazioni dinamiche e complesse tra politiche sociali, economiche, istituzionali e ambientali. L'approccio TCI-SAM proposto fornisce ai decisori politici un sistema di informazioni e di analisi territoriali esaustivo per indirizzare le strategie e le politiche di FNS e per una più efficiente allocazione delle risorse. / The aim of the PhD thesis is to investigate, analyze and build empirical evidence on the relevance of territorial approaches for addressing the issue of food insecurity, based on the assumption that the ineffectiveness of traditional approaches to food and nutrition security (FNS) stresses the need to shift from one-size-fits-all, entirely top-down and sectoral-based approaches to integrated, context-specific and place-based approaches. The first part defines a conceptual and policy framework for the territorial approach to FNS policies also by interviewing the main experts on the issues of FNS and regional development. The second part aims at filling the FNS gap in terms of information and analytical methods by developing tools and approaches to measure and assess the territorial structural determinants of FNS. In particular, it proposes two different tools: the Territorial Capital Index (TCI) and the Social Accounting Matrix (SAM). The research concluded that FNS is a multi-sectoral and complex socio-economic development issue characterized by a strong territorial dimension which goes far beyond food production and it is the result of dynamic and complex interactions between economic, social, institutional and environmental policies. The combined TCI-SAM approach provides policy makers with comprehensive territorial information to target FNS strategies and policies and to better allocate resources.

Ampia discussione è in corso riguardo ai Fondi Strutturali Europei, uno strumento creato dall’Unione Europea per ridurre le differenze economiche tra le sue regioni. Durante il CSF 2000-06 essi hanno rappresentato 1/3 del budget comunitario. Nonostante tale sforzo, parte della letteratura trova scarsi effetti e persistenza nei differenziali di PIL che i fondi dovrebbero ridurre. In questo lavoro si affronterà la questione osservando le regioni dell’EU-15, nel periodo 2000-07. L’effetto dei fondi è stato dapprima stimato con modelli di convergenza assoluta e considerando problemi come l’autocorrelazione spaziale e l’eterogeneità delle regioni. L’attenzione si è quindi diretta alla costruzione di un dataset contenente cifre dettagliate dei fondi pagati annualmente a ciascuna regione, tramite combinazione di informazioni da fonti ufficiali e tramite stime per coprire le cifre per cui tali informazioni erano mancanti. Con questo dataset sono quindi stati stimati modelli che considerassero effetti di spill-over e la possibilità di cluster convergence. È risultato che i fondi strutturali hanno effetti tutto sommato positivi. L’utilizzo di modelli più complessi e realistici ha però mostrato una debole convergenza, lasciando quindi dubbi sull’effettiva efficacia dei fondi. / A vast discussion is underway regarding European structural funds, an instrument the European Union created in order to reduce the economic differentials among its regions. During the 2000-2006 CSF they represented 1/ 3 of EU budget. Despite these efforts, part of the literature finds small effects and persistence in those differences in GDP which these funds should reduce. In this work the issue will be addressed by looking at regions within EU-15, in the period 2000-2007. Proof of the positive effect of funds was first searched using models of absolute beta convergence and addressing issues like spatial autocorrelation and heterogeneity between regions. The attention moved then to the task of constructing a dataset which could provide detailed figures on funding paid to each region each year, by combining information available from official sources and through the estimation of those figures for which information was missing. On the base of this dataset new models were estimated, taking into account the spill-over effects and the possibility of cluster convergence. The result was that structural funds have, overall, a positive impact. Once we move to more complex and realistic models, convergence becomes weaker, casting some doubts on the effectiveness of these funds.

Il cambiamento climatico è una sfida chiave dei nostri tempi, soprattutto per i paesi in via di sviluppo, che basano i loro processi di crescita sull'utilizzo delle risorse naturali e sul settore agricolo. Sebbene esistano varie strategie e piani, sia a livello pubblico che privato, per far fronte agli impatti dei cambiamenti climatici, l'implementazione delle misure di adattamento è ancora limitata. Questo è collegato alla presenza d'incertezza riguardo agli impatti dei cambiamenti climatici in futuro. Pertanto, nuovi strumenti e processi decisionali dovrebbero essere valutati e diffusi nel tentativo di aiutare i decisori pubblici e privati nella definizione e attuazione di misure concrete di adattamento. In questa tesi, la Portfolio Analysis viene applicata alla valutazione di investimenti agricoli in Ruanda / Climate change is a key challenge of our times, especially for developing countries, which significantly rely on natural resources and on the agriculture sector. Even though there are various strategies and plans to face climate change impacts, the implementation of adaptation measures is still uneven. This is connected to the presence of uncertainty about the impacts of climate change in the future. Therefore, new decision-making tools and decision processes should be assessed and disseminated in the attempt to help the decision makers in the definition and implementation of concrete adaptation measures. In this dissertation, the Portfolio Analysis methodology is applied in the evaluation of agricultural investments in Rwanda

La produzione globale di cibo provoca impatti sia sull’ ambiente che sulla salute umana. Tra le molteplici sfide che la comunità globale deve affrontare, le risorse di acqua dolce della Terra sono state identificate come pericolosamente soggette a una crescente pressione sia in termini quantitativi che qualitativi. Una profonda comprensione del nesso acqua-cibo è pertanto cruciale per lo sviluppo sostenibile. Nella presente tesi è stato applicato il concetto di Water Footprint (WF) calcolata attraverso differenti metodologie – ovvero attraverso approcci di tipo volumetrico e per la quantificazione dei potenziali impatti – al fine di stimare gli impatti sul consumo di acqua conseguenti produzione e consumo di cibo. Per valutare diverse tecniche di produzione, sono state confrontate le prestazioni ambientali di due vigneti coltivati con metodi di agricoltura convenzionale e biologica. Inoltre, sono stati studiati gli impatti sulle risorse idriche in relazione a diversi scenari di consumo alimentare in Italia e Danimarca, per indagare come le scelte alimentari dei consumatori rappresentino una strategia di riduzione degli impatti sull’ acqua. Nel calcolo degli impatti ambientali, i risultati hanno evidenziato il ruolo chiave dell'origine dei prodotti alimentari consumati, insieme alla tipologia dei prodotti e la riduzione di sprechi alimentari. / Global food production has increasingly affected both the environment and human health in substantial and remarkable ways. Among the many concerns global community has to face, Earth’s freshwater resources have been identified as dangerously subject to increasing pressure in the form of consumptive water use and pollution. A deep understanding of the water-food nexus is crucial to support the exploration of more suitable avenues for a sustainable development. In this work, the concept of water footprint (WF) presented by different methodologies – volumetric and impacts oriented approach – has been applied to link impacts on water consumption to the food production and consumption. With regard to the study of the production side, comparison of environmental performances of two vineyard where conventional and organic viticulture were applied, has been performed. Additionally, impacts on water resources related to different Italian and Danish dietary patterns have been investigated to understand the positive impacts that demand-side solutions can have. The studies highlighted that the origin of consumed foodstuffs played a key role in the calculation of local environmental impacts. Finally, the analysis showed that consumer’s choices could tackle environmental impact on water use by changing their consumption patterns, selecting less water-demanding products and reducing food waste.

La seguente Tesi di Dottorato si articola in cinque saggi che esaminano alcuni importanti aspetti legati all'energia in Africa subsahariana, e in particolare all'interazione tra lo sviluppo socio-economico e le sue implicazioni per l'ambiente a livello regionale e globale. I saggi sono introdotti da un capitolo di avvicinamento generale ai temi trattati. Questo capitolo prepara il lettore offrendo un riassunto delle principali sfide legate all'energia nel contesto subsariano e formulando le domande di ricerca e gli strumenti sui quali si basa la tesi stessa. Le principali implicazioni di ciascuno dei saggi, sia per la ricerca che per i decisori politici, vengono poi presentate in un capitolo di discussione finale. Il primo saggio esamina la problematica dell’accesso all'energia, e in particolare all'elettricità. Viene illustrato il ruolo dei dati satellitari e dell'analisi statistica dei dati geospaziali nel migliorare la comprensione della situazione dell'accesso all'elettricità in Africa subsahariana. Il saggio include un'analisi delle disuguaglianze che caratterizzano la qualità dell'accesso all'elettricità nella regione. Il risultato principale è che, dopo decenni, la disuguaglianza nell'accesso all'energia sta iniziando a diminuire. Essa rimane però prominente, in particolare per quanto riguarda la quantità di energia consumata. Viene stimato che gli sforzi di elettrificazione tra il 2020 e il 2030 debbano triplicare il loro passo per raggiungere l'obiettivo di sviluppo sostenibile SDG 7.1.1. Il secondo saggio consiste di una piattaforma di valutazione della domanda energetica bottom-up spazialmente esplicita per stimare il fabbisogno energetico tra le comunità in cui l'accesso all'elettricità è attualmente carente, come identificato con la metodologia introdotta nel primo saggio. La valutazione non si limita al fabbisogno energetico residenziale, ma include un resoconto dettagliato, basato sugli usi finali, del fabbisogno energetico di scuole, strutture sanitarie, pompaggio dell'acqua per l'irrigazione, lavorazione delle colture e microimprese, i principali motori dello sviluppo rurale. Viene condotto uno studio nazionale per il Kenya per dimostrare l'importanza di considerare molteplici fonti di domanda oltre al residenziale quando l'obiettivo è sviluppare una strategia di elettrificazione che supperisca veramente alla povertà energetica. Si dimostra poi che esiste un notevole potenziale di crescita della produttività e della redditività rurale grazie all'apporto di energia elettrica. In molte aree, questi profitti locali potrebbero ripagare gli investimenti nelle infrastrutture di elettrificazione in pochi anni. Il terzo saggio analizza un aspetto specifico dell'interazione tra pianificazione dell'accesso all'elettricità, domanda di energia residenziale e adattamento ai cambiamenti climatici. Vengono combinati dati e scenari climatici, satellitari e demografici per produrre una stima globale spazialmente esplicita della domanda di circolazione e condizionamento dell’aria non soddisfatta a causa della mancanza di accesso all'elettricità. Sulla base di modelli integrati di elettrificazione climatica-energetica e geospaziale, risulta che in Africa sub-sahariana, l'hotspot globale della povertà energetica, tenere conto del fabbisogno di circolazione e condizionamento dell’aria locale stimato (in aggiunta agli obiettivi di consumo residenziale di base) determini una riduzione sostanziale della quota di sistemi standalone come l'opzione di elettrificazione meno costosa entro il 2030, e un importante aumento della capacità di generazione di elettricità e dei requisiti di investimento. Tali risultati suggeriscono la necessità di una maggiore considerazione delle esigenze di adattamento climatico nella pianificazione dei sistemi energetici dei paesi in via di sviluppo e nella valutazione del trade-off tra l'espansione della rete elettrica centrale e sistemi decentralizzati per raggiungere un’elettrificazione universale. La pianificazione dell'elettrificazione deve essere tecnicamente efficiente, ma deve anche considerare l'ambiente politico-economico in cui gli investimenti vengono canalizzati. Il quarto saggio valuta il ruolo della governance e della qualità regolatoria nel quadro di modellazione dell'accesso all'energia elettrica. In particolare, si introduce un indice di governance dell'accesso all'elettricità basato su più indicatori che viene poi implementato nel modello di elettrificazione IMAGE-TIMER. L’effetto dell’indice viene modellato attraverso il suo effetto modificatore sui tassi di sconto privati (una misura del rischio e della disponibilità ad accettare costi futuri rispetto ai costi attuali). I risultati mostrano che la governance e la qualità regolatoria nell'accesso all'elettricità hanno un impatto significativo sul mix tecnologico ottimale e sui flussi di investimenti privati per raggiungere l'elettrificazione universale in Africa subsahariana. In particolare, un ambiente rischioso scoraggia l’investimento da parte dei fornitori privati di soluzioni di accesso decentralizzato all'energia, con il rischio di lasciare molti senza elettricità anche oltre il 2030. Il quinto e ultimo saggio analizza il settore energetico africano da un punto di vista ‘Nexus’. Il saggio valuta l'affidabilità del sistema energetico nei sistemi energetici dominati dall'energia idroelettrica (come in molti paesi dell'Africa centrale e orientale) e del ruolo che i cambiamenti climatici e gli eventi estremi possono esercitare su di esso. Il lavoro combina analisi qualitative e quantitative per (i) proporre un solido framework per evidenziare le interdipendenze tra energia idroelettrica, disponibilità di acqua e cambiamento climatico, (ii) analizzare sistematicamente lo stato dell'arte sugli impatti previsti dei cambiamenti climatici su l'energia idroelettrica nell'Africa subsahariana e (iii) fornire evidenza empirica sui trend passati e sulle traiettorie di sviluppo futuro del settore. I risultati suggeriscono che il cambiamento climatico influenzerà l'affidabilità e la sicurezza della fornitura elettrica attraverso diversi canali. Ad esempio, molti dei principali bacini idrologici sono stati caratterizzati da una diminuzione del livello idrico nel corso del ventesimo secolo. Si evidenzia come tuttavia una diversificazione del mix di generazione elettrico sia finora stata promossa solo in un numero limitato di paesi. Si suggerisce infine che l'integrazione delle fonti rinnovabili variabili con l'energia idroelettrica possa aumentare la resilienza del sistema. / This dissertation is a collection of five essays examining some important energy-related aspects at the interplay of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)’s development and its interactions with the regional and global environment. The essays are introduced by a general overview chapter – highlighting the core energy-related challenges of SSA and the scope of this work. The main implications of the essays, both for research and for policymakers, are then considered in the final discussion chapter. The first essay focuses on access to modern energy, and chiefly on electricity. I illustrate the role of satellite data and the statistical analysis of geospatial data in improving the understanding of the electricity access situation in sub-Saharan Africa. The essay includes an analysis of inequality characterising the electricity access quality in the region. The main finding is that after decades, energy access inequality is beginning to decline but it remains prominent in particular as far as the quantity consumed is concerned. I find that electrification efforts between 2020 and 2030 must triplicate their pace to meet Sustainable Development Goal 7.1.1. The second essay develops a spatially-explicit bottom-up energy demand assessment platform to estimate the energy needs among communities where access to electricity is currently lacking, as identified with the methodology introduced in the first essay. The assessment is not restricted to residential energy needs, but it includes a detailed, appliance-based account of power needs for schools, healthcare facilities, water pumping for irrigation, crop processing, and micro enterprises, the key drivers of rural development. I carry out a country-study for Kenya to show the importance of considering multiple demand sources beyond residential when the aim is developing an electrification strategy which truly overcomes energy poverty. I also show that there is considerable potential for rural productivity and profitability growth thanks to the input of electric energy. In many areas, these local profits might pay back the electrification infrastructure investment in only few years. The third essay analyses a specific aspect at the interplay between electricity access planning, household energy demand and climate change adaptation. I combine climate, satellite, and demographic data and scenarios to produce a global spatially-explicit estimate of unmet ACC demand due to the lack of electricity access. Based on integrated climate-energy and geospatial electrification modelling, I find that in sub-Saharan Africa, the global hotspot of energy poverty, accounting for the estimated local ACC needs on top of baseline residential consumption targets determines a substantial reduction in the share of decentralised systems as the least-cost electrification option by 2030, and a major ramp-up in the power generation capacity and investment requirements. My results call for a greater consideration of climate adaptation needs in the planning of energy systems of developing countries and in evaluating the trade-off between the central power grid expansion and decentralised systems to achieve universal electrification. Electrification planning must be techno-economically efficient, but it must also consider the political-economic environment where investment needs to be channelled. The fourth essay evaluates the role of governance and regulatory quality in the electricity access modelling framework. In particular, I introduce an Electricity Access Governance Index based on multiple indicators implement it into the PBL’s IMAGE-TIMER electrification model through its modifier effect on private discount rates (a measure of risk and willingness to accept future costs vis-à-vis present costs). The results show that governance and regulatory quality in electricity access have a significant impact on the optimal technological mix and the private investment flows for reaching universal electrification in sub-Saharan Africa. In particular, risky environment crowd out private providers of decentralised energy access solutions with the risk of leaving many without electricity even after 2030. The fifth and final essay takes a nexus perspective in the analysis of the African power sector. It deals with the reliability of the energy system in hydropower-dominated power systems (such as in many countries in Central and East Africa) and the role that climate change and extreme events can exert on it. The essay combines qualitative and quantitative analysis to (i) propose a robust framework to highlight the interdependencies between hydropower, water availability, and climate change, (ii) systematically review the state-of-the art literature on the projected impacts of climate change on hydropower in sub-Saharan Africa, and (iii) provide supporting evidence on past trends and current pathways of power mix diversification, drought incidence, and climate change projections. I find that climate change can affect supply reliability and security in multiple ways. For instance, several major river basins have been drying throughout the twentieth century. Nonetheless, I highlight that diversification has hitherto only been promoted in a limited number of countries. I suggest how integrating variable renewables and hydropower can increase system resilience.

The overall goal of this work is to study the effect of a crisis on the distribution and employment and the space of manoeuvre of the government for supporting and reverting the negative shock produced by such a crisis. Every chapter of this work and the related models are supported by both a theoretical background analysis and by numerical dynamic simulations. Stylized facts show that the income and wealth inequality in all the OECD countries has been constantly increasing after the 1960s. Piketty has been one of the most important authors that highlighted the rising inequality issue, mainly in the OECD countries. For example, Piketty (2014) shows that the income share held by the top percentile in countries such as US, Canada and UK increased from 8%-10% in the 1960s up to 14%-18% in the current decade. Similar figures are now provided by the World Inequality Lab that has updated data for almost every country up to 2016. At the same time, the wage share for the majority of the OECD countries substantially decreased. For example, countries such as Italy and Spain experienced a decrease in wage share from about 73% in the 1970s to about 63% in the current decade (Hein, 2014). Taking into account such a stylized fact, we will consider a model with two social classes, workers and capitalists. These social classes differ in terms of their initial endowment, their consumption behaviour, the different loans repayment conditions required to them by the banks and in terms of the ways in which they can use their financeable wealth. This is a very important departure hypothesis from the mainstream point of view models that generally consider a population made up of “a representative agent” of the whole society. Considering the inequality levels that the OECD countries are experiencing, we took the Post-Keynesians school of thought as a very good reference point since it always focused its attention on the relation between the level of employment, the aggregate demand and the distribution between social classes. In line with the post-Keynesians tradition, we believe that a theory cannot be correct unless it starts from realist or realistic hypotheses, although it is recognized that assumptions are always abstractions and simplifications (Lavoie, 2014). Therefore, we developed a step by step model with the analysis of an economy based on some well-known stylized facts. Beyond the social classes distinction, we take into consideration the temporal lag between production and sales of products by firms and the one between income received by the social classes and their expenditure. Those two temporal lags are the very key aspects we focus our attention on in the model presented in Chapter II named “Keynes, Kalecki and Metzler in a Dynamic Distribution Model”. In that chapter, we merge the hints of Keynes and Kalecki about the distribution of social classes and the intervention of the government in supporting the aggregate demand together with Metzler’s hint about the mismatching process between aggregate demand and aggregate production. Metzler’s mismatching process would finally generate inventories of consumption goods. More specifically, it is argued that even if Post-Keynesians models focused their attention on output growth, employment and income distribution relating those issues with a stronger intervention of the state, they all (even the canonical Kaleckian model) overlooked the adjustment - or non-adjustment - dynamics from the ultra-short run to the short run period upon which the short run and long run models are then constructed. In fact, even if the Kaleckian models completely reject the standard neoclassical production function (rejecting diminishing returns and rejecting the substitution between capital and labour) they also very strongly rely on a final equilibrium between aggregate demand and aggregate production. The canonical Kaleckian short run models are constructed upon the consideration of the effective labour demand curve defined as “the locus of combinations between real wages and levels of employment which ensure that all produced goods are sold at the price set by firms” (Lavoie, 2014). As argued by Lavoie (2014), this construction assures that an increase of real wage leads to an increase in the employment level. That has been and still is definitely one of the cornerstones for the Post-Keynesian authors. We argue that the equilibrium assumption between the aggregate demand and the aggregate production plays a key role in obtaining the standard Kaleckian conclusions regarding the relation between effective demand, employment levels and the distribution of surplus product between the social classes. The main question arising from the previous enquiring exercise about adjustment dynamics in the Kaleckian framework is that, because of the overlooking on that adjustment process between aggregate production and aggregate demand, also its conclusions might be consequentially affected. More precisely the main Post-Keynesian Kaleckian conclusions to assess are the following: would it still be true that higher real wages lead to a higher level of employment? Would it still be true that a decrease in the propensity to save will lead to an increase in output and employment? Would it still be true that in order to keep employment from falling, whenever there is an increase in productivity there must be some increase in real wages? And finally, most importantly in terms of policies, would it still be true that in order to keep employment from falling, even when the economy faces a pari passu increase of real wage and productivity level, it would be necessary an increase in real autonomous expenditure such as a strong government one? In this way, our model analyses under which conditions the standard Kaleckian conclusions are still valid considering a disequilibrium situation. Two scenarios are simulated: one with fixed expectations as in Metzler (1941) and another new one based on adaptive expectations and asymmetric behaviour of the wages-unemployment relation. The model questions the effective demand labour curve and suggests that an increase in real autonomous expenditures, mainly by the Government, might be even more essential than what is generally considered in the Kaleckian literature, to avoid increasing unemployment in an increasing wage world. The model presented in Chapter III named “The stabilising role of the Government in a Dynamic Distribution Growth Model” builds upon the model presented in Chapter II and considers once again the effect of a crises on the relation between aggregated demand, employment and distribution between social classes adding important characteristics of realism that were absent in the previous chapter. Here, we consider the gestation period of the investments and the presence of the government investigating its margin of manoeuvre in such an economy. The first aspect takes inspiration by Kalecki (1971) himself who considers the three different Investment stages: investment order or Demand (I^D), investment Production (I^P) and investment delivery or Completion (I^C). In line with a post-Kaleckian perspective, we consider the expected profitability and the capacity utilisation as the two main variables as driving forces for the investment decisions. The second new aspect of this model compared to the one presented in Chapter II is the explicit presence of the government. In fact, even if chapter II suggested the Government as the emblematic autonomous figure able to foster expenditure in times of recession, its actual role in the economy was not analysed. Many post-Keynesian scholars have underlined how recent decades have been characterised by a strong downgrading of the fiscal policy role as a stabilisation instrument of macroeconomic policy (Arestis and Sawyer, 2003). In this way, this chapter analyses exactly the space of manoeuvre of the government and the role of the fiscal policies into a “functional finance” framework where the government "can and should be called upon as a key part of the remedy" (Fazzari, 1994) to ensure a high level of economic activity whenever the private sector is unable to do so by itself. In the light of such a functional finance framework, the government actions should be inspired to achieve a more stable and sustainable growth path. More specifically, we here investigate the possibilities that the Government has to boost and support the economic activity with its two main tools, public investments spending and a taxation system in two scenarios. The first scenario simulates an exogenous fall of private investments while the second one relates to an exogenous increase in labour productivity and real wages. In particular, here we test the canonical Kaleckian model conclusion according to which even when the economy faces a pari passu increase of real wages and productivity level it would be necessary an increase in real autonomous expenditures - such as the one implemented by the government - in order to keep employment from falling. At the same time, the aim of this chapter is also to explore the role of the Government in stabilising the economy exactly thanks to the previous tools. In fact, Chapter II underlined the possibility of an arising unstable path from a mismatching dynamic between aggregate demand and aggregate production. It was argued that such an unstable path might develop because of “wrong” oversensitive expectations of firms regarding the production of consumption goods. Therefore, chapter III focuses exactly on the space of manoeuvre of the government in stabilizing an unstable economic scenario caused by a crisis. The model built in Chapter IV named “The distributive monetary analysis of a sustainable ecological economy” is the natural evolution of the models developed in Chapters II and III. In such a model all the previous stylized facts are contained, namely the temporal lag between production and sales of products by firms, the temporal lag between income received by the social classes and their expenditure, the gestation period of the investments and, finally, the intervention of the government. The most important difference with respect to the models presented in the previous chapters is its overall monetary and ecological framework. In fact, for simplification purposes the previous models were assuming that, in line with a horizontalist approach, commercial banks were providing funds on demand to firms for financing their investments. However, the explicit relations among all the sectors of our economy were not fully exposed. In this chapter Graziani’s endogenous money theory is used and we are developing a Post-Keynesian Stock Flow Consistent (SFC) model to track all the economic relations, both the real and monetary ones. At the same time, the use of a SFC model ensures that “there are no black holes - every flow comes from somewhere and goes somewhere” (Godley W. , 1996) through a rigorous accounting framework, which guarantees a correct and comprehensive integration of all the flows and the stocks of an economy. Such as Kalecki, Graziani and the circuitists economists introduce a preliminary distinction between producers and wage earners. The first step of the monetary circuit is always characterized by firms’ decision to activate production and, in order to do so, they take up loans by commercial banks. In this sense, commercial banks are able to create deposits ex nihilo, granting them loans and, at the same time, creating deposits. In this way, the starting logical cause of the expansion of money is exactly the firms’ willingness of contracting a liability to activate production. In the second step, firms use those loans to pay workers and in this way to obtain the amount of consumption goods desired through the production process. When such funds are transferred by firms to households they instantaneously become income paid for the work provided to firms by workers. Finally, the last step of the Monetary Circuit is characterized by the households’ spending decision to use the money balances previously obtained as income. In this step, while households use their funds to buy consumption goods, firms obtain back those money balances they initially paid to households for their work. In this way, the previous Monetary Circuit analysis is not in contrast with the one made by Kalecki upon the way workers obtain their wages and use all of them to buy consumption goods while capitalists are able to spend just a proportion of their income. Finally, together with its social and monetary framework, our economy is also characterized by an environmental one since we here study the impacts that the economic consumption has in terms of ecological erosion of natural resources. In this way, the model of chapter IV questions the expenditure margins of the Government – in particular after a crisis - and uses the suggestions of the monetary circuit theory to analyse the space for fiscal policies to reduce unemployment boosting the economic activity, to obtain a more equitable distribution between social classes in a sustainable ecological way. Our understanding is that despite many contributions focused on the topics of recovery, distribution and ecological sustainability, few of them tried to tackle them all in a comprehensive way considering the rediscovery of the endogenous money phenomena as one of the most important breakthroughs in the last decades. Here we argue that exactly the endogenous money feature is the essential fil rouge to better understand and connect the three previous important aspects. It is so when we analyse the sectors connections and the policies ones devoted to recovery, and also if we consider how the different incomes and wealth are captured and distributed by the different social classes and finally when we point out the ways of financing long term ecological path to preserve a sustainable environment. Indeed, our overall work in Chapter II, Chapter III and Chapter IV is a step by step construction of an organic and consistent model. It starts with a more theoretical and simplified approach through Chapter II which investigates the (in)stability conditions of the Kaleckian approach while suggesting the presence of an autonomous figure such as the government one. Chapter III adds more real base features through endogenous investments and government presence while Chapter IV finally concludes considering all the real and monetary links of the sectors into a social and ecological framework.

Della proprietà astratta è associata con lo stato, potere e ricchezza nelle società più africane e terreni agricoli di proprietà appartiene agli uomini. Lo scopo di questo studio è di esaminare il legame tra proprietà fondiaria e differenze di genere nei sistemi di possesso della terra. Questo studio esplora l'accesso delle donne alla terra nell'ambito dei sistemi di consueto possesso. Rassegna i principali aspetti del contributo delle donne africane alla produzione alimentare e raccolto in contanti e offre alcuni suggerimenti per migliorare la loro partecipazione e intensificazione nel settore dei piccoli. Inoltre, lo studio esamina come i cambiamenti nella proprietà fondiaria, proprietà, accesso e diritti alla terra come conseguenza di leggi consuete stanno influenzando la produttività dell'agricoltura, sicurezza alimentare e lotta alla povertà. Il dibattito è incentrato sulle preoccupazioni di un'equa distribuzione tra uomini e donne e Guarda le donne rurali come operai agricoli a un livello in cui le disuguaglianze di genere coincidono. I risultati da questo studio illustrano la cultura predominante e le pratiche tradizionali ancora colpiscono le donne, andare a loro discapito a favore degli uomini per quanto riguarda l'ereditarietà e la diretta proprietà di terreni e proprietà in casa. Parole chiave: Equità di genere, Proprietà della terra, Riforma agraria, Sicurezza alimentare. / Landownership is associated with status, power and wealth in most African societies and agricultural land property belongs to men. The aim of this study is to examine the link between land ownership and gender differences in land tenure systems. This study explores women’s access to land under the customary tenure systems. It reviews the major aspects of African women's contribution to food and cash crop production and offers some suggestions to improve their participation and intensification in the smallholder sector. Also, the study examines how the changes in land tenure, ownership, access and rights to land as a consequence of customary laws are affecting agricultural productivity, food security and poverty alleviation. The debate is centred on concerns of equitable distribution among men and women and looks at rural women as agricultural workers at a level where gender inequalities coincide. The findings from this study illustrate the predominant culture and traditional practices still affect women, disadvantaging them in favour of men regarding inheritance and direct ownership of land and property in the household. Keywords: Gender Equity, Land ownership, Land Reform, Food Security.