Questa tesi si propone di analizzare il tema dell’alfabetizzazione finanziaria secondo tre differenti prospettive servendosi di dati raccolti da un’indagine appositamente creata e somministrata in Italia tra Settembre 2014 e Febbraio 2015. Il primo capitolo guarda alle determinanti dell’alfabetizzazione finanziaria, concentrandosi sul ruolo dei consulenti finanziari, il secondo assume una prospettiva più psicologica sul tema e il terzo guarda alla mancanza di alfabetizzazione finanziaria quale possibile causa di distorsioni comportamentali finanziarie. Gli interventi tradizionalmente volti al miglioramento della consapevolezza finanziaria sono risultati estremamente costosi e con periodi di decadimento particolarmente brevi in tutto il mondo; l’evidenza empirica presentata in questa tesi suggerisce che una forma di educazione finanziaria più graduale e costante, come quella esercitata dai consulenti finanziari indipendenti, sarebbe più efficace. La conoscenza dei canali relazionali che potenziano il ruolo educativo dei consulenti finanziari, potrebbe aiutare a orientare e meglio calibrare futuri interventi educativi, tenendo a mente, tuttavia, che la competenza teorica non garantisce necessariamente comportamenti finanziariamente corretti. In accordo ai risultati ottenuti, infatti, l’alfabetizzazione finanziaria diminuisce la presenza di distorsioni finanziarie cognitive, ma non ha un effetto significativo sulle quelle emozionali. / This thesis aims at investigating the financial literacy through three different perspectives by analysing the data gathered from an ad-hoc survey carried out in Italy between September 2014 and February 2015. The first chapter looks at the determinants of financial literacy, focusing on the role of financial advisors, the second one takes a psychological perspective on the issue and the last chapter looks at poor financial literacy as a possible antecedent for financial behavioural biases. Traditional educational interventions aimed at improving financial awareness proved to be extremely costly and to have a worryingly short decay period worldwide; the empirical findings presented in this thesis suggest that a more gradual and constant form of financial education, such as the one exerted by independent financial advisors, would be more effective. Being aware of the relational channels that enhance the independent financial advisors’ educational role, may help to orient and better target future educational treatments, bearing in mind, though, that the theoretical financial proficiency does not ensure unbiased downstream behaviours. As a matter of fact, according to the results, financial literacy decreases the presence of cognitive biases, but does not have a significant effect on emotional biases.

Small Italian banks have experienced a substantial growth since the mid-1990s and have not disappeared in the wave of the liberalization process that started in 1992. Two main reasons have emerged to explain their growth: (i) the consolidation process of larger banks that disregards smaller customers and (ii) their lending strategy based on localism, proximity, small dimensions, and peer monitoring. Small banks could exploit their ability in collecting soft information and they often use them along with hard information to reduce the asymmetries of information and moral hazard issues in transactions. Among the small banks, cooperative banks have an additional advantage due their member-based ownership structure. They use this to increase the quantity and quality of the soft information compared to other small banks. Italian Credit Cooperative Banks (Banche di Credito Cooperativo, hereafter CCBs) have performed particularly well in expanding their business and in increasing both members and branches, largely due to the weakening of their legal constraints in 1992. However, this growth has not been homogenous and there are differences in growth patterns at the dimensional and the geographical levels. This dissertation focuses on three research questions concerning CCBs: 1. The role of size in the recent growth of CCBs: the literature on bankâ s growth has shown mixed results on the relationship between growth and size. In particular, two main features have been studied: (i) the role of size in the growth of loans, assets and members by testing the Law of Proportionate Effect (LPE); (ii) the role played by other covariates in the growth of loans, assets and members by testing a multivariate regression model. Applying these models to CCBs, the results show that LPE is rejected in favour of a negative relation between size and growthâ i.e., smaller CCBs have grown faster. Their faster growth is related to the financial variablesâ the cost-income level and average earnings (or costs) from interest rates. Moreover, environmental variables play a significant role in explaining the growth. 2. The impact of social capital on the performance of CCBs: given their cooperative form, lending technology, and control mechanisms, the presence of CCBs are expected to be higher in areas where people are more connected and the level of trust is higher. This assumption is related to a small but growing literature on the effects of trust and social capital on the viability and growth of cooperatives at the macro-level. The impact of social capital variables (number of people joining associations and the trust level) on the market share of CCBs at province level turn out to be positive and significant. The results for the market share hold for both the overall credit market and the specific SME credit market. Moreover, the higher presence universalistic associations (associations pursuing general goals â e.g. environmental protection) as compared to particularistic association (those with a particularistic goal, e.g. sports club) have a positive impact on the market share. Finally, only CCBs seem to gain from the presence of larger social capital in comparison to other local banks 3. The relation between the governance structure and interest rate pricing as a way to reward members: CCB members do not usually receive dividends, instead benefit from better financial conditionsâ i.e., better interest rates. However, while the borrowers are interested in reduced interest rate on loans, the depositors prefer an increase in the interest rate on their deposits. The reward choices of CCBs are described using a model based on the bankâ s rewarding priorities and the median voter framework is suitably adapted for the CCBs governance structure. An empirical investigation on the impact of the majority composition in the general assembly on the interest rates pricing is attempted. The tests show that the interest rates policies of CCBs match with the median voter prediction in the case of a borrower majority, while a depositor majority kept the interest rates on deposits lower. This could be seen as a way to control the costs. CCBs follow a strategy to benefit both types of members and to be consistent with their balance sheet constraints.

Il sistema delle garanzie finanziarie del mercato assicurativo è, allo stato attuale, oggetto di processi di riforma comunitari (c.d. progetto Solvency II). Le ipotesi fino ad ora elaborate, nonostante siano lontane dal potersi definire conclusive, prevedono l'apprezzamento del margine di solvibilità relativo al rischio di tasso d'interesse (IRR) assumendo che la struttura per scadenza sia oggetto di shift paralleli della curva. Noti i limiti dell'approccio deterministico ed in forza dei principi fino ad ora consolidati, il presente elaborato si propone l'obiettivo di quantificare il requisito di capitale di una compagnia operante nel ramo vita, a fronte dell'IRR, ipotizzando che la dinamica dei tassi sia governata da un processo stocastico nella forma del modello Cox Ingersoll e Ross (CIR). Le simulazioni sono state sviluppate sugli equilibri patrimoniali di una teorica compagnia, al fine di apprezzare in maniera asettica il contributo dell'impostazione promossa. / Nowadays, the financial guarantees system of insurance market is being interested by a Community reform process (Solvency II project). Even if the current hypothesis are far to be definitive, the present guidelines state that the Solvency Capital Requirement (SCR) related to Interest Rate Risk (IRR) has to be quantified assuming deterministic shocks to the yield curve. The aim of the thesis is to improve the assessment of SCR connected to IRR, calculating interest rates according to Cox, Ingersoll and Ross (cir) stochastic model. Simulations are developed on the asset liability equilibria of a theoretical life insurance company, in order to better appreciate the SCR algebra sensitivity to changes in CIR model parameters.

Obiettivo del presente lavoro è identificare le principali connotazioni specifiche della professione di private banker. In seguito ad una prima analisi della genesi del ruolo e dei fattori che ne hanno determinato l’evoluzione nel tempo, si sono indagati: quali mansioni e responsabilità ricopre e quali riporti gerarchici è chiamato a rispettare, quali caratteristiche comportamentali e attitudinali siano distintive del ruolo, quale il livello di competenze necessario al suo esercizio e quali i gap formativi ancora da colmare. Non da ultime, sono state rilevate le difficoltà quotidiane e le fonti di soddisfazione tipiche della professione, nonché gli strumenti motivazionali e di incentivazione utilizzati dalle realtà di private banking. L’indagine è stata condotta attraverso l’analisi congiunta di più progetti di ricerca quali-quantitativi, che hanno visto il coinvolgimento di private banker e opinion leader di settore. Emerge così una figura professionale ancora in divenire per effetto di cambiamenti strutturali del mercato, oggi guidati dal nuovo contesto normativo, dalla crisi finanziaria e dal processo di globalizzazione continua. / The aim of this paper is to identify the main aspects of the private banking profession. Following a preliminary analysis of its origins and the factors that led to its evolution over recent years, this research investigates main tasks and duties of a private banker, his position in the organizational chart of the company, behavioural and attitudinal characteristics relevant to his role, required level of skills and expertise, as well as knowledge gaps still to be filled. A special focus has been put on his daily difficulties and typical sources of satisfaction, in addition to motivational tools and incentives used by private banking organizations. The survey has been conducted by means of a combined analysis of various qualitative and quantitative research projects, involving both private bankers and opinion leaders within the banking sector. The emerging scenario is an evolving professional role as a result of current structural changes in the business, constantly subjected to new regulations, recurring financial crisis and the continuous globalization process.

Le agenzie di rating nascono come intermediari di informazione tra coloro che emettono titoli e gli investitori. La crisi finanziaria ha generato intense critiche verso l’industria del rating. La conseguenza è un potenziale ridimensionamento dell’utilizzo del rating che avviene per esempio con emittenti che non acquistano più la certificazione. Nel presente elaborato mi focalizzo sul ruolo delle agenzie di rating studiando la loro influenza sul costo del capitale e sul finanziamento delle imprese. Il primo capitolo riassume le precedenti evidenze empiriche sul contenuto informativo del rating. Il secondo e il terzo capitolo dell’elaborato offrono un nuovo contributo alla letteratura utilizzando due tipologie di cancellazione di rating avvenute tra il 2001 e il 2011. La prima tipologia avviene nel caso in cui l’azienda cessa di essere monitorata e certificata dall’agenzia. La seconda tipologia avviene per un cambio di policy di Moody’s che modifica il rating in circolazione senza alcun cambiamento nei fondamentali dell’emittente. L’elaborato mostra che il rating influenza il costo del capitale e il finanziamento delle imprese. / Rating agencies exist to assess the creditworthiness of issuers and reduce the adverse effect of information asymmetry. However, the effectiveness of such financial intermediaries in mitigating information asymmetry has been doubted in particular after the financial crisis. In this thesis, I examine two types of Moody’s' credit rating withdrawals to assess whether rating contains relevant information for investors. The first type of withdrawals occurs when the firm stops being rated. The second type of withdrawals occurs because Moody's implemented a policy to refine the outstanding rating information without any change in the firms’ fundamentals . I show that the rating withdrawals influence the firms’ credit market access, financing decisions and cost of capital. I conclude that rating information has a value for market participants.

This thesis gives an overview of the history of gold per se, of gold as an investment good and offers some institutional details about gold and other precious metal markets. The goal of this study is to investigate the role of gold as a store of value and hedge against negative market movements in turbulent times. I investigate gold’s ability to act as a safe haven during periods of financial stress by employing instrumental variable techniques that allow for time varying conditional covariance. I find broad evidence supporting the view that gold acts as an anchor of stability during market downturns. During periods of high uncertainty and low stock market returns, gold tends to have higher than average excess returns. The effectiveness of gold as a safe haven is enhanced during periods of extreme crises: the largest peaks are observed during the global financial crises of 2007-2009 and, in particular, during the Lehman default (October 2008). A further goal of this thesis is to investigate whether gold provides protection from tail risk. I address the issue of asymmetric precious metal behavior conditioned to stock market performance and provide empirical evidence about the contribution of gold to a portfolio’s systematic skewness and kurtosis. I find that gold has positive coskewness with the market portfolio when the market is skewed to the left. Moreover, gold shows low cokurtosis with the market returns during volatile periods. I therefore show that gold is a desirable investment good to risk averse investors, since it tends to decrease the probability of experiencing extreme bad outcomes, and the magnitude of losses in case such events occur. Gold thus bears very important and under-researched characteristics as an asset class per se, which this thesis contributed to address and unveil.

This PhD dissertation is a collection of four essays focusing on the demand and supply of small business finance in Kenya. The studies are the result of primary research conducted over three years with both demand-side players, more specifically micro and small-scale entrepreneurs operating in a low-income area in Nairobi. And the main suppliers of small businesses finance in Kenya - commercial banks - which provided data on the size, characteristics and evolution of their SME finance portfolio between 2009 and 2013. Since commercial banks are not the only players in the provision of finance to small firms, the dissertation studies the entire financial landscape of both formal and informal financial providers, including institutions such as microfinance institutions, savings groups and moneylenders among others. The dissertation is divided in two parts: the first half of the dissertation analyses the determinants, effects and challenges of access to formal and informal finance by small enterprises in Nairobi (Essays 1 and 2). These two essays use primary data collected through a survey questionnaire with 344 micro and small enterprises in a low income neighbourhood in Nairobi. The analysis describes the financial landscapes in which businesses operate and the effects of access to credit on firm performance (e.g. investments, profitability and employment growth.). The second half of the dissertation analyses the supply-side, more specifically the relation between formal financial sector development and economic growth (Essay 3) and the characteristics and development of bank financing to SMEs (small and medium enterprises) in Kenya (Essay 4). Essay 3 relies on secondary time-series data taken from the World Bank databases, whereas Essay 4 uses original survey data administered to commercial banks in Kenya in two survey rounds in 2012 and 2014. Each essay in this dissertation is a standalone study with its own literature survey, research questions, data and methodological approach. The main findings of the demand-side chapters is that informality has significant effects on access (or exclusion) to bank finance, but is less relevant when we investigate informal financial instruments such as self-help groups and family/friend loans. Essay 2 of the dissertation shows that different types of loans have different effects on the performance of businesses, and that loans from commercial banks seem to incentivize investments and employment creation more than other types of loans. The supply-side chapters on the other hand show that there is a long-term association between financial sector development in Kenya and economic growth, and that there is a reciprocal relation of causality over the long-run. Finally, Essay 4 shows that bank financing to SMEs has grown steadily over the last few years and that banks are increasingly exposed to small businesses in their lending portfolio. However, the financial products to SMEs tend to be unsophisticated and concentrated in few sectors.

Financial constraints and limited access to markets are the most important obstacles for economic development in developing economies that are largely dependent on agriculture. Lack of access to credit and output markets, in particular, is frequently identified as a key barrier to transformation of subsistence agriculture. The fundamental problems are related to information asymmetry, lack of collateral and limited economies of scale. Innovative institutional mechanisms, in the form of microfinance and producer organizations, offer ways to address information asymmetry and increase scale economies. This dissertation examines the outreach, financial performance and impact of microfinance institutions as well as the key drivers of agricultural cooperatives and its impact on smallholder farmers efficiency in Ethiopia. To meet these objectives four data sets from Ethiopia, one institutional and three household survey data, are used. The analysis of microfinance generally focuses on examining the trade-offs between outreach to the poor and financial sustainability by ownership forms (shareholder owned vs. memberowned). The outreach-financial sustainability trade-offs analyzed first using the institutional survey data. The empirical results show that serving the poor and financial sustainability are challenging objectives to achieve together. There is also evidence that suggests the presence of mission drift. Second, the role of ownership form on outreach, financial performance and cost-efficiency is analyzed within the framework of efficient ownership assignment theories using regression and stochastic cost frontier approaches. This analysis aims at testing whether the commonly held proposition of greater efficiency of shareholder firms in microfinance by policy advocates is empirically supported. The results reject the superiority of shareholder-owned microfinance over financial cooperatives. In fact, the evidence here supports the advantages of member-owned microfinance on cost efficiency and balancing the double bottom-lines of microfinance. Third, the impact of access to microfinance credit on farmers investment on agricultural inputs is assessed using propensity score matching (PSM) and control-function-regression methods that address potential participation selection biases. Results from both approaches show that access to credit increased the use of productivity enhancing inputs among borrower farmers. Indeed, farmers that borrow from financial cooperatives tend to invest more on modern inputs. The analysis of agricultural cooperatives tested theoretical propositions from organizational and the new institutional economics theories on the drivers of agricultural cooperatives incidence and farmers membership and patronage decisions. Discrete choice models are employed for the empirical analysis. The results indicate that the incidence of agricultural cooperatives in Ethiopia is more related to the countervailing market power argument than to the transaction cost reduction hypothesis. Despite open membership polices, the analysis on farmers participation indicates that membership and patronage decisions are related and significantly influenced by location, asset and relational specificities. Finally, the impact analysis estimated technical efficiency gains of membership in agricultural cooperatives and employed matching and stochastic production frontier techniques. The evidence suggests that membership in agricultural cooperatives significantly enhances efficiency gains among smallholder farmers.

Il rating creditizio è un elemento molto importante per le imprese in quanto ha impatto, ad esempio, sul costo del capitale (Bhojraj and Sengupta, 2003; Campbell and Taksler, 2003), sul prezzo delle azioni e dei titoli obbligazionari (Dichev and Piotroski, 2001; Hand et al., 1992). Anche le imprese che ottengono il rating per la prima volta, tipicamente soggetti di dimensioni più piccole e con una storia più recente, hanno molto interesse per il rating. Nel principale contributo della mia tesi (“Is Indebtedness always negative for Credit Ratings? Empirical evidence on Newly Rated Firms”), misuro empiricamente, per il periodo dal 1985 al 2013, se i soggetti che hanno ottenuto un rating per la prima volta ottengono una valutazione differente rispetto agli altri operatori. Dalle mie analisi emerge che i soggetti che hanno ottenuto un rating per la prima volta ottengono valutazioni lievemente più negative rispetto agli altri operatori ma, sorprendentemente, emerge che coloro che hanno un maggiore indebitamento hanno delle valutazioni migliori. Negli altri due articoli della mia tesi sviluppo ulteriori analisi sui rating. Nel primo articolo (“Credit Rating Agencies: a Review of Recent Academic Studies and Key Practical Implications”), presento una sistematizzazione della letteratura accademica sui rating e sulle agenzie di rating. Nel secondo articolo (“The Dynamics of Credit Rating Standards”), esamino se le agenzie di rating hanno modificato i propri standards nel corso del tempo. / Firms care deeply about their credit ratings, since ratings influence, for instance, firm’s cost of capital (Bhojraj and Sengupta, 2003; Campbell and Taksler, 2003), bond and stock market prices (Dichev and Piotroski, 2001; Hand et al., 1992). This is also true for newly rated firms, typically smaller, in a younger stage of their life cycle and with a shorter track record compared with other issuers to show to the external financial stakeholders. In the main paper of my thesis (“Is Indebtedness always negative for Credit Ratings? Empirical evidence on Newly Rated Firms”), I test the impact of being newly rated firms on credit ratings over the period from 1985 to 2013. I report a negative but pretty low effect on rating outcome for the entire sample of newly rated firms but, surprisingly, I find a strong positive relation between highly levered firms and credit rating. I develop additional research on credit rating in the other two papers of my thesis. In the first paper (“Credit Rating Agencies: a Review of Recent Academic Studies and Key Practical Implications”), I present a systematization of the latest academic contributions on credit ratings and credit rating agencies. In the second paper (“The Dynamics of Credit Rating Standards”), I examine long-term issuer credit ratings and I focus on the time variable to study how credit rating agencies have modified their standards over years.

A causa delle conseguenze che il fenomeno comporta, sia sul piano finanziario sia sul fronte dell'economia reale, l'analisi e la previsione delle insolvenze societarie continua a rappresentare un argomento attuale nell'ambito della ricerca economica. I recenti sforzi condotti dal Comitato di Basilea verso la diffusione di criteri di valutazione del rischio di credito più precisi ed oggettivi, hanno ulteriormente accresciuto l'importanza della materia. L'obiettivo del presente studio è l'analisi del fenomeno del fallimento sul territorio italiano, al fine di valutare quali variabili sono più efficaci nell'individuazione di una situazione di dissesto dell'impresa. Per l'analisi si sono sviluppati dei modelli di previsione delle insolvenze in grado di individuare i segnali early warning di dissesto finanziario. L'analisi econometrica è basata su un campione ampio ed originale di fallimenti rilevati negli anni 2003 e 2004: a tal fine sono stati costituiti dei campioni comparabili di imprese fallite e non fallite ed è stato verificato, mediante l'applicazione di una metodologia logit, il potere previsivo di diversi indici di bilancio e di variabili di tipo non finanziario. I risultati ottenuti sono stati validati su un campione hold-out. L'analisi si evidenzia l'importanza delle caratteristiche del settore di attività nel determinare la forma del processo di fallimento: i modelli sector specific ottengono risultati migliori rispetto ai modelli generali stimati. Inoltre, alcuni fattori comuni ai diversi settori di attività si dimostrano particolarmente efficaci nella previsione dei dissesti aziendali: l'età, il livello di leverage e la composizione del debito d'impresa, così come la sua redditività. / Due to the consequences that the phenomenon entails both on the financial and real sides of the economy, the analysis and prediction of corporate failures continue to be a current topic in economic research. The recent efforts laid by the Basel Committee towards the diffusion of more precise and objective ways of assessing credit risk have further increased the importance of this matter. The purpose of the study is to analyse the bankruptcy phenomenon among Italian firms, in order to assess what firm-specific and industry variables are more important in determining corporate failure events. We develop a bankruptcy prediction model that aims at detecting early signals of financial distress. The econometric analysis is based on a wide and unique sample of recent failure events: comparable sets of bankrupt and non-bankrupt firms are identified and several prior balance-sheet and economic indicators are tested for their power in predicting failure probabilities in a logit modelling framework; model performances are cross-validated on hold-out samples. The analyses provide evidence of the importance of industry membership in determining and shaping corporate failure processes: sector-specific models produce a better assessment of financial distress than general ones. Also, some common factors emerge as important predictors of corporate collapse across different industries: age, gearing and the composition of a firm's debt, as well as its capability of generating profits.