As the discourse on economic development has expanded its focus to a broader set of interrelated economic, social, and political variables, an important conclusion has been that sustainable and inclusive development requires not only economic and social policies, but also political empowerment to foster a deliberative and participatory development process. The state versus market led development debate has been increasingly conducive to the role of state since 1990s mainly due to the developmental state experiences in East Asia in particular, and the high social costs of pursuing market oriented reforms or Structural Adjustment Programs in many developing countries. The growth spurts and the successive downturns delivered little on account of sustainable and inclusive growth. The nature of an ideal state, in contemporary times, can be argued to be developmental and democratic; characterized by redistributive growth, broad-based participation, pro-poor policies, and responsiveness of public policy to local needs. Given the intricacies of the contemporary world where Keynesian and neo-liberal values contest for space simultaneously, the (re)configuration of the role of the state while fostering democratization is an important dimension to consider. In this context, it is increasingly argued that subnational democracy is important in revitalizing and reinvigorating democratic systems, as well as promoting better public governance. This thesis attempts to examine the concepts of Decentralization and the Democratic Developmental State, the political incentives that determine the substantiveness of decentralization reforms, and whether subnational empowerment through decentralization is conducive to democratic developmentalism.

In this work I discuss several key aspects of welfare economics and policy analysis and I propose two original contributions to the growing field of behavioral public policymaking. After providing a historical perspective of welfare economics and an overview of policy analysis processes in the introductory chapter, in chapter 2 I discuss a debated issue of policymaking, the choice of the social welfare function. I contribute to this debate by proposing an original methodological contribution based on the analysis of the quantitative relationship among different social welfare functional forms commonly used by policy analysts. In chapter 3 I then discuss a behavioral policy to contrast indirect tax evasion based on the use of lotteries. I show that the predictions of my model based on non-expected utility are consistent with observed, and so far unexplained, empirical evidence of the policy success. Finally, in chapter 4 I investigate by mean of a laboratory experiment the effects of social influence on the individual likelihood to engage in altruistic punishment. I show that bystanders’ decision to engage in punishment is influenced by the punishment behavior of their peers and I suggest ways to enact behavioral policies that exploit this finding.

This research presents the overall results obtained by investigating the performances of fly ash based geopolymers activated at room temperature. Several characterization tests have been perfomed, starting from a deep understanding of the raw materials, in view of finding alternative solutions to the use of traditional hydraulic binders or ceramic materials via alkali-activation. Different types of geopolymer samples (i.e., pastes, mortars and reinforced mortars) have been formulated by varying the nominal Na2O/SiO2 molar ratio in the activating solutions (and in a specific case the curing conditions) and their chemical, physical, mechanical and microstructural performances have been evaluated comparing the results obtained by using different types of precursors and by a traditional cement-based binder. Specific attention has ben focused on durability issues such as high temperature applications and corrosion resistance of the embedded rebars in geopolymer mortars exposed to aggressive environments. Alkali-activation has been found to represent a valid approach in developing performant cement-free products but step forward are needed in order to optimize the solution chemistry and enhance physical and mechanical properties starting from a deep understand at nanoscale of the geopolymerization reaction mechanisms.

The overarching question of this dissertation is: “why does the public debt grow, and why are fiscal (debt) crises repetitive and so widespread?” A special focus in answering this question is given to a fiscal constitution, which contains a country-specific set of laws, rules and regulations, and guides decision making in the area of fiscal policy. By shaping incentives and limiting arbitrariness, the fiscal constitution determines the course of fiscal policy and fiscal outcomes in the long term. This dissertation does not give, however, an exhaustive response to the overarching question. Instead it asks much narrower questions, which are selected after reviewing and identifying the main weaknesses and gaps in the modern literature on fiscal constitutions.

In the last decades, medical malpractice has been framed as one of the most critical issues for healthcare providers and health policy, holding a central role on both the policy agenda and public debate. The Law and Economics literature has devoted much attention to medical malpractice and to the investigation of the impact of malpractice reforms. Nonetheless, some reforms have been much less empirically studied as in the case of schedules, and their effects remain highly debated. The present work seeks to contribute to the study of medical malpractice and of schedules of noneconomic damages in a civil law country with a public national health system, using Italy as case study. Besides considering schedules and exploiting a quasi-experimental setting, the novelty of our contribution consists in the inclusion of the performance of the judiciary (measured as courts’ civil backlog) in the empirical analysis. The empirical analysis is twofold. First, it investigates how limiting compensations for pain and suffering through schedules impacts on the malpractice insurance market in terms of presence of private insurers and of premiums applied. Second, it examines whether, and to what extent, healthcare providers react to the implementation of this policy in terms of both levels and composition of the medical treatments offered. Our findings show that the introduction of schedules increases the presence of insurers only in inefficient courts, while it does not produce significant effects on paid premiums. Judicial inefficiency is attractive to insurers for average values of schedules penetration of the market, with an increasing positive impact of inefficiency as the territorial coverage of schedules increases. Moreover, the implementation of schedules tends to reduce the use of defensive practices on the part of clinicians, but the magnitude of this impact is ultimately determined by the actual degree of backlog of the court implementing schedules.

Carbonate stones on site undergo severe weathering processes, that make consolidation and protection necessary. However, currently available consolidants and protectives are far from being satisfactory when applied to this kind of materials. For this reason, in this thesis an innovative hydroxyapatite-based treatment was developed for limestone consolidation, marble consolidation and marble protection. Firstly, a new treatment protocol was set up for limestone and marble consolidation: solution precursor, concentration and pH, application method and possible additions were investigated to improve the treatment performance. Then, efficacy, compatibility and durability of the treatment were evaluated on these two lithotypes, in comparison with the products currently used for the same aim (ethyl silicate and ammonium oxalate). For marble, the treatment protocol developed in laboratory was also tested on a real historic artefact and on site. Moreover, a surface treatment for protecting marble against acidic rain was formulated, investigating how different parameters (starting solution pH and concentration, organic and inorganic additions) affect the morphology, composition and acid resistance of the treated surface. Excellent results were achieved: hydroxyapatite resulted an effective, compatible and durable consolidant for carbonate stone. Moreover, ethanol addition allowed to obtain a uniform, acid resistant protective hydroxyapatite layer on marble.

The aim of this dissertation is to offer an innovative revising of the methodological and economic contributions of the Austrian economist Carl Menger (1840-1921), and to shed light on the actual influence of his work in the history of the discipline of economics. From an economic standpoint, Menger is renowned for his contribution to the “marginal revolution” of the 19th century. However, during the past decades several critics have questioned the originality of his position. Menger was accused of having made full use of typical elements of the Aristotelian tradition and having employed economic principles already developed by his contemporaries. From a methodological standpoint, Menger’s approach has been investigated mostly with regard to the so-called "Methodenstreit". However, this debate represents only one of the several relevant aspects at stake. The discrepancies and partiality of these criticisms induced me to fully reconsider Menger’s perspective, without a priori embracing any of the contrasting positions emerged so far. To this aim, in this dissertation I am proposing a rational reconstruction of Menger’s approach. Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 will be addressed to a survey of epistemological and methodological issues. I will especially discuss how Menger concretely applied his methodology to the study of political economy. Chapter 3 will be devoted to critically evaluate some widespread psychological readings of Menger’s work. Then, the last two Chapters will have instead a historical nature. In Chapter 4, I will investigate the neglected relationship between Menger and the German Historical School of Law. In Chapter 5, I will originally consider the mutual influences between Menger and his German colleagues. This multifaceted analysis of Menger’s contribution will also allow me to outline a fundamental contextualization of the state of affairs of the discipline of economics in the second half of the 19th century.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the nature of quantum computation and the question of the quantum speed-up over classical computation by comparing two different quantum computational frameworks, the traditional quantum circuit model and the cluster-state quantum computer. After an introductory survey of the theoretical and epistemological questions concerning quantum computation, the first part of this thesis provides a presentation of cluster-state computation suitable for a philosophical audience. In spite of the computational equivalence between the two frameworks, their differences can be considered as structural. Entanglement is shown to play a fundamental role in both quantum circuits and cluster-state computers; this supports, from a new perspective, the argument that entanglement can reasonably explain the quantum speed-up over classical computation. However, quantum circuits and cluster-state computers diverge with regard to one of the explanations of quantum computation that actually accords a central role to entanglement, i.e. the Everett interpretation. It is argued that, while cluster-state quantum computation does not show an Everettian failure in accounting for the computational processes, it threatens that interpretation of being not-explanatory. This analysis presented here should be integrated in a more general work in order to include also further frameworks of quantum computation, e.g. topological quantum computation. However, what is revealed by this work is that the speed-up question does not capture all that is at stake: both quantum circuits and cluster-state computers achieve the speed-up, but the challenges that they posit go besides that specific question. Then, the existence of alternative equivalent quantum computational models suggests that the ultimate question should be moved from the speed-up to a sort of “representation theorem” for quantum computation, to be meant as the general goal of identifying the physical features underlying these alternative frameworks that allow for labelling those frameworks as “quantum computation”.

Questo lavoro trae spunto da un rinnovato interesse per l’«intuizione» e il «pensiero visivo» in matematica, e intende offrire un contributo alla discussione contemporanea su tali questioni attraverso lo studio del caso storico di Felix Klein. Dopo una breve ricognizione di alcuni dei saggi più significativi al riguardo, provenienti sia dalla filosofia della matematica, sia dalla pedagogia, dalle neuroscienze e dalle scienze cognitive, l’attenzione si concentra sulla concezione epistemologia di Klein, con particolare riferimento al suo uso del concetto di ‘intuizione’. Dai suoi lavori e dalla sua riflessione critica si ricavano non solo considerazioni illuminanti sulla fecondità di un approccio «visivo», ma argomenti convincenti a sostegno del ruolo cruciale dell’intuizione in matematica. / Arising from the renewed interest in ‘intuition’ and ‘visual thinking’ in mathematics, this work intends to take part to the contemporary debate on these topics by investigating the ‘historical case’ of Felix Klein. After a brief survey of studies both from philosophy of mathematics and from neuroscience, pedagogy, and cognitive sciences, that have contributed to such revival, the attention is focused on Klein’s epistemological views, with particular reference to his use of the concept of intuition. The analysis aims at clarifying how his reflections provide not only ingenious observations on the effectiveness of a ‘visual’ approach, but also convincing arguments to support the crucial role of intuition in mathematics.

Costante è il dibattito relativo ai possibili sprechi nell’amministrazione della giustizia penale ed alle inefficienze dei tribunali, delle procure e, più in generale, dell’organizzazione giudiziaria e del processo. Può essere utile il tentativo di fornire a tale dibattito strumenti analitici innovativi, quali ad esempio l’analisi economica costi/benefici, con cui affrontare congiuntamente questioni di diritto ed osservazioni legate alla produzione degli uffici ed alla loro efficienza. È possibile, cioè, tentare di costruire e rendere disponibili dei semplici modelli economici – già diffusi nella letteratura anglosassone di law and economics – che, considerando le strutture preposte alla giurisdizione in termini di produzione e produttività e l’attore processuale come un’unità produttiva che opera con l’obiettivo di massimizzare i benefici ottenibili con le proprie risorse, facilitino lo studio del settore. Il tentativo di introdurre elementi di semplificazione e formalizzazione del comportamento dei soggetti della giurisdizione ha, infatti, grandissime potenzialità sia di carattere positivo sia di carattere normativo: permette, cioè, di interrogarsi sull’efficienza della funzione svolta dai tribunali e, nel caso di esito negativo, di capire come intervenire sulla struttura produttiva per ottenere una crescita di produttività. Tutto ciò in un contesto ove il court management sta emergendo come un nuovo campo fertile nello studio dei settori pubblici, in coerenza col crescente interesse nel definire quanto le corti (in generale) e le procure (più in particolare) siano performanti.