Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa https://hdl.handle.net/10419/89225 2026-11-04T20:27:04Z 2026-11-04T20:27:04Z Erfurth, Philipp Gomez Leon, Maria Gabbuti, Giacomo Milanović, Branko https://hdl.handle.net/10419/339227 2026-04-04T05:33:51Z 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Historical social tables: Advantages, methodology, and problems Authors: Erfurth, Philipp; Gomez Leon, Maria; Gabbuti, Giacomo; Milanović, Branko Abstract: This paper provides a methodological contribution to the study of historical income inequality by examining the construction and use of social tables for the nineteenth century. In a period when modern household surveys were absent, social tables represent one of the only feasible approaches for providing distributional evidence for the entire population. At the same time, existing studies rely on a wide range of assumptions, classifications, and data treatments, which makes comparisons across countries and over time difficult. The paper reviews the main methodological challenges involved in constructing social tables, including class definitions, withingroup inequality, units of analysis, and the external validation of income levels and subsistence benchmarks. Using simulations and historical examples, it shows how alternative methodological choices can generate substantial differences in inequality estimates. It finally proposes a set of guiding principles and template structures aimed at improving comparability, while still preserving the country-specific nature of historical evidence.

2026-01-01T00:00:00Z Dosi, Giovanni Palagi, Elisa Roventini, Andrea Stiglitz, Joseph E. https://hdl.handle.net/10419/339273 2026-04-04T05:35:14Z 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Decoding drug search under public funding: Rates, directions, and social impacts in an agent-based model Authors: Dosi, Giovanni; Palagi, Elisa; Roventini, Andrea; Stiglitz, Joseph E. Abstract: By extending the framework presented by Dosi et al. (2023b), we build an evolutionary agent-based model of the pharmaceutical sector featuring a government and a Public Research Lab investing in R&D and innovating across different therapeutic areas. After having empirically validated our baseline scenario, we experiment with different configurations of the industry embedding varying degrees of public involvement in innovative activities, participation in the collection of rewards of innovation and demand management. Simulation exercises show that the very existence of the Public Research Lab is capable of considerably moving forward the knowledge base and the related technological opportunities. Moreover, while mixed innovation systems do not significantly improve the public and private performance of the economy, more public-oriented innovation systems (Dosi and Stiglitz, 2014) increase societal welfare by spurring innovation and containing prices, and, even more important, by directing innovative search into domains of social priority.

2026-01-01T00:00:00Z Giachini, Daniele Rossello, Giulia Ciambezi, Leonardo https://hdl.handle.net/10419/339275 2026-04-04T05:34:54Z 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: A survey experiment on climate change beliefs, opinions, and actions Authors: Giachini, Daniele; Rossello, Giulia; Ciambezi, Leonardo Abstract: We examine how individuals update their views on climate change when exposed to competing advocacy or skeptical signals on social media. In a representative survey experiment of 1,633 adults in Italy, respondents were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (1) exposure to climate-advocacy content, (2) exposure to climate-skeptical content, or (3) an active control featuring content on gender equality. We elicit beliefs about the reality of climate change and its human causes both before and after treatment, along with climate-related opinions and actions. We first focus on beliefs and interpret their dynamics by developing a structural updating model that nests Bayesian-like updating within a behavioral framework allowing for anchoring to a survey-wide reference point, underreaction to information, and treatment-specific experimenter-demand effects. We find that the advocacy treatment significantly increases beliefs about the reality of climate change but not about human causation, whereas the skeptical treatment shifts beliefs toward skepticism in both domains and with larger magnitude. Underreaction patterns imply opposite belief dynamics: with equally likely advocacy and skepticism signals, intermediate beliefs fluctuate closer to advocacy regarding climate-change reality but closer to skepticism regarding human causation. Opinions and actions are largely mediated by posterior beliefs, though we also detect belief-independent effects, including a backfire in support for a fossil-fuel tax under skepticism and an additional positive effect of advocacy on signing a climate-action petition.

2026-01-01T00:00:00Z Freschi, Giuliana Virgillito, Maria Enrica https://hdl.handle.net/10419/339274 2026-04-04T05:35:23Z 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: How much did we care? Wetnurses' wages in Florence, 1700-1914 Authors: Freschi, Giuliana; Virgillito, Maria Enrica Abstract: Care work has long remained marginal in economic history, despite its centrality to household survival and social reproduction. This paper contributes filling this gap by reconstructing a long-run wage series for paid care work, focusing on wetnurses employed by the Florentine foundling home (Ospedale degli Innocenti) between 1700 and 1914. Drawing on novel archival sources, we construct nominal and real wage series for wetnurses, distinguishing between breastfeeding and weaning remuneration, and compare them with male agricultural wages in the same area. Our results show that wetnurses' wages were persistently low, remaining well below subsistence throughout the period. Nevertheless, paid breastfeeding accounted on average for nearly 30 percent of household income, highlighting its importance as a survival strategy among impoverished rural families. Comparative evidence with Madrid reveals similar institutional wage-setting mechanisms and similar precarious contractual conditions. By decomposing total remuneration into breastfeeding and weaning components, we estimate the implicit valuation of breastmilk, which fluctuated substantially over time, ranging from 14 to 40 percent of total pay. We argue that wetnurses' wages did not respond to market forces but were institutionally determined, reflecting the gendered nature of wage formation in the care economy. Overall, the paper sheds new light on women's economic contribution, pre-industrial living standards, and the historical valuation of care work.

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