Determining the effect of regulation on Microfinance Institutions Financial Self-Sustainability. A Cross-Country Comparison

Microfinance is an initiative which seeks to address financial inclusion, micro-entrepreneurship, and poverty reduction without over burdening governments. However, the current sector of microfinance is still heavily dependent on the good will of donors. The over-reliance on donations is a feature which threatens the long term sustainability of microfinance. Much has been written about this reliance, but research to date hasn’t empirically examined the effect of regulation as a mediator. This is a critical area of study because regulation directly affects Microfinance Institutions’ (MFI) innovation, and innovation is what shapes the future of microfinance. This thesis considers the role that regulation plays in affecting MFI’s and their ability to innovate in products, services and long-term sustainability via access to capital. Interviews were undertaken with stakeholders in MFI’s, NGO’s, Self-Regulating Bodies, and Regulators in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. This thesis discusses findings from interviews in relation to regulatory measures regarding financial self-sustainability of MFI’s. The conclusions of this thesis have implications for policy and inform the microfinance literature.

The role of the NadR regulator during infection and its implication for the coverage of a new Meningococcus B vaccine

Background: Neisseria meningitides represents a major cause of meningitis and sepsis. The meningococcal regulator NadR was previously shown to repress the expression of the Neisserial Adhesin A (NadA) and play a major role in its phase-variation. NadA is a surface exposed protein involved in epithelial cell adhesion and colonization and a major component of 4CMenB, a novel vaccine to prevent meningococcus serogroup B infection. The NadR mediated repression of NadA is attenuated by 4-HPA, a natural molecule released in human saliva. Results: In this thesis we investigated the global role of NadR during meningogoccal infection, identifying through microarray analysis the NadR regulon. Two distinct types of NadR targets were identified, differing in their promoter architectures and 4HPA responsive activities: type I are induced, while type II are co-repressed in response to the same 4HPA signal. We then investigate the mechanism of regulation of NadR by 4-HPA, generating NadR mutants and identifying classes or residues involved in either NadR DNA binding or 4HPA responsive activities. Finally, we studied the impact of NadR mediated repression of NadA on the vaccine coverage of 4CMenB. A selected MenB strains is not killed by sera from immunized infants when the strain is grown in vitro, however, in an in vivo passive protection model, the same sera protected infant rats from bacteremia. Finally, using bioluminescent reporters, nadA expression in the infant rat model was induced in vivo at 3 h post-infection. Conclusions: Our results suggest that NadR coordinates a broad transcriptional response to signals present in the human host, enabling the meningococcus to adapt to the relevant host niche. During infectious disease the effect of the same signal on NadR changes between different targets. In particular NadA expression is induced in vivo, leading to efficient killing of meningococcus by anti-NadA antibodies elicited by the 4CMenB vaccine.

Sanctions and public enforcement of insider trading laws in Europe

The recent financial crisis triggered an increasing demand for financial regulation to counteract the potential negative economic effects of the evermore complex operations and instruments available on financial markets. As a result, insider trading regulation counts amongst the relatively recent but particularly active regulation battles in Europe and overseas. Claims for more transparency and equitable securities markets proliferate, ranging from concerns about investor protection to global market stability. The internationalization of the world’s securities market has challenged traditional notions of regulation and enforcement. Considering that insider trading is currently forbidden all over Europe, this study follows a law and economics approach in identifying how this prohibition should be enforced. More precisely, the study investigates first whether criminal law is necessary under all circumstances to enforce insider trading; second, if it should be introduced at EU level. This study provides evidence of law and economics theoretical logic underlying the legal mechanisms that guide sanctioning and public enforcement of the insider trading prohibition by identifying optimal forms, natures and types of sanctions that effectively induce insider trading deterrence. The analysis further aims to reveal the economic rationality that drives the potential need for harmonization of criminal enforcement of insider trading laws within the European environment by proceeding to a comparative analysis of the current legislations of height selected Member States. This work also assesses the European Union’s most recent initiative through a critical analysis of the proposal for a Directive on criminal sanctions for Market Abuse. Based on the conclusions drawn from its close analysis, the study takes on the challenge of analyzing whether or not the actual European public enforcement of the laws prohibiting insider trading is coherent with the theoretical law and economics recommendations, and how these enforcement practices could be improved.

Insight into the molecular and functional determinants of HP1043, the essential master regulator of Helicobacter pylori.

Helicobacter pylori is one of the most widespread and successful human pathogens, colonizing half of the population stomach mucosa and causing gastric malignancies in 1% of carriers. Due to the increasing number of antimicrobial-resistant strains, in 2017 the WHO included H. pylori among pathogens that pose a major threat for humankind. In this study, we propose as a molecular target for novel antimicrobial strategies HP1043, an orphan response regulator essential for the viability of H. pylori as it orchestrates all the most important cellular processes. Amino acids most relevant for HP1043 dimerization and target DNA recognition were identified and used to guide an in-silico protein-DNA docking and generate a high-resolution structural model of the interacting HP1043 dimer and its target DNA. The model was experimentally validated and exploited to carry out a virtual screening of small molecule libraries, identifying 8 compounds potentially able to interfere with HP1043 function and likely block H. pylori infection. A second line of research aimed at the characterization of the regulatory function of HP1043 and the tight mechanisms of regulation of hp1043 gene expression. In particular, we proved a direct interaction between HP1043 and the housekeeping sigma80 factor of the RNA polymerase. A conditional mutant H. pylori strain overexpressing a synthetic copy of the hp1043 gene altered in nucleotide sequence yet encoding the wild-type protein was generated, achieving increased intracellular levels of HP1043. However, overexpression of HP1043 did not result in an upregulation of target genes transcription nor modulation of hp1043 transcript levels, pinpointing the existence of multiple overlayed mechanisms of regulation that affect both protein levels and functionality as well as maintain steady the amount of hp1043 transcript. Finally, we proposed that a mechanism of post-transcriptional regulation could depend on an antisense transcript to the hp1043 gene which was validated in two different strains.

Product placement e libertà di espressione

Object of the search is the advertising phenomenon of the "product placement", with reference to that it has been investigated legality’s limits, as well as the relationship with the constitutionally protected liberty of expression. Particularly, it has been analyzed, in first place, the problem of the relationship between the freedom of expression and the liberty of economic initiative, with particular reference to the different circles of guardianship to these prepared: or, larger, the one provided for the first from the 21th article of Costitution, more circumscribed, instead, the one established in the 41th article of Costitution, with reference to the second. This analysis has been made with the purpose to investigate the coordination among such liberties in those forms of communications that, for the proper peculiarities that characterize them, can be qualified, according to the concrete circumstances in which they are spread, so much forms of liberty of expression, how much exercise of an activity of enterprise. Under this last profile, it has been taken attention on the advertising activity and, specially, on the non transparent publicities, or not immediately perceivable as such from their receivers, and, therefore, in contrast with the advertising trasparence’s principle: or, the so-called cases of hidden publicity, what the editorial publicity, both "in narrow sense" both "in general sense", as well as the phenomenon of the product placement (or positioning of product), by now diffused in the commercial routine. Therefore, it has been proceeded to a complete and exhaustive examination of innovations introduced by the recent legislative discipline in subject of “planned placement of marks and products” in the cinema works, appraising, in the specific one, the effects, juridical and no juridical, consequential from the introduction of a first form of regulation of the phenomenon of the product placement and, particularly, from the express provision about the legality of the use to such advertising, if it has realized according to specific requirements or condition. In relationship to such profile, it has been also investigate limits (sub kind of normative gaps) from which the recently introduced discipline in subject would seem characterized. Finally, a further circle of investigation has concerned the possible organization of the phenomenon under a negotiate aspect, as particular contract of advertising, in which the object consists in an promotional activity. Concerning this, the experience of foreign countries (above all the Anglo-Saxon one) has been very important, because of the absence, in our arrangement, of a general normative discipline about advertising contracts. Consequently, I’ve investigated principal characteristics of similar contracts, in first place the atypicalness, because of the lack, in Italy, of a legislative discipline of this contract. Such investigation has also been developed through a comparation between the positioning of product and the other advertising contracts, among which, particularly, the sponsorship, as well as the contracts for the advertising exploitation of the name and other people's image, and, specially, the contract of testimonial and the contract of endorsement.

Non-Linear Pricing in Imperfectly Competitive Markets

This thesis is dedicated to the analysis of non-linear pricing in oligopoly. Non-linear pricing is a fairly predominant practice in most real markets, mostly characterized by some amount of competition. The sophistication of pricing practices has increased in the latest decades due to the technological advances that have allowed companies to gather more and more data on consumers preferences. The first essay of the thesis highlights the main characteristics of oligopolistic non-linear pricing. Non-linear pricing is a special case of price discrimination. The theory of price discrimination has to be modified in presence of oligopoly: in particular, a crucial role is played by the competitive externality that implies that product differentiation is closely related to the possibility of discriminating. The essay reviews the theory of competitive non-linear pricing by starting from its foundations, mechanism design under common agency. The different approaches to model non-linear pricing are then reviewed. In particular, the difference between price and quantity competition is highlighted. Finally, the close link between non-linear pricing and the recent developments in the theory of vertical differentiation is explored. The second essay shows how the effects of non-linear pricing are determined by the relationship between the demand and the technological structure of the market. The chapter focuses on a model in which firms supply a homogeneous product in two different sizes. Information about consumers' reservation prices is incomplete and the production technology is characterized by size economies. The model provides insights on the size of the products that one finds in the market. Four equilibrium regions are identified depending on the relative intensity of size economies with respect to consumers' evaluation of the good. Regions for which the product is supplied in a single unit or in several different sizes or in only a very large one. Both the private and social desirability of non-linear pricing varies across different equilibrium regions. The third essay considers the broadband internet market. Non discriminatory issues seem the core of the recent debate on the opportunity or not of regulating the internet. One of the main questions posed is whether the telecom companies, owning the networks constituting the internet, should be allowed to offer quality-contingent contracts to content providers. The aim of this essay is to analyze the issue through a stylized two-sided market model of the web that highlights the effects of such a discrimination over quality, prices and participation to the internet of providers and final users. An overall welfare comparison is proposed, concluding that the final effects of regulation crucially depend on both the technology and preferences of agents.

Insolvenza transfrontaliera e giurisdizione: l'esperienza del regolamento (CE) n. 1346 del 2000

L’elaborato è strutturato in quattro parti: la prima è dedicata all’inquadramento del background normativo. L’autrice affronta, con un approccio ricostruttivo, i precedenti alla redazione del regolamento e le difficoltà incontrate a causa delle resistenze degli Stati membri. Si sofferma altresì sulle norme UNCITRAL, anch’esse oggetto nel recente periodo, di numerose implementazioni. La seconda parte fotografa il ruolo della Corte di Giustizia nell’interpretazione del regolamento n. 1346/2000 ed individua i concetti fondamentali del regolamento: l’universalità attenuata, il campo di applicazione soggettivo del regolamento, la legge applicabile, il principio dell’automatico riconoscimento delle decisioni e la correlata tematica dell’ordine pubblico, nonché la figura del curatore. Si approfondisce l’attività degli Stati membri nel dotarsi di norme di coordinamento ( esemplare il caso della Spagna e della Germania) sottolineando il silenzio del legislatore italiano che, nonostante le numerose riforme in materia, a tutt’oggi non ha ideato un sistema in grado di coordinare la normativa nazionale con la struttura del regolamento europeo. Nella terza parte l'autrice approfondisce la giurisdizione nel regolamento n. 1346/2000. Si individuano le parole chiave: Comi e dipendenza, i cui significati sono sfumati seguendo le posizioni della Corte di Giustizia, (Leading Case Eurofood sino a Interedil) e si mette in discussione, nel panorama attuale, la tenuta di tali criteri giurisdizionali. Sempre intorno al concetto di Comi, si analizzano: la giurisdizione verso gruppi di imprese disciplina assente nel regolamento, i rapporti tra procedura principale e secondaria , la giurisdizione in materia di azioni connesse e/o correlate (Gourdain vs Nadler/Seagon vs Deko Marty). Il capitolo conclusivo offre una panoramica delle proposte finalizzate ad un’implementazione della struttura del regolamento sull’insolvenza. Numerose, infatti, sono le proposte a livello dottrinale e da parte degli organi comunitari in vista della scadenza del Report della Commissione Europea sulla applicazione del regolamento 1346 del 2000 (art. 46).

Scienza della sostenibilita' e regolazione: Il caso studio della politica europea in materia di risparmio energetico

Entro l’approccio concettuale e metodologico transdisciplinare della Scienza della Sostenibilità, la presente tesi elabora un background teorico per concettualizzare una definizione di sostenibilità sulla cui base proporre un modello di sviluppo alternativo a quello dominante, declinato in termini di proposte concrete entro il caso-studio di regolazione europea in materia di risparmio energetico. La ricerca, attraverso un’analisi transdisciplinare, identifica una crisi strutturale del modello di sviluppo dominante basato sulla crescita economica quale (unico) indicatore di benessere e una crisi valoriale. L’attenzione si concentra quindi sull’individuazione di un paradigma idoneo a rispondere alle criticità emerse dall’analisi. A tal fine vengono esaminati i concetti di sviluppo sostenibile e di sostenibilità, arrivando a proporre un nuovo paradigma (la “sostenibilità ecosistemica”) che dia conto dell’impossibilità di una crescita infinita su un sistema caratterizzato da risorse limitate. Vengono poi presentate delle proposte per un modello di sviluppo sostenibile alternativo a quello dominante. Siffatta elaborazione teorica viene declinata in termini concreti mediante l’elaborazione di un caso-studio. A tal fine, viene innanzitutto analizzata la funzione della regolazione come strumento per garantire l’applicazione pratica del modello teorico. L’attenzione è concentrata sul caso-studio rappresentato dalla politica e regolazione dell’Unione Europea in materia di risparmio ed efficienza energetica. Dall’analisi emerge una progressiva commistione tra i due concetti di risparmio energetico ed efficienza energetica, per la quale vengono avanzate delle motivazioni e individuati dei rischi in termini di effetti rebound. Per rispondere alle incongruenze tra obiettivo proclamato dall’Unione Europea di riduzione dei consumi energetici e politica effettivamente perseguita, viene proposta una forma di “regolazione per la sostenibilità” in ambito abitativo residenziale che, promuovendo la condivisione dei servizi energetici, recuperi il significato proprio di risparmio energetico come riduzione del consumo mediante cambiamenti di comportamento, arricchendolo di una nuova connotazione come “bene relazionale” per la promozione del benessere relazionale ed individuale.

L'autotrasporto di cose per conto di terzi: Profili tariffari e prospettive di sviluppo

Il presente elaborato concerne le problematiche giuridiche connesse alla regolamentazione del settore dell’autotrasporto di cose per conto di terzi in Italia, con particolare attenzione alla disciplina dei profili tariffari ed alle dinamiche consolidatesi nella prassi in relazione alle pratiche di dumping sociale, outsourcing e delocalizzazione. Nella prima parte, dopo una premessa finalizzata a descrivere le caratteristiche strutturali dei fornitori di servizi di autotrasporto in ambito nazionale e comunitario nonchè le principali peculiarità del mercato di riferimento, viene descritta ed analizzata l’evoluzione normativa e giurisprudenziale verificatasi con riguardo ai profili tariffari dell’autotrasporto, esaminando in particolare le caratteristiche ed i profili di criticità propri delle discipline in materia di “tariffe a forcella” di cui alla L. n. 298/1974 e di “costi minimi di sicurezza” di cui all’art. 83-bis del D.L. n. 112/2008, fino a giungere all’analisi degli scenari conseguenti alla recente riforma del settore apportata dalla Legge di Stabilità 2015 (L. 23/12/2014, n. 190). Nella seconda parte, vengono esaminate alcune tematiche problematiche che interessano il settore, sia a livello nazionale che comunitario, e che risultano strettamente connesse ai sopra menzionati profili tariffari. In particolare, si fa riferimento alle fattispecie del cabotaggio stradale, del distacco transazionale di lavoratori e dell’abuso della libertà di stabilimento in ambito comunitario concretantesi nella fattispecie della esterovestizione. Tali problematiche sono state analizzate dapprima attraverso la ricostruzione del quadro normativo nazionale e comunitario di riferimento; in secondo luogo, attraverso l’esame dei profili critici emersi alla luce delle dinamiche di mercato invalse nel settore e, infine, in relazione all’analisi dello scenario futuro desumibile dalle iniziative legislative ed amministrative in atto, nonché dagli indirizzi interpretativi affermatisi in ambito giurisprudenziale.

Disturbi dell'informazione, nuovi media e libertà di manifestazione del pensiero

L’elaborato affronta il tema della massiccia diffusione di disinformazione tramite internet sotto il profilo del diritto costituzionale, nell’ottica di indagare se le dimensioni del fenomeno richiedano l’elaborazione di principi e soluzioni nuove ovvero se i paradigmi costituzionali enucleati dalla tradizione costituzionalistica con riferimento alla libertà d’espressione forniscano gli strumenti sufficienti per un intervento efficace. In tale ottica, il lavoro premette una ricostruzione del fenomeno della disinformazione nel tentativo di individuare il perimetro socio-cognitivo e tecnologico entro cui la medesima prolifera, descrivendo gli elementi che distinguono l’informazione diffusa dai nuovi media rispetto a quella veicolata dai media mainstream. Ciò premesso, lo studio passa a delineare lo “statuto costituzionale” del falso, indagando la rilevanza che la menzogna assume sotto il profilo costituzionale nel suo rapporto con la libertà di manifestazione del pensiero negli ordinamenti interno, europeo e statunitense. L’analisi prosegue poi con l’esame delle politiche di contrasto alla disinformazione introdotte da singoli Stati (prevalentemente Germania, Francia e Italia), Unione europea, e piattaforme, con l’obiettivo di mettere in luce vantaggi e limiti dei modelli di eteroregolamentazione, coregolamentazione e autoregolamentazione. Da ultimo, l’elaborato scompone alcune delle azioni e misure passate in rassegna e le analizza con la lente d’ingrandimento della libertà di manifestazione del pensiero, ordinandone i contenuti secondo la specifica propensione a comprimere la libertà d’espressione. L’indagine si conclude con alcuni brevi spunti conclusivi che evidenziano l’esigenza, in base ai principi costituzionali analizzati, che eventuali interventi normativi siano se del caso volti alla regolazione delle piattaforme, ovvero dei “contenitori”, lasciano i contenuti al libero scambio delle idee.