research activities

Design and analysis of empirically based theoretical models aimed to the description of the fundamental aspects of the evolution of firms structure in time. In particular the analysis focuses on the study of the structure of growth rates distributions and its inter-temporal behavior, the diversification dynamics and the effect of different market regimes on the aggregate performances of an industrial sector.

• G.Bottazzi On the Irreconcilability of Pareto and Gibrat Laws Physica A, 388, 7, pp. 1133-1136, 2009
• G.Bottazzi On the relationship between firms' size and growth rate Economics Bulletin, 3, 8, pp. 1-7, 2008
• G.Bottazzi and A.Secchi Gibrat's Law and Diversification Industrial and Corporate Change, 15, pp. 847-875, 2006
• G.Bottazzi and A.Secchi Explaining the Distribution of Firms Growth Rates Rand Journal of Economics, 37, pp. 234-263, 2006
• G.Bottazzi, G.Dosi and G.Rocchetti Modes of Knowledge Accumulation, Entry Regimes and Patterns of Industrial Evolution Industrial and Corporate Change 10,3, 2001

The empirical analysis of the time evolution of firm dimension, productivity structure, profitability levels and financial condition. The analysis is performed on extensive datasets with a rich cross-sectional structure and uses several statistical tools, from nonparametric and semiparametric methods to the linear analysis of panel data.

• G. Bottazzi, M. Grazzi, A. Secchi, F. Tamagni Financial and Economic Determinants of Firm Default L.E.M. Working Paper n. 2009-06, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, 2009
• G.Bottazzi, A.Secchi and F.Tamagni Productivity, Profitability and Financial Performance Industrial and Corporate Change, 17, pp.711-751, 2008
• G.Bottazzi, E.Cefis, G.Dosi and A.Secchi Invariances and Diversities in the Evolution of Italian Manufacturing Industry Small Business Economics, , 29, pp. 137-159, 2007
• G.Bottazzi and A.Secchi Growth and Diversification Patterns of the Worldwide Pharmaceutical Industry Review of Industrial Organization, 26, pp. 195-216, 2005
• G.Bottazzi, A.Secchi Common Properties and Sectoral Specificities in the Dynamics of U.S. Manufacturing Companies Review of Industrial Organization, vol. 23, pp. 217-232, 2003

This research activity concerns the empirical analysis and the theoretical modeling of the geographical distribution of economic activities. The empirical analysis is model-based and aim to the identification of sectoral specificities in locational patterns of industries. This identification can help in disentangling the combined effects of the possible existence of agglomeration and scale economies. The theoretical modeling goes in the direction of including evolutionary dynamics inside a general equilibrium framework broadly derived from the New Economic Geography approach.

• G.Bottazzi and P.Dindo, Localized technological externalities and the geographical distribution of firms, L.E.M. Working Paper n. 2008-11, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, 2008
• G.Bottazzi and P.Dindo An evolutionary model of firms location with technological externality in R.A.Boschma and R.Martin (eds.) "Handbook on Evolutionary Economic Geography", Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, 2009
• G. Bottazzi, G. Fagiolo, G.Dosi and A. Secchi /Sectoral and Geographical Specificities in the Spatial Structure of Economic Activities/ Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, 19, pp. 189-202, 2008
• G. Bottazzi, G. Fagiolo, G.Dosi and A. Secchi Modeling Industrial Evolution in Geographical Space Journal of Economic Geography, 7, pp. 651-672, 2007

The idea is to use simulations and analytical models to study the impact that different trading protocols (batch auction, continuous double auction,…) have on different measures of aggregate market efficiency (allocative efficiency, informative efficiency, distributive efficiency,…).

• G.Bottazzi, G.Dosi and I.Rebesco Institutional Architectures and Behavioral Ecologies in the Dynamics of Financial Markets Journal of Mathematical Economics, vol. 41, pp. 197-228, 2005

The term "procedural rationality" has been introduced by Herbert Simon to denote the behavior of human beings which try to select the best possible course of actions starting from incomplete and possibly misleading information but applying a rational approach to their decision making. This idea contrast with the notion of "substantive rationality" which is typically assumed in modern economic modeling. This researches focus on the development of equilibrium models in pure exchange economies, in which boundedly rational traders use "procedural" rules to guess the best decisions, adapting their strategies to the evolving environment created by the (ex-ante unknown) decisions of other agents.

• M.Anufriev, G.Bottazzi and F.Pancotto Equilibria, Stability and Asymptotic Dominance in a Speculative Market with Heterogeneous Agents Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, 30, pp. 1787-1835, 2006
• M. Anufriev and G. Bottazzi Noisy Trading in the Large Market Limit in P.Mathieu, B.Beaufils and O.Brandouy (eds.) "Artificial Economics: Agent-based Methods in Finance, Game Theory and Their Applications", Lecture Notes in Economics and Mathematical Systems vol.564, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 2006
• M. Anufriev, G. Bottazzi and F. Pancotto Speculative Equilibria and Asymptotic Dominance in a Market with Adaptive CRRA Traders in Abbot, D., Bouchard, J.P., Gabaix, X., and McCauley, J.L. "Noise and Fluctuations in Econophysics and Finance" SPIE Conference Proceedings, vol. 5848, SPIE, WA, 2005

How players build expectations about other players actions? Do they use the record of past actions? Are they reluctant or prone to explore new strategies when the old ones did not perform as expected? This research activity intends to explore these questions monitoring players behavior in simple repeated games.

• G.Bottazzi, G.Devetag and F.Pancotto /Does Volatility matter? Expectations of price return and variability in an asset pricing experiment/ L.E.M. Working Paper n. 2009-2, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, 2009
• G.Bottazzi, M. G. Devetag Expectations structure in asset pricing experiments in T.Lux, S.Reitz and E.Samanidou (Eds.) "Nonlinear Dynamics and Heterogeneous Interacting Agents" Lecture Notes in Economics and Mathematical Systems 550, Springer Verlag, Berlin, 2005

Using repeated games with simple binary choice structure, we study the ability of human players to effectively coordinate their actions in order to improve their aggregate performances. Moreover, we analyze the degree of efficiency, in terms of revealed information, and the 'social fairness', in terms of payoff distribution, resulting from the interactions of players.

• G.Bottazzi and G.Devetag Competition and Coordination in Experimental Minority Games Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 17, pp. 241-275, 2007
• G.Bottazzi, G. Devetag A Laboratory Experiment on the Minority Game Physica A vol. 324 pp. 124-132, 2003
• G.Bottazzi, G.Devetag, G.Dosi Adaptive learning and emergent coordination in minority games Simulation Modeling Practice and Theory, 10, 321-347, 2002