Roberto Iacono
Biographic Data
| ID | 392085 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Roberto Iacono |
| GIVEN NAMES | Roberto |
| FAMILY NAME | Iacono |
| SIGNATURE | IACONO R |
| AFFILIATIONS | Norwegian University of Science and Technology |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7538-8244 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 10 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 10 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 10 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Unintended consequences of externally aided projects on fiscal transfers: A subnational study of India
We investigate the impact of foreign aid on inter-governmental transfers in India. While anecdotal evidence suggests that the central government substitutes fiscal transfers with earmarked foreign aid for state governments (fungibility), empirical evidence is scant due to the complex procedure of accruing foreign aid by the states. By Constitutional design, all foreign aid projects procured by states accrue to the central government which are the…
Compulsory activation of young welfare recipients: Revisiting the Trade-Off Between Workfare and Welfare Generosity
We revisit the trade-off between workfare and welfare through a quasi-natural experiment by exploiting municipal variation from a 2017 Norwegian reform introducing compulsory activation for young welfare recipients. The results show a significant negative effect on social assistance. On the other hand, we find no effect on income adequacy, implying that other transfers mitigate the drop in social assistance. Our results convey therefore that the …
(In)visible Sanctions: Micro-level Evidence on Compulsory Activation for Young Welfare Recipients
Since the early years of activation and workfare in the 1990s, the use of welfare conditionality and benefit sanctions has been proposed among the necessary solutions to ensure the efficiency of welfare policy by reinforcing individual economic incentives. Using rich administrative registers from Norway, we produce micro-level quantitative evidence on compulsory activation for young recipients of social assistance. The empirical challenge is that…
(Mis-)Perceptions, information, and political polarization: A survey and a systematic literature review
Numerous studies have documented that misperceptions about society, e.g. related to inequality, are widespread among voters. Simultaneously, a separate body of literature demonstrates increasing political polarization. Against this background, it is intuitively appealing to hypothesize that information provision can be useful not only to correct misperceptions, but also to create a common ground that can bridge divisiveness. In a general populati…
A micro perspective on r > g
By exploiting large‐scale administrative data on income and estimated personal wealth in Norway from 2010 to 2018, this paper establishes the first micro‐level analysis of the difference between the real return on wealth and the real growth rate of total pre‐tax income, across the entire net wealth distribution. We show that for the top 40% of the distribution, the aggregate of 1.8% underestimates its micro counterpart , while the opposite happen…
Still the Lands of Equality? Heterogeneity of Income Composition in the Nordics, 1975–2016
According to standard measures of income inequality, the Nordic countries rank among the most equal economies in the world. This paper studies whether and how this picture changes when the focus is on inequality of income composition , meaning the heterogeneity in individuals’ factor income shares. We show that, for all countries, a shift in capital incomes toward the top since the early 1990s causes rising heterogeneity in individuals’ factor in…
Immigration and social assistance: Evidence from the Norwegian welfare state
In Norway, immigrants receive higher levels of social assistance than natives. How can we explain this difference? After controlling for differences in take‐up rates through a two‐step Heckman procedure, we attempt to answer this question by exploiting rich data from administrative registers. We operationalise social assistance in the Norwegian context by employing a composite variable that includes: (a) financial assistance, (b) housing allowanc…
The nexus between perceptions of inequality and preferences for redistribution
This paper shows that perceptions of inequality are a key factor in the formation of preferences for redistribution and thereby in the determination of the equilibrium redistribution level. We build on the novel stylized facts provided by the survey experimental literature on perceptions of income inequality, highlighting that agents incorrectly estimate the shape of the income distribution because of limited information. Agents with income above…
The Nordic Model of Economic Development and Welfare: Recent Developments and Future Prospects
The stylised evidence from the Welfare State Sustainability (WSS) ratios points to a decrease in the future sustainability of public welfare spending in the Nordic countries.
Minimum income schemes in Europe: Is there a trade-off with activation policies?
This paper makes two contributions to the literature. First, by employing a macro-level institutional dataset on benefit levels for social assistance (SA) and minimum income protection (MIP) in 22 European countries in the period 1990–2013, I show that the adequacy of income support for low-income inactive individuals in European welfare states has been steadily decreasing since 1994. Second, the paper revisits empirically the hypothesis of a tra…
The nexus between perceptions of inequality and preferences for redistribution
This paper shows that perceptions of inequality are a key factor in the formation of preferences for redistribution and thereby in the determination of the equilibrium redistribution level. We build on the novel stylized facts provided by the survey experimental literature on perceptions of income inequality, highlighting that agents incorrectly estimate the shape of the income distribution because of limited information. Agents with income above…
Still the Lands of Equality? Heterogeneity of Income Composition in the Nordics, 1975–2016
According to standard measures of income inequality, the Nordic countries rank among the most equal economies in the world. This paper studies whether and how this picture changes when the focus is on inequality of income composition , meaning the heterogeneity in individuals’ factor income shares. We show that, for all countries, a shift in capital incomes toward the top since the early 1990s causes rising heterogeneity in individuals’ factor in…
Immigration and social assistance: Evidence from the Norwegian welfare state
In Norway, immigrants receive higher levels of social assistance than natives. How can we explain this difference? After controlling for differences in take‐up rates through a two‐step Heckman procedure, we attempt to answer this question by exploiting rich data from administrative registers. We operationalise social assistance in the Norwegian context by employing a composite variable that includes: (a) financial assistance, (b) housing allowanc…
Minimum income schemes in Europe: Is there a trade-off with activation policies?
This paper makes two contributions to the literature. First, by employing a macro-level institutional dataset on benefit levels for social assistance (SA) and minimum income protection (MIP) in 22 European countries in the period 1990–2013, I show that the adequacy of income support for low-income inactive individuals in European welfare states has been steadily decreasing since 1994. Second, the paper revisits empirically the hypothesis of a tra…
The Nordic Model of Economic Development and Welfare: Recent Developments and Future Prospects
The stylised evidence from the Welfare State Sustainability (WSS) ratios points to a decrease in the future sustainability of public welfare spending in the Nordic countries.
The nexus between perceptions of inequality and preferences for redistribution
This paper shows that perceptions of inequality are a key factor in the formation of preferences for redistribution and thereby in the determination of the equilibrium redistribution level. We build on the novel stylized facts provided by the survey experimental literature on perceptions of income inequality, highlighting that agents incorrectly estimate the shape of the income distribution because of limited information. Agents with income above…
Still the Lands of Equality? Heterogeneity of Income Composition in the Nordics, 1975–2016
According to standard measures of income inequality, the Nordic countries rank among the most equal economies in the world. This paper studies whether and how this picture changes when the focus is on inequality of income composition , meaning the heterogeneity in individuals’ factor income shares. We show that, for all countries, a shift in capital incomes toward the top since the early 1990s causes rising heterogeneity in individuals’ factor in…
Immigration and social assistance: Evidence from the Norwegian welfare state
In Norway, immigrants receive higher levels of social assistance than natives. How can we explain this difference? After controlling for differences in take‐up rates through a two‐step Heckman procedure, we attempt to answer this question by exploiting rich data from administrative registers. We operationalise social assistance in the Norwegian context by employing a composite variable that includes: (a) financial assistance, (b) housing allowanc…
A micro perspective on r > g
By exploiting large‐scale administrative data on income and estimated personal wealth in Norway from 2010 to 2018, this paper establishes the first micro‐level analysis of the difference between the real return on wealth and the real growth rate of total pre‐tax income, across the entire net wealth distribution. We show that for the top 40% of the distribution, the aggregate of 1.8% underestimates its micro counterpart , while the opposite happen…
(Mis-)Perceptions, information, and political polarization: A survey and a systematic literature review
Numerous studies have documented that misperceptions about society, e.g. related to inequality, are widespread among voters. Simultaneously, a separate body of literature demonstrates increasing political polarization. Against this background, it is intuitively appealing to hypothesize that information provision can be useful not only to correct misperceptions, but also to create a common ground that can bridge divisiveness. In a general populati…
Compulsory activation of young welfare recipients: Revisiting the Trade-Off Between Workfare and Welfare Generosity
We revisit the trade-off between workfare and welfare through a quasi-natural experiment by exploiting municipal variation from a 2017 Norwegian reform introducing compulsory activation for young welfare recipients. The results show a significant negative effect on social assistance. On the other hand, we find no effect on income adequacy, implying that other transfers mitigate the drop in social assistance. Our results convey therefore that the …
(In)visible Sanctions: Micro-level Evidence on Compulsory Activation for Young Welfare Recipients
Since the early years of activation and workfare in the 1990s, the use of welfare conditionality and benefit sanctions has been proposed among the necessary solutions to ensure the efficiency of welfare policy by reinforcing individual economic incentives. Using rich administrative registers from Norway, we produce micro-level quantitative evidence on compulsory activation for young recipients of social assistance. The empirical challenge is that…
Unintended consequences of externally aided projects on fiscal transfers: A subnational study of India
We investigate the impact of foreign aid on inter-governmental transfers in India. While anecdotal evidence suggests that the central government substitutes fiscal transfers with earmarked foreign aid for state governments (fungibility), empirical evidence is scant due to the complex procedure of accruing foreign aid by the states. By Constitutional design, all foreign aid projects procured by states accrue to the central government which are the…
Economics (7 works) · Political science (5 works) · Public economics (5 works) · Social Policy and Reform Studies (5 works) · Welfare (5 works) · Demographic economics (4 works) · Econometrics (3 works) · Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth (3 works) · Income, Poverty, and Inequality (3 works) · Law (3 works)