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Deceptive (or misleading) advertising can harm advertisers’ competitors, confuse consumer choices, and reduce the confidence in the informative role of marketing communication. Many countries do not allow deceptive advertising and provide penalties in the case of infringements. In Italy, deceptive advertising has been prohibited since 1992, but penalties were only introduced in 2005. This paper examines whether the adoption of fines and their increase in 2007 led to a decline in the legal proceedings undertaken by the antitrust authority for deceptive advertising. The results show that the adoption of fines did not have a significant impact on the number of proceedings. When higher fines were introduced, there was a significant decline in this number, although this effect depends on the size of the advertising firms, the economic sectors, the media involved, and the deceptive component of the advertising message. These results can be helpful in refining and improving the enforcement of advertising regulations, given the scarce resources available to regulation agencies to combat this widespread marketing practice.

Economists and marketing scholars have devoted considerable attention to studying the underlying factors, diverse forms, and potential consequences of embedded advertising, which involves blending marketing communications with media content in a way that appears non-promotional. In most countries, the disclosure of embedded advertising to consumers is required by law. However, instances of inadequate disclosure are frequent. Our study examines the factors that influence hidden advertising, which refers to embedded advertising without proper disclosure, by analysing the characteristics of cases handled by the Italian Competition Authority between 1993 and 2022. Among the factors considered, firm size emerges as the sole consistent determinant affecting the likelihood of non-compliance. When the media outlet and the advertiser possess similar sizes, the probability of infringement tends to be higher.

Purpose The representation of economic and financial crimes in the mass media can have a significant impact on readers’ and citizens’ perceptions of illegality and on a firm’s propensity to invest in different areas of the country in question. This paper aims to study the possible geographical media bias regarding tax evasion in Italy. Design/methodology/approach The empirical analysis considers 618 articles on tax evasion published between 2012 and 2016 in two top Italian newspapers, La Repubblica (based in Rome) and Il Corriere della Sera (based in Milan). Findings Excluding Insular Italy (Sicily and Sardinia), the articles on tax evasion in Southern Italy are systematically shorter. A further analysis shows that La Repubblica is largely responsible for this bias. This result holds after controlling for other events (bank robberies) and for the identity of journalists. Originality/value Previous studies considered the possible media bias regarding particularly dramatic criminal events, for example, terrorism acts or murders. This paper considers a less dramatic though more pervasive crime. In addition, an assessment of media attitude towards tax evasion is more complex, because the news reports both the crime and the successful actions that combat it.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study the empirical relationship between specialization, diversification and rate of survival in the digital publishing industry. The sample includes all publishing companies in Italy that produce electronic content and distribute it through internet platforms. Design/methodology/approach The first part of the paper discusses the pros and cons of specialization against diversification, and applies the related economic theories to the digital publishing industry. The empirical work regarding the factors that affect firm survival is reviewed. The second part is empirical and analyzes the diversification strategies of 2,838 Italian digital editors between 1995 and 2014, and the impact of diversification on the probability of survival. Findings On the whole, digital publishing companies that are also active in traditional print activities have been constantly declining. However, those who combine print and digital activities or operate other mass media businesses have a higher probability of surviving in the market. These findings hold controlling for firm size and market structure, before and after the economic crisis exploded in 2009, in different geographical areas and by different legal forms of publishing companies. Research limitations/implications As the industry often presents country-specific characteristics, the econometric analysis should also be integrated with case studies that highlight particular survival conditions. Practical implications The study provides mass media scholars as well as practitioners with detailed information on the digital publishing trends in the medium term. Originality/value This research is significant because, in the period under review, many digital native entrepreneurs with scarce experience entered the industry, targeted digital native consumers/readers and challenged traditional and established media conglomerates.

The diffusion of the internet has substantially modified the advertising industry's business models. The method of selling advertising space on ivebpages is one of the most striking innovations. Advertisements and, in particular, banners, are sold through the traditional cost per impression, but also with methods based on a visitor taking some specifically defined action in response to an ad. This paper examines the pricing strategy of web publishers operating in a market where they are unable to influence the price of the advertisement (cost-per-imprcssion and cost-per-action). The main finding is that the distribution of editorial revenues between pay-per-view and pay-per-click methods depends on the elasticity of access and actions with respect to the quantity of advertising. The theoretical result is important, since these parameters are usually available to permit a quick analysis of an online consumer's behaviour. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

This article analyzes the structural antecedents of the corporate name strategy in approximately 300 large mergers and acquisitions completed between 2001 and 2006. Six propositions are formulated drawing on previous empirical work. We define brand strategies as conservative when the new entity adopts the acquirer's or the target's corporate name. In turn, brand strategies are innovative in the case of a mixed or new name. Probit regressions show that divisional acquisitions, vertical integrations, diversifications and the sectors involved do not affect the probability of the strategy being innovative. On the other hand, innovative brand strategies are more probable in the case of mergers (as opposed to acquisitions), horizontal M&As and financial investments.

This paper studies the antecedents of subscription discounts of Italian print magazines. Drawing on previous empirical work on the theme, I formulate six research hypotheses regarding demand and supply factors that may affect subscription pricing. The two-sidedness of magazine industry is considered implicitly in the empirical analysis. The empirical observations show that the issue frequency, economies of scope deriving from publishing multiple titles, intra-category competition and content devoted to \"hard\" news are positively linked with subscription discounts. Circulation and returns do not present any evident link with subscription discounts, while the share of subscriptions on total sales does.

Modern companies adopt the brand extension strategies in order to maximize their brand equity, and the economists' interest about these practices has recently grown. The studies of Industrial Organization examine the relevant aspects of the brand extension: whether or not to extend, the timing of the extension, the markets involved, and the spillover effects. This paper discusses the main findings and the issues that need further research. This paper offers a critical review of natural resource valuation and points out the role of economic valuation in EU policy-making. First of all, we specify the meaning of the economic value of environmental amenities and illustrate the most reliable and often used economic valuation techniques, and their major weaknesses. We then point out the normative significance of environmental valuation in the evolution of the EU environmental consciousness, and distinguish between its different applications. According to this framework, we critically review the studies carried out in the last few years (1998-2001) by the European Commission DG Environment, which are both methodological and application-oriented. Furthermore, we carry out a restricted survey on research in Europe. Our analysis makes clear that the diffusion of environmental valuation in Europe is unsatisfactory and that decision-makers distrust is still strong. In this paper, we solve a general problem of optimizing a portfolio in a futures markets framework, originally considered by Lintner in a very simplified scheme. We extend the previous work of Galluccio, Bouchaud and Potters. We allow for long buying/short selling of a relatively large number of assets, assuming a fixed level of margin requirement. Because of non-linearity in the constraint, we derive a multiple equilibrium solution, in a size exponential respect to the number of assets. That means that we cannot obtain the unique efficiency frontier, but many of them and each one is related to different levels of risk. Such a problem is analogous to that of finding the ground state in longranged Ising spin glass with external field. In order to get the best portfolio (i.e. along the best efficiency frontier), we have to implement a two-step procedure, doing the complete enumeration of all local minima. We suggest defining this procedure as complex rationality.

This paper provides a theoretical and empirical framework to explore how public funding affects firms' R&D investments depending on their engagement in horizontal R&D cooperations and different levels of ap- propriability conditions within the economy. It assumes firms' Cournot-Nash behavior in the choice of the optimal R&D investment level and provides empirical evidence in support of the theoretical ¯ndings using data on Spain and Germany from the Third Community Innovation Survey. Theoretical and empirical re- sults suggest that firms' cooperative behaviour and the appropriability conditions affect the relationship between public funding for innova- tion and R&D investments.

We analyse the effects of the advertising ban on French public television, which came into effect on the 5th of January 2009. The ban forbids commercial advertising on public TV in the time slot 20.00-6.00. By using a difference-in-difference approach we show that advertising which was previously broadcasted on public TV in the time slot 20.00-6.00 did not switch to private channels in the same time slot (nor did the price per second in that time slot on private channels rise). Rather advertising partly switched to public TV in the time slot 6.00-20.00. The trend away from aerial towards non-aerial TV channels continued but was not increased. The common expectation that the ban would favour private TV channels at the expense of public ones was therefore wrong. Interestingly, the relative audience of public to private TV did not tilt in favour of public TV. This suggests that advertising aversion is not the driving parameter at work. More likely, for advertisers, viewers of public TV in the slot 6.00-20.00 are closer substitutes for viewers of public TV in the slot 20.00-6.00 than are viewers of private TV channels in the slot 20.00-6.00.