The Italian economy is certainly one of the industrial countries and major economies in the world, but has always been an economy with some special features. The country has known more than thirty years ago the years of the "economic miracle". The Italian economy today is far from the growth...

The present contribution focuses on two issues. The first one concerns the characteristics of industrial districts and the increasing weight of these districts in the Italian system of production. The second issue is about the competitiveness of the Italian industrial districts, if they...

The present paper firstly examines and comments the arguments proposed by Werner Sinn and Wollmershaeuser in their paper on Target loans, current account balances and capital flows: the ECB’s rescue facility. Secondly, this contribution suggests an alternative view for solving the crisis in...

Sicily is a region which shows a large gap in terms of income per capita with the Centre-North and with the average income per capita of the European Union. The island, however, have an entrepreneurial tradition that has been consolidated in agriculture and craft activities and that has paid off...

On 1 January 1999, the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) has entered its final stage and the euro was introduced as the single currency of eleven European Union countries. The feature certainly peculiar economic and monetary union (EMU) is that in the face of a single monetary policy set at the...

In Italy the rate of growth of GDP has declined over the period 2000-2006, after joining the single currency. The decrease is not incidental, but it has a structural and long-term nature, so this decrease relates to the potential growth. This weakening of growth takes place in an international...

The European Monetary Union is characterized by a crisis of governance, this has become more evident with the crisis of the euro which has shown the weaknesses of the European institutions and stressed the heterogeneity of member countries. The global financial crisis struck the euro area very...

Co-operative banks are an important reality of the credit system and they are spread in Italy and in Europe. These banks are a category different from other banks, as are characterized by a legal form which has some very specific characteristics. These banks may contribute to the development of...

In Sicily there is an increased dependency of the economy and employment from politics due to the weakness of the market economy and to the lack of strong civic culture. This paper will explain what are the ‘productive districts’ in Sicily and what they represent. The present work focuses on...

This contribution examines the major features of UAE’s economy, its factors of strengths, undelying also its critical aspects. Furthermore, the work focuses on the crucial factors that characterize a diversified knowledge economy and indicates the policies that the economy of the United Arab...