The paper analyzes how the structure of interaction networks affects the diffusion patterns and market shares of different products in case of local network externalities and imperfect information. The diffusion of the different products/technologies in the market is modelled as the result of...

The paper investigates the relationship, surprisingly often forgotten by the literature, between firms' language skills and their international performances. After having contextualized the concept of language within the broader concept of culture, the paper introduces language's characteristics...

This paper emphasizes the role of labour demand as a determinant of working skill formation. In particular, we study the relationship between techno-organizational innovation and skill formation from a labour demand perspective. In this respect, we investigate if activities aimed at increasing...

The paper investigates empirically the impact that outsourcing strategies have on the labour productivity of firms embedded in a local production system characterized by idiosyncratic techno-economic and organizational features. A diachronic cross-section econometric model of the productivity...

The definition and measurement of economic well-being is receiving growing attention, both in academic research and policy agenda, as a key issue to provide a solid basis for decision-making at all levels, both national and local. There is general agreement among economists and policy-makers...

Using a large sample of Italian manufacturing firms, in this paper we estimate a structural model of research, innovation, productivity and export performance augmented to take account for the role played by local externalities. This model, which is an "enlarged" version of Crepon, Duguet and...

In the last two decades social capital has become one of the most analyzed and cited concepts in the social sciences. On the one hand it is a powerful idea, used to explain a very wide set of socioeconomic phenomena. On the other hand social capital is disputed and ambiguous: there are a number...

This paper aims to contribute to understand the role of entrepreneurship in fragile states, which despite the practical interest and relevance has been somewhat disregarded in academic research. Given the necessity to support policy formulation with appropriate and relevant measurement of...

The regional systems of innovation concept is well established in academic and practitioner discourses about innovation and economic development. As with the innovation systems approach more generally, the use of the concept has expanded significantly from its initial analytical purpose and has...