In this paper we test for the effect of technological progress on the labour demand and relative earnings by skill in Italy from 1986 to 1990. We consider a large panel of firms, about 36,000: the data allow us to construct a proxy of the use of new technology by each firm. Our main conclusions...

The aim of this paper is to clarify the connection between types of firms and types of assumptions about the information structure. Building on the role of information structure, notions of the firm as an organisation have been put forward which suggest that the firm can assume an alternative...

The debate on progress in Italy is affected by the backwardness of the Mezzogiorno. The recent fiscal federalism reform hence raises new questions on how to attain more comparable living conditions for residents in regions that currently differ in levels of development and access to basic...

This paper contributes to the literature on family firms in two ways. First, it focuses on a largely neglected but important issue of family firms’ investment decisions. Second, it uses a novel and rich data set about Italian private firms; this complements the literature, which typically...

The cost of enforcing contracts is a key determinant of market performance. We document this point with reference to the credit market in a model of opportunistic debtors and inefficient courts. According to the model, improvements in judicial efficiency should reduce credit rationing and...