"The book draws lessons on the importance of rewarding merit for economic growth by analysing Italy's decline in the past few decades. Connections rather than merit are a long-standing feature of the Italian elites, even in the corporate sector. This became a significant problem when Italy could...

Italy's overall GDP growth has been dismal in recent years and this poor performance has been compounded by a declining trend in productivity growth. This paper looks into growth accounting and structural indicators and analyses Italy's performance against other European countries. We look at...

We provide evidence that the movements in yield differentials between euro zone government bonds explained by changes in international risk factors – as measured by banking and corporate risk premiums in the United States – are more pronounced for bonds issued by Italy and Spain. Liquidity...