This paper analyses the effect of competition from low-wage countries on domestic activity, using data on 230 Italian manufacturing sectors between 1995 and 2007. We find that low-wage import penetration is negatively related to employment and other measures of activity. The effect is...

This work contributes to the small but growing body of literature on international trade in services at firm level. Our dataset, based on a new Bank of Italy survey, provides information on exports and imports of services (excluding transportation and travel) in 2008-09 for almost 3,000 Italian...

This paper focuses on how multi-plant firms allocate their workforce and investments between headquarters or plants located in or close to the headquarters area (HQ plants) and those located in the same country but farther away from the headquarters area (non-HQ plants). Using survey data on...

Using unique matched bank-firm data on export, import and ordinary loans for a large sample of Italian manufacturing exporters for the years 2007-2010, this paper investigates the role of trade finance in a credit shock. We find that the credit shock faced by exporters in the aftermath of the...

This work presents, in a single framework, the results of several recent studies, carried out by Bank of Italy researchers, on the internationalization of the Italian productive system. The notion of internationalization is considered not only from the perspective of direct investments abroad...

In the last decade the Italian economy has underperformed compared both with the previous decades and with the main European countries. It is widely acknowledged that this evolution reflects unresolved structural problems, which have become more urgent in view of the major changes in the world...

Using data on a sample of Italian manufacturing companies, this paper analyzes the location (at home or abroad) and the mode of organization (outsourcing versus integration) of intermediate inputs production. We find evidence of a productivity ordering (largely consistent with the assumptions in...

The aim of this paper is to compare the price elasticity of import demand in the destination markets of Italian exports to the price elasticity in the destination markets of the other main euro-area countries� exports. To this end, we use the elasticities of substitution across varieties...

Using data from Ufficio italiano dei cambi for the period 1997-2001, the study analyses the distribution of foreign direct investment (FDI) outflows by sector and local area of origin. It tries to identify which local industrial structures determine a larger propensity to invest abroad, focusing...

Using several data sources, we assess the impact of Italy's outward foreign direct investment (FDI) on local employment growth between 1996 and 2001 for 12 manufacturing industries and 103 administrative provinces. Our main result is that, controlling for the local industrial structure and area...