By exploiting a rich firm level database, this paper presents novel empirical evidence on the impact that the introduction of process and product innovations exerts on productivity, as well as on the role played by R&D and fixed capital investment in enhancing the likelihood of introducing...

This paper analyzes the effects of the form of ownership on the substitutability between internal and external sources of finance. In particular, we test whether financial constraints are more severe for independent firms and whether there are differences between members of large national...

This paper contains a detailed empirical investigation of the effect of local banking development on firms' innovative activities, using a rich data set on innovation at the firm level for a large number of Italian firms over the 90's. There is evidence that banking development affects the...

In this paper empirical evidence is presented on the elasticity of private R&D spending on its price. A censored panel-data regression model with random effects is applied to a balanced panel of 726 Italian firms over the 1992-97 period. Implied estimates point out that Italian firms' response...

We prove that in a closed economy without distortionary taxation, the welfare of a representativeconsumer is summarized to a …rst order by the current and expected future values of the Solowproductivity residual in level and by the initial endowment of capital. The equivalence holds if...

We study whether cultural attitudes towards gender, the young, and leisure are signi…cantdeterminants of the evolution over time of the employment rates of women and of the young, andof hours worked in OECD countries. Beyond controlling for a larger menu of policies, institutionsand structural...

The objective of this paper is to investigate if and how capital adjustment departs from the smooth pattern implied by standard model based on convex adjustment costs. Using Norwegian micro data, we start by documenting various aspects of the distribution of investment rates. We then present two...

This paper evaluates the effects of fiscal policy on investment using a panel of OECD countries. In particular, we investigate how different types of fiscal policy affect profits and , as a result, investment. We find a sizable negative effect of public spending -- and in particular of its...

The purpose of this paper is to develop a model that integrates inventory and labor decisions. We extend a model of inventory behavior to include a detailed specification of the role of labor input in the production process and of the costs associated with it. In particular, we distinguish...

It is often argued that monetary instability reduces the informational content of market signals and thereby hinders the efficient allocation of investment. In this paper we use a signal extraction framework to give empirical content to this idea. In particular, we show why this framework...