With the introduction of information and communication technology, a brisker pace in market integration and the adoption of a fixed exchange rate, some changes seem to have occurred in the determinants of Italian industrial districts firms' competitive advantages. In this paper we use the...

In this work we analyze the spatial distribution of manufacturing industries in Italy using data on the number of employees in the local units localized in the Local labour Systems, as revealed by the decennial censuses from 1971 to 2001. We use the Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis, which...

This paper employs recently developed non stationary panel methodologies that assume some cross-section dependence to estimate the production function for Italian regions in the industrial sector over the period 1970-1998. The analysis consists in three steps. First, unit root tests for...

We build a model of price differentiation with firm heterogeneity, which allows for imperfect competition and market segmentation in the presence of flexible exchange rates as well as horizontal and vertical differentiation and different tastes of consumers in destination markets. We empirically...

Economic theory emphasizes that risk sharing makes it possible to exploit benefits from comparative advantages and economies of scale. Unlike previous studies we reject the assumption of parameter homogeneity across geographical units in measuring risk sharing. The estimated regional-specific...

This paper investigates the pricing-to-market (PTM) behaviour of Italian exporting firms, using quarterly survey data by sector and by region over the period 1999q1-2005q2. A partial equilibrium imperfect competition model provides the structure according to which the orthogonality of structural...

This paper investigates the location of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Italy over the period 1986-1999. FDI are measured through the frequencies of acquisitions and greenfield investments per province and sector, so count data models are applied. The results show that the location...

Using a balanced longitudinal data set on Italian manufacturing firms born in 1996 and active in 2000, we analyse the firm size dynamics. The aim is to assess the presence of non-linearities and/or discontinuities in the growth behaviour generated by the employment protection legislation (EPL),...

In this paper we use spatial dependence panel data models to analyse regional growth behaviour in Italy. Controlling for fixed-effects allows us to disentangle the effect of spatial dependence (or spatial interaction) from that of spatial heterogeneity and of omitted variables and, thus, to...

Testing regional convergence hypothesis involves important data issues. In empirical circumstances the problem arises of finding the best data to test the theory and the best estimators for the associated modelling. In the literature usually little attention is given to the level of spatial...