There are various paths through which globalization is channelled to the labour market. One of these is the effect on labour demand elasticity. Trade might induce an increase in this elasticity via a scale effect due to the increased competition on the output market and/or via a substitution...

In this paper we analyse the dynamics of trade patterns in the six largest industrialised countries and in eight fast growing Asian economies. For each of these countries we study the shape of the sectoral distribution of an index of trade specialisation and its evolution over time. Our analysis...

The Italian industrial sector is characterized by a number of peculiarities compared to other advanced countries. One of these is the small average size of its firms. This particular model of organization of production, based on the small dimension and often on informal relationships within and...

In traditional trade models, whether based on technological differences or on relative factor endowments, merchandise composition and directions of trade are derived from closed-economy, pre-trade conditions. But nowadays one the basic assumptions of traditional trade models, i.e. that...

In this paper, we assess the extent of offshoring in the Italian manufacturing industries, and we study how this phenomenon is affecting the skill composition of employment. Measuring offshoring using the import-use matrices of input-output tables, firstly we estimate the impact of offshoring on...

In this paper we look at similarity and convergence between the EU and four of the so-called ”accession countries” of Central and Eastern Europe in terms of trade patterns. We analyse the trade patterns of the Central and Eastern European countries by comparing them to those of the current...