This paper explores the two alternative hypotheses of "self-selection" and "learning by exporting" across different Italian manufacturing firms. Using matched sampling techniques that control for selection bias, we estimate whether new export-oriented firms are more efficient than domestic...

We examine whether offshoring firms outperform purely domestic firms – in terms of efficiency, innovativeness and skill composition – in the peculiar context of Italy, the G7 country with the largest shadow-economy share. We posit that manufacturing firms – to counter emerging economies'...

The relationship between financial development and economic growth has received enormous attention in the economic literature of the last decade. The widely accepted consensus finding is that financial development has a positive effect on growth at either aggregate, or industry or firm levels....