Being the G-7 country with the largest shadow-economy share, we posit that Italy's manufacturing firms - to counter emerging economies' competition - could alternatively offshore or enter the shadow economy. Within this context, we investigate, in a sample of Italian firms, whether...

This paper explores the two competing 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 aremore efficient compared to domestic firms...

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...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess whether offshoring strategies are able to substantially enhance firms’ international competitiveness in terms of productivity, innovativeness and skill composition for a panel of Italian manufacturing firms. Design/methodology/approach A set of...

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'...