One of the objectives of the reforms and liberalization of the last 15 years in local public services was to reduce the traditional fragmentation of production. This was to be achieved through restructuring that reduced inefficiencies and made it more possible to exploit economies of scale,...

In Italy an extremely large number of companies is organized as a pyramidal group. As compared to other control structures, pyramidal groups might offer minority shareholders less protection and hence discourage them from holding shares. We evaluate empirically the impact of some variables that...

The costs of enforcing contracts is a key determinant of market performance. We document this point with reference to the credit market. We start by presenting a model of opportunistic debtors and inefficient courts. According to the model, improvements in judicial efficiency reduce credit...

This paper addresses the questions of the effects of diversification strategies on firms' profitability. Empirical analyses do not seem to confirm the hypothesis that diversification is the optimal response to the presence of synergies and hence generates higher profits. It is shown that this...