The objective of this paper is to analyze the efficiency of the Italian Banking System over the period 2006-2010. By applying the Stochastic Frontier Approach (SFA) to a panel of 700 banks, the analysis is based on the joint estimation of a cost function and an efficiency equation (Battese and...

This paper challenges the economic constraints associated with the so-called post-industrial trilemma. Following Iversen’s and Wren’s seminal 1998 paper, it has been widely accepted that differential industry-level productivity increases rule out a solidaristic structure of wages, due to the...

This paper analyzes the links between labour market institutions and skill premiums in the UK, controlling for other explanatory variables such as market conditions, international trade and skill-biased technology. We find that the trade union decline in unskilled workers can explain more than...

The empirical literature on trade imbalances does not make currency tensions easy to understand, because tensions across traders originate from the assumption that export-price elasticity is high. This paper provides new evidence by analysing the export-behaviour of China, France, Germany,...