This paper presents a method of estimating the energy expenditure of Italian manufacturing firms with 20 or more employees for the period 2003-11. Use is made of multiple sources in order to impute firm-level energy consumption in the dataset of the Bank of Italy�s Survey of Industrial and...

This paper develops a general equilibrium model of international trade with heterogeneous firms and imperfect credit markets. To finance the costs for product innovation and domestic and foreign market entry, firms must raise external capital. The model underscores the importance of considering...

The theory of the firm suggests that firms can respond to poor contract enforcement by vertically integrating their production process. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether firms' integration opportunities affect the way institutions determine international trade patterns. We find...

The theory of the firm suggests that firms can respond to poor contract enforcement by vertically integrating their production process. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether firms’ integration opportunities affect the way contract enforcement institutions determine international...

The theory of the rm suggests that firms can respond to poor contract enforcement by vertically integrating their production process. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether firms' integration opportunities affect the way institutions determine international trade patterns. We find that...

The theory of the firm suggests that firms can respond to poor contract enforcement by vertically integrating their production process. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether firms' integration opportunities affect the way contract enforcement institutions determine international trade...

This paper provides some empirical evidence of the impact of two policy measures designed to support innovation in small and medium firms in an Italian region, both financed using the European Structural Funds but managed at regional level. The first measure was a concessional loan to promote...

In the last decade R&D expenditure in Italy has been lagging at a bare 1.2-1.3 per cent of GDP. Its private share is low by international standards and Italian firms take out only a small number of patents. External sources of innovation, however, are available to firms. This work aims at...

This paper provides some empirical evidence of the impact of two policy measures, aiming at supporting innovative activity of small and medium firms in Piedmont. Both measures use European Structural Funds, but are managed at a regional level. Measure 2.1b, a concessional loan aiming at...

To evaluate the effect of an R&D subsidy one needs to know what the subsidized firms would have done without the incentive. This paper studies an Italian programme of subsidies for the applied development of innovations, exploiting a discontinuity in programme financing due to an unexpected...