Does tougher law enforcement positively affect political participation? This paper addresses this question, which hinges upon the causal impact of formal institutions on informal ones, by using a historical event from 19th century Italy. This event was the Pica Law, which was introduced in 1863...

Il lavoro documenta la recente evoluzione del sistema industriale italiano e discute i principali fattori che influiscono sulla sua competitività. Dall'analisi emerge un quadro di diffusa debolezza. In tutti i comparti industriali i livelli produttivi sono inferiori a quelli precedenti la...

Activity and employment rates for immigrant women in many industrialized countries display a great variability across national groups. The aim of this paper is to assess whether this well-known fact is due to a voluntary decision (i.e. large reservation wages by the immigrants) or to an...

This paper analyzes the characteristics of Italian firms involved in global value chains (“intermediate” firms) by using the Bank of Italy survey on industrial companies. Intermediate firms show, on average, worse features than “final” firms: smaller size, lower share of white collars,...

Introdotti nel 1996, i Patti Territoriali (PT) hanno rappresentato il principale strumento di programmazione negoziata in Italia. Un PT è un accordo tra rappresentanti delle amministrazioni locali, imprenditori e sindacati dei lavoratori per la realizzazione di progetti imprenditoriali e...

We examine the impact of immigration on the residential market within urban areas. We develop a spatial equilibrium model that shows how the effect of an immigrant inflow in a district affects local housing prices through changes in how natives perceive the quality of their local amenities and...

This paper studies the impact of citizens' human capital on the characteristics of elected politicians in democratic elections for the post of mayor. By using a change in the rules for Italian mayoral elections and a difference-in-differences estimator, I find that cities endowed with a larger...

We assess the impact of low-skilled immigration on capital intensity. We first present a model characterized by frictions in the labor market and firms' asymmetric information on workers' skills and show that firms can react to the immigration-induced reduction of their workforce's skill level...