The paper is a review of approaches towards technology support for small-scale manufacturing enterprises in developing countries since the 1970s. Early programs tended to suffer from a number of weaknesses, emanating from inadequate conceptualization of small firms’ competitiveness and the...

This paper depicts an industrial district as a center of innovation in which local technological externalities sustain the endogenous invention of new goods by profit seeking firms. After invention firms dace a crucial choice between reaching distant markets by export or plant delocation. The...

The number of studies seeking to empirically characterize the reduced-form relationship between a country economic growth and the quantity of various pollutants produced has recently increased significantly. In several cases researchers have found evidence in favor of an inverted-U...

In this paper we test the firm-specific determinants of delocation to low-wage countries on the part of Italian firms. We collect data through a survey on 167 firms the in mechanics and textile industries. Our data show that in recent years there has been an upsurge in FDI activity by Italian...

This paper investigates the extent to which expansion of international production by US multinational reduces labor demand at home and at other foreign locations. The few existing empirical studies on this subject maintain, along with firm’s cost minimizing behavior, perfectly variable inputs....

In a traditional agrarian sector tenancy contracts aloe farmworkers to produce and accumulate wealth. This is important in a dual economy characterized in its modern sector by a n high degree of credit imperfections. The wealth constrained workers can accumulate wealth by working as...

This paper provides evidence on the links between productivity and internationalisation choices for a large sample of both large and small-medium sized Italian firms. By using detailed qualitative and quantitative information we first identify those firms engaged in international activities...

The number of preferential trade agreements has greatly increased over the past two decades, yet most existing bilateral arrangements take the form of free trade areas, and less than ten percent can be considered to be fully fledged customs unions. This paper develops a political economy model...

Skilled labor earnings differentials decreased during the trade liberalization implemented in Brazil from 1988 to 1995. This paper investigates the role of trade liberalization in explaining these relative earnings movements. We perform several independent empirical exercises that check the...