This paper is about economists and their opinions on economic policies. Using a representative sample of Italian economists as a case study, we show that disagreement is large on both the causes of the economic difficulties in Italy and the economic policies to be implemented for a recovery....

This paper investigates the link between overall specialization and growth, analyzing the shape of the relationship between the median of the sectoral distribution of the Balassa Index, our summary measure of overall specialization, and the level of per capita income. The median of the Balassa...

L'obiettivo di questo capitolo è quello di dar conto del progredire delle negoziazioni sull'accesso al mercato per i prodotti non agricoli (Non-Agricultural Market Access, Nama) del Doha Round, di identificare i principali temi e protagonisti del dibattito, illustrandone le diverse proposte...

Since Jan Tinberben's original formulation (Tinbergen 1962), the empirical analysis of bilateral trade flows through the estimation of a gravity equation has gone a long way. It has acquired a solid reputation of good fitting; it gained respected micro foundations that allowed it to move to a...

Making use of the information from the World Value Survey (WVS), and operationalising a definition of national culture that encompasses both the relevance of specific cultural traits and the interdependence among them, this paper proposes a methodology to reveal the latent structure of national...

The object of this paper is to estimate the effect of European Union eastwards enlargement process on trade patterns in the Union. In particular, we intend to investigate whether and how the EU Free Trade agreements with CEECs have exerted a different impact on centre-periphery and...

The existence and persistence of large spatial disparities in unemployment within national economies is a central issue in regional economics. Previous empirical analyses have largely disregarded the role of fundamentals. On the contrary in this paper we explore the link between labour...