Being the G-7 country with the largest shadow-economy share, we posit that Italy's manufacturing firms - to counter emerging economies' competition - could alternatively offshore or enter the shadow economy. Within this context, we investigate, in a sample of Italian firms, whether...

This paper explores the two competing hypotheses of self-selection and learning by exporting across different Italian manufacturing firms.Using matched sampling techniques that control for selection bias,we estimate whether new export-oriented firms aremore efficient compared to domestic firms...

This paper explores the two alternative hypotheses of "self-selection" and "learning by exporting" across different Italian manufacturing firms. Using matched sampling techniques that control for selection bias, we estimate whether new export-oriented firms are more efficient than domestic...

The relationship between financial development and economic growth has received enormous attention in the economic literature of the last decade. The widely accepted consensus finding is that financial development has a positive effect on growth at either aggregate, or industry or firm levels....

In questo lavoro si investiga il nesso finanza-crescita aggregata in Italia nel periodo 1965-2002. Dopo una breve rassegna della letteratura teorico-empirica, il lavoro riporta i risultati di una indagine basata su regressioni di crescita in cui fattori come il tasso di investimento, il grado di...

Following recent models in international trade this paper examines the characteristics that businesses should possess to pursue internationalization strategies. We do this in the peculiar context of Italy, the G-7 country with the largest share of the black economy in GDP. Specifically, we posit...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess whether offshoring strategies are able to substantially enhance firms’ international competitiveness in terms of productivity, innovativeness and skill composition for a panel of Italian manufacturing firms. Design/methodology/approach A set of...

We examine whether offshoring firms outperform purely domestic firms – in terms of efficiency, innovativeness and skill composition – in the peculiar context of Italy, the G7 country with the largest shadow-economy share. We posit that manufacturing firms – to counter emerging economies'...