Studies about innovation find evidence of a positive relationship between technological advancement and firm performance, in particular when the innovative effort is continuous. This paper aims to further the analysis on the duration of R&D investment at the firm level. The contribution of this...

Understanding the dynamics of the leverage ratio is at the heart of the empirical research about firms' capital structure, as they can be very different under alternative theoretical models. The pillars of almost all empirical applications are the maintained assumptions of poolability and...

This paper re-examines Lilien's sectoral shifts hypothesis for U.S. unemployment. We employ a monthly panel that spans from 1990:01 to 2011:12 for 48 U.S. states. Panel unit root tests that allow for crosssectional dependence reveal the stationarity of unemployment. Within a framework that takes...

This paper is based upon the assumption that firm profitability is determined by its degree of diversification which in turn is strongly related to the antecedent decision to carry out diversification activities. This calls for an empirical approach that permits the joint analysis of the three...

In any economic analysis, regions or municipalities should not be regarded as isolated spatial units, but rather as highly interrelated small open economies. These spatial interrelations must be considered also when the aim is to forecast economic variables. For example, policy makers need...

This paper proposes a semiparametric estimator for spatial autoregressive (SAR) binary choice models in the context of panel data with fixed effects. The estimation procedure is based on the observational equivalence between distribution free models with a conditional median restriction and...

Geographical clusters in health expenditures are well documented and accounting for spatial interactions may contribute to properly identify the factors affecting the use of health services the most. As for hospital care, spillovers may derive from strategic behaviour of hospitals and from...

The geographical distribution and persistence of regional/local unemployment rates in heterogeneous economies (such as Germany) have been, in recent years, the subject of various theoretical and empirical studies. Several researchers have shown an interest in analysing the dynamic adjustment...

The rise in destination accessibility and the emergence of new market segments have increased the competition among tourism destinations, both at national and international level. In order to gain a significant competitive advantage over competitors, destinations increasingly make use of signals...