This paper estimates a two equation system – an investment equation and a growth equation – that allows trade openness to affect growth directly via its impact on TFP growth, and indirectly via its impact on the investment rate. We find that domestic trade barriers depress investment and...

In the period just after the Second World War, Italy experienced an increase in labour productivity bigger than the increase in real wages. The recurrent explanations of this phenomenon build on the weakness of labour trade unions due to a large “reserve industrial army”. With the passing of...