Investment and Export Subsidies in Italy: Who Gets Them and What Is Their Impact on Investment and Efficiency

The paper presents an empirical analysis on investment and export subsidies in Italy on a large sample of qualitative and quantitative microdata from 1989 to 1997. We find that the probability of being subsidized is generally af fected by the lobbying capacity of potential recipients. Significant differences across years in profitability of subsidized firms and in subsidy effects on investment appear consistent with the change in eligibility criteria. We also show that subsidized exporters are significantly more efficient and that a higher share of investment subsidized with soft loans is associated with a higher distance from the efficient productive frontier.