During the nineties, Europe became a major recipient of FDIs but Italian regions have been largely excluded from this process. Was it due to their characteristics, or were Italian regions ‘doomed’ by a negative country effect? In this paper we address this issue by estimating the...

A firm\'s export status may improve its capacity of introducing product innovations. We explore this idea using very rich firm-level data on Italian A firm\'s export status may improve its capacity of introducing product innovations. We explore this idea using very rich firm-level data on...

It is frequently argued that the geographical context in which firms operate can have a crucial impact on their propensity to internationalize. In this paper, we present the results of an empirical analysis that examines the determinants of export performance for a sample including more than...

The paper compares the essential features of the Italian banking system with those of the other large euro-area countries. The analysis focuses on banks? size, ownership and competitiveness, their role in financing firms, the composition of their balance sheets and their degree of...