This paper studies the effects of differences in local administrative burdens in Italy in the years preceding a major reform that sped up firm registration procedures. Combining regulatory data from a survey on Italian provinces before the reform (costs and time to start a business) with...

This paper assesses the effectiveness of Law 215/1992, an incentive scheme intended to boost female entrepreneurship in Italy. Under the law, which was only implemented in 1997 and remained in force for a decade, the allocation of subsidies among the regions was inversely proportional to their...

The analysis of the determinants and the effects on firm performance of venture capital finance for a sample of Italian enterprises indicates that small, young and more innovative firms are more likely to be financed by a venture capitalist. Our results confirm that venture capital can help...