The paper evaluates the effectiveness of a major Italian place-based policy (Contratti di Programma), by means of which the state approves and finances industrial projects proposed by private firms. Using the areas to be exposed to the same policy at a later date as counterfactuals, the study...

This paper measures the impact of wage zones � minimum wage differentials at the province level � on Italy's local labor markets during the 1950s. Using a spatial regression discontinuity design, it finds that for the industrial sectors covered under wage zones there was an increase in...

This paper exploits the results of a survey conducted by the Bank of Italy in 2012 on a sample of 1,200 Italian manufacturers in order to analyse logistics costs, outsourcing and the features potentially impacting on the efficiency of the Italian supply chain. We also compare manufacturers'...

Using data from a Bank of Italy survey, this paper analyzes the Italian taxi market and its recent changes. Local regulations are rather homogeneous, while there is a widespread disproportion, within municipal advisory committees, between the number of representatives of taxi drivers and that of...

This paper studies the effects on local public transport of the reform begun in the late nineties, using data from a recent Bank of Italy survey. There are still substantial differences across Italy’s regions, and the level of efficiency is far from the original aims of the reform. Although...

Between 2003 and 2007 the volume of container traffic handled by the national port system increased only slightly despite the strong growth of maritime traffic in the Mediterranean Sea. This was due both to national economic stagnation and to the inability of the ports to extend their...

This paper presents a quantitative and analytical documentation to the debate on taxi service liberalization. The results of a survey of the Bank of Italy on the main Italian cities show that the supply of taxi is much lower than that of other foreign cities. The paper gives also some...

In this paper we present two statistical approaches for discussing and modelling job satisfaction based on data collected in the Survey on Household Income and Wealth (SHIW) conducted by the Bank of Italy. In particular, we compare two different classes of model for ordinal data: the Ordinal...

During the last decades there has been a widespread relaxation of legal entry barriers into the banking industry, with potential benefits for financial integration and competition. Obstacles to banks' geographical and business expansion have been removed and branching has been substantially...

Using a very large panel dataset of Italian manufacturing firms, we test an empirical model of foreign markets participation with sunk costs. The period of analysis (1982-1999) is exceptionally informative: the large fluctuations in the lira exchange rate determined substantial flows of firms in...