The aim of this study is to develop a new method to measure local endowments of transport infrastructures. Starting from the analytical approach of the �new economic geography�, which emphasizes the role of spatial location in determining the growth performance of an economy, it is...

We compare the magnitude of local productivity advantages associated with two different spatial concentration patterns in Italy � urban areas and industrial districts. The former have high population density and host a wide range of economic activities, while the latter are marked by a high...

Two main hypotheses are usually put forward to explain the productivity advantages of larger cities: agglomeration economies and firm selection. Combes et al. (2012) propose an empirical approach to disentangle these two effects and fail to find any impact of selection on local productivity...

The book brings together a series of research papers presented at a workshop on "The trends of Italy's international tourism", held at the Bank of Italy in Rome on 22 June 2012, on occasion of the release, on Bank of Italy's website, of microdata from the Survey on international tourism in...

This paper explores the interactions between external trade and regional disparities in the Italian economy since unification. It argues that the advantage of the North was initially based on natural advantage (in particular the endowment of water, intensive in silk production). From 1880...

In 150 years, the trends in regional disparities in economic development within Italy have differed depending on whether they are gauged by longitude or by latitude. The disparities between western and eastern regions first widened and then closed; the North-South gap, by contrast, remains the...

Many empirical studies have found both inter-industry and intra-industry externalities in the form of local knowledge spillovers in research. This paper makes some assumptions reflecting these empirical regularities in order to analyse their implications for the allocation of economic activities...

We propose a theory-based approach to testing the presence of the 'home market effect' in a multi-country world. Our framework extends Krugman's (1980, Am. Econ. Rev. 70(5), 950-959) model, in which the appeal of a country as a production site depends on both the relative size of its domestic...

We develop a multi-country Dixit-Stiglitz trade model and analyze how industry location and welfare respond to changes in: (i) transport frictions (e.g., infrastructure, transportation technology); and (ii) non-transport frictions (e.g., tariffs, standards and regulations). We show that changes...

This paper is concerned with spatial agglomeration across industrial sectors in Italy. Following the seminal article by Ellison and Glaeser, agglomeration indexes that simultaneously control for the effect of chance and size structure of industries are presented. In particular, I compute...