A remarkable feature of short-term business finance is the widespread use of trade credit as collateral in bank borrowing, especially by small and medium-sized firms. The paper models the incentives for a firm to collateralize accounts receivable as a trade-off between the benefit from lower...

This paper studies the impact of demographic shifts, energy prices and climate factors on Italian households� energy budget. The pattern of energy expenditure of Italian households is studied using the Italian Household Budget Survey. The expenditure for heating, private transport and...

The Europe 2020 strategy commits Italy to reduce emissions by about 16 per cent by 2020, compared with 2005. In the case of transport, the sector that has contributed most to the growth of total emissions between 1990 and 2008, the 2020 target could be achieved by introducing a Carbon Tax (CT)....

This paper studies how family firms reacted to the 2008 economic crisis by adjusting employment. In particular, we look at how the geographical distribution of the workforce may have led to divergencies between family and non-family firms. Using a difference-in-difference approach, we provide...

The literature on debt restructuring usually assumes that banks behave in a uniform way towards firms in distress. Using a recent survey of Italian banks, we show that banks follow different strategies when they decide whether to take part in the workout process, in that some of them do...

Financial innovation has increased opportunities for diversification and lowered investment costs, but has not reduced the relative cost of active (informed) investment strategies compared with passive (less informed) strategies. What are the consequences? I have studied an economy with linear...