This paper analyzes the relationship between the terms on bank loans and local crime rates, employing a sample of over 300,000 bank-firm relationships. Controlling for firm, market and bank characteristics the results show that where the crime rate is higher borrowers pay higher interest rates,...

This paper explores the role of cash usage in feeding the underground economy by using a unique dataset that combines, at province level, official estimates of Italian firms’ underreporting with data on cash transactions drawn from the aggregate anti-money laundering reports filed to the...

Italian Abstract: La criminalità organizzata condiziona lo sviluppo socio-economico dei territori dove è radicata attraverso una molteplicità di canali. Analizzare tali effetti è tuttavia difficile, anche per l’impossibilità di osservare e misurare con certezza la presenza mafiosa....

Italian Abstract: Questa ricerca passa in rassegna la situazione e l'evoluzione prospettica del settore delle infrastrutture in sette grandi paesi emergenti - Brasile, Cina, India, Indonesia, Messico, Russia e Turchia - valutando l'adeguatezza della dotazione attuale di infrastrutture,...

Financial exclusion concerns 2.5 billion individuals and more than 450 million enterprises. The G20 countries are committed to the reduction of this phenomenon. The Bank of Italy has a fundamental role in the field of financial inclusion, both on a national and an international scale through...

Using micro-data on firm-specific borrowing costs and wages, we demonstrate that distortions in firms' policies can be empirically measured using firm-level gaps between marginal revenue products and user costs (MRP-cost gaps). We estimate MRP-cost gaps for 4.7 million firm-year observations in...

Is the propensity to save and to invest related to digital skills and financial knowledge? Do digital skills and financial knowledge affect people’s attitudes towards digital payments and digital financial services? Is there a gender gap? This paper addresses these issues by using a new...

Since the mid-nineties international financial integration has advanced gradually in the emerging areas of Asia, while it has progressed rapidly in Central and Eastern Europe. This process has helped provide long-term benefits for the economies of the two regions in terms of faster productivity...

Italian Abstract: Questo lavoro verifica se tra la fine del 2005 e la metà del 2012 la specializzazione territoriale dell’attività di prestito, il localismo bancario, ha influenzato la dinamica e la qualità dei prestiti concessi alle imprese italiane. A tal fine il lavoro propone una nuova...

In this paper we provide new evidence on the relationship between market concentration in the banking industry and firm dynamics. In Italy, in the case of a banking merger or acquisition, the antitrust authorities can require the sale of bank branches if the joint market share of the banks...