association started with a voluntary benchmarking aimed to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the sector. Secondly … efficiency of these two evolutions. In particular, we adapt Free Disposal Hull (FDH) to estimate robust and conditional non …-oriented efficiency estimates. Parametric COLS (Fourier) tests show the robustness of the model with respect to the specification and its …

of unemployment in the 103 provinces of Italy for the years 1998 and 2003. The results suggest that there is a clear … spatial dependence among labour markets at the provincial level in Italy. Provinces marked by high unemployment, as well as …

to take spatial dependence into account. Using data for Italy for the years 1991 and 2001, we apply exploratory spatial …

paperanalyzes the efficiency effects of 52 horizontal bank mergersover the period 1994-1998, i.e. the period immediately … importantcatalyst for bank consolidation in Europe. In order to assessthe public policy issues surrounding bank mergers, this …, while therelative degree of profit efficiency improves only marginally.We do not find any evidence that merging banks are …

) leading to efficiency gains in the banking market. Our findings suggest that the more frequent bank failures occurring in a … removing barriers to bank entry on bank competition and economic growth. As governments were not concerned about systemic … stability in this period, we are able to isolate the effects of bank competition from those of state implicit guarantees. We …