How much does a nation spend on resources to 'grease the wheels of trade'? To examine this question the Dutch economy is used as an exemplary case as the Netherlands are known as a nation of traders. This image was derived in the seventeenth century from successes in long distance trade,...

This discussion paper resulted in a publication in <A href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10645-005-2933-4">'De Economist'</A>, 2005, 153(2), 139-165.<P> How much does a nation spend on resources to 'grease the wheels of trade'? To examine this question the Dutch economy is used as an exemplary case as the Netherlands are known as a nation of traders. This...</p></a>

See also the publication in the <I>European Economic Review</I>, 2002, 301-327.<P> The paper considers a two-country model of overlapping generations heterogenouseconomies with intergenerational transfers carried out in the form of bequest and investmentin human capital. We examine in competitive...</p></i>

The paper studies the determinants of income distribution and growth in an overlapping generations economy withheterogenous households. Our framework has the following main features:heterogeneity of consumers with respect to wealth and parental human capital;intergenerational transfers,...

This study exploits a new dataset in order to quantify the effect of financial incentives on retirement choices. This dataset contains for the first time in Italy information on seniority. In accordance with the general finding in Gruber and Wise (2004), we find that financial incentives have an...

The paper considers a two-country model of overlapping generations heterogenous

The paper studies the determinants of income distribution and growth in an overlapping generations economy with heterogenous households. Our framework has the following main features: <OL> <LI>heterogeneity of consumers with respect to wealth and parental human capital; <LI>intergenerational transfers,...</li></li></ol>

This study exploits a new dataset in order to quantify the effect of financial incentives on retirement choices. This dataset contains for the first time in Italy information on seniority. In accordance with the general finding in Gruber and Wise (2004), we find that financial incentives have an...

We study the optimal trade policy against a foreign oligopoly withendogenous quality. We show that, under the Most Favoured Nation(MFN) clause, a uniform tariff policy is always welfare improvingover the free trade equilibrium. However, a nonuniform tariff policyis always desirable on welfare...

Forthcoming in the <I>International Economic Review</I>.<P> We examine an export game where two firms (home and foreign), located in two differentcountries, produce vertically differentiated products. The foreign firm is the most efficientin terms of R&D costs of quality development and the foreign...</p></i>