The literature on Markov switching models is increasing and producing interesting results both at theoretical and applied levels. Most often the number of regimes, i.e., of data generating processes, is considered known; this strong hypothesis is adopted to somewhat bypass the nuisance parameter...

In this paper we examine under what circumstances the information accumulated during market closing time and conveyed to the price formation at market opening may be exploited to predict where the stock price will be at the end of the trading day. In our sample of three financial time series, we...

Italian Abstract: Il lavoro analizza l'evoluzione recente delle economie del Nord Ovest italiano, concentrandosi sui fenomeni della deindustrializzazione e della terziarizzazione dell'economia. Dal confronto con un gruppo di regioni europee definibili come “industriali avanzate”, emerge come...

After the Second World War, as the Assemblea Costituente was drafting the new republican Constitution, an intense debate took place among its members as to what model to adopt for the Italian economy. A special Commission, the "Credit Commission", was set up to revise the 1936 banking law,...

The paper analyses the sharp divergence in the nineties between capital formation in the main euro area countries, on the one hand, and the United States, on the other. We have used data from the OECD's International Sectoral Data Base (ISDB), which includes data comparable across a certain...

In this paper we discuss procedural and contractual aspects of Public Private Partnerships (PPP) in Italy, in the light of the economic theory of contracts and of incentives. We emphasize the potential role for PPPs for infrastructure development in Italy and the inefficiencies that arise in...

This paper examines the results of a survey carried out in 2007 by the Bank of Italy concerning different characteristics of the organization of lending activities. Between 2003 and 2006 the physical distance between the headquarters and the branches increased, the limits to the decision-making...