This paper analyzes and measures company performance due to private equity investments in a local economy. Our research aim was to explore in detail whether private equity investments impact profitability variables, and enable businesses to grow and become more efficient. For this purpose, a...

We explore how powerful CEOs manage the tax aggressiveness (TAG) of their firms. The agency view suggests that CEOs invest in TAG to enhance their own private benefits. On the contrary, the stream of corporate social responsibility theories argues that CEOs avoid investment in TAG as, although a...

Empirical studies are yet to answer the basic question regarding why firms diversify and what affects this choice. The present study attempts to answer this question using data from British and German firms. The results show different effects of ownership concentration and financial variables on...

Europe needs improved competitiveness to escape the current economic malaise, so it might seem surprising that there is no common European definition of competitiveness, and no consensus on how to consistently measure it. To help address this situation, this Blueprint provides an inventory and...

This book gets to the root of how and why multinational firms differ in the cross-border creation, transfer and diffusion of technology, and provides fresh evidence on the effects that these differences have on productivity and innovation in the economic systems in which they are active.

This paper addresses the issue of intra-industry heterogeneity and internationalisation. We show that, after controlling for sector, location, firm age and size, Italian manufacturing companies exhibit different economic and innovative performance according to their involvement in foreign...

The present paper investigates the effect of outward investments by Italian manufacturing firms on the domestic employment level and on its skill composition, as measured by the increase in the aggregate share of skilled workers (managers and clerks) in total employment. In doing so, the paper...

Foreign activities of MNEs have important effects on home economies. The debate is ambiguous: concerns that foreign investments deplete domestic economies are often coupled with the pride for doing good business in foreign countries. This paper addresses this question by defining the appropriate...

The literature on firm heterogeneity and trade has highlighted that most trading firms tend to engage in both importing and exporting activities. This paper provides some evidence that helps understanding to what extent this is the result of a two-way relationship. Using firm-level data for a...