This paper provides an assessment of quality of life in Italian cities using the hedonic approach. We analyze micro-level data for housing and labor markets to estimate compensating differentials for local amenities within five domains: climate, environment, services, society and economy. The...

This paper presents an application of the hedonic approach to measure the monetary price of social relations. We use individual-level data for housing and labor markets in 103 Italian cities to estimate the price of relational amenities and construct monetary indexes of quality of relational...

The empirical validation of the purchasing power parity (PPP) theory is generally based on real exchange rates built using consumer price indexes (CPI). The empirical evidence does not generally support the theory and this fact goes under the name of purchasing power parity puzzle. In this paper...

This paper investigates the response of the shadow economy to banking crises. Our empirical analysis, based on a large sample of countries, suggests that the informal sector is a powerful buffer, which expands at times of banking crises and absorbs a large proportion of the fall in official...

The effect of unemployment on mortality is the object of a lively literature. However, this literature is characterized by sharply conflicting results. We revisit this issue and suggest that the relationship might be non-linear. We use regional (NUTS 2) data from 23 European countries to...

We develop a simple model of occupational choice under financial market im- perfections, in the presence of technological convexities. The aim is to analyze the quantitative effect of these imperfections on the level of income. We find that although their effect is relatively large, financial...

Economists have largely neglected the analysis of the relevant factors that induce policymakers and trade unions to sign social pacts, despite their clear implications for economic policies and the functioning of labour markets. In this paper we fill this gap. We build a simple theoretical...

We analyse the determinants of long term external debt for a large sample of developing countries. We ¯nd that, in addition to the stan- dard economic variables, institutional and socio-political variables are a key factor in explaining the level of external debt. Overall the re- sults point to...

This paper investigates the investment behaviour of a large panel of Hungarian firms during the transition period (1989-1999). We examine the role of financial factors and assess whether financial reforms have succeeded in increasing the efficiency of credit allocation. We find that reforms have...

The empirical distinction between de facto and de jure exchange rate regimes raises a number of interesting questions. Which factors may induce a de facto peg? Why do countries enforce a peg but do not announce it? Why do countries \break their promises"? We show that a stable socio-political...