Productivity is the main factor holding back long-term economic growth in Italy. Since the second half of the 1990s, productivity growth has been feeble both by historical standards and compared with the other main euro area countries. Understanding the reasons for such a performance and finding...

We show that the credit crunch of 2007-2013 favoured the adoption by startups of more efficient, intangible-intensive technologies. Using data for the universe of Italian corporations, we document that the cohorts of firms born during the crisis significantly increased their share of intangible...

We study growth dynamics of firms before and during the financial crisis. We find that firms born during the recession display lower growth overtime in capital, employment and revenue, despite being more productive at entry than those born in normal times. We show that this pattern can be...