We estimate the effect of trade openness and institutional quality on productivity of Central and Eastern European accession countries. Our approach builds on recent economic literature dealing with the so-called "deep" determinants of economic growth (Frankel and Romer, 1999, Hall and Jones,...

The aim of this paper is to explain relative prices divergences among cities within the same currency area, such as Italy. According to our results, we find relative prices mean reverting, but at a very slow rate. The measure of persistence is high also in a well-established “monetary union”...

In light of the uncertainty of the effects of population ageing on growth and fiscal variables, it is sensible to ask whether Italy's public finances can achieve sustainability under the spending pressure exerted by future demographic and macroeconomic developments. The paper addresses this...

With the new European fiscal compact, fiscal rules of budget balance over the cycle have been introduced to limit the growth of the debt ratio to GDP. The objection may arise that they would have an adverse effect, especially in the long run on employment and growth. We test the proposition...

It is believed that privatizations substantially influenced both stock market structure and households’ portfolio decisions throughout the 1990s. However, through which channels did that materialize? Using both Bank of Italy SHIW data and a unique set of surveys made on the occasion of Public...

In this paper, we provide a description of the Italian Treasury Econometric Model (ITEM). We illustrate its general structure and model properties, especially with regard to the economy's response to changes in policy and in other dimensions of the economic environment. One of the key features...

The aim of this paper is to propose a new method for forecasting Italian inflation. We expand on a standard factor model framework (see Stock and Watson (1998)) along several dimensions. To start with we pay special attention to the modeling of the autoregressive component of the inflation....

In this paper, we provide a description of the Italian Treasury Econometric Model (ITEM). We illustrate its general structure and model properties, especially with regard to the economy's response to changes in policy and in other dimensions of the economic environment. The model has a quarterly...

The aim of this paper is to review the properties of the newly released MeMo-It econometric model by looking at its supply side. The analysis hinges on the link between potential output, which determines the level of GDP in the medium term, and all the channels of transmission that can affect...

Forecasting Budget expenditures using Budget balance intra annual data