Italian university system was reformed in 2001. This paper tests the screening role of degree scores for 2004-Italian graduates. We find support of the strong screening hypothesis for prereform type degrees, while we do not find any evidence of signalling effects for post-reform 3-years degrees....

In this paper I consider 28 developed and developing countries, in the period 1980- 1995, and I employ the Within Group and the Generalized Method of Moments estimators to test, respectively, for Total Factor Productivity determinants and labor productivity convergence driving forces...

I adopt the distribution dynamics framework to study labor productivity convergence, in the period 1980-1995, among 28 developed and developing countries, in different manufacturing sub-sectors, identified, as according their technological content into Resource Based, Low Technology, Medium...

The paper consists of an empirical analysis of the separate as well as joint impacts on total and youth unemployment of indicators of labour market policies on the one hand, and the financial crisis associated with the “Great Recession” on the other. In particular, we investigate labour...

We analyze rehabilitation investments in a regulated water industry with perfectly inelastic demand. We compare alternative organizational solutions for local provision (municipalization, corporatization and privatization), though subject to a common regulatory mechanism. We can then assess the...

We give an overview on the main properties of D-stable matrices, i.e. of those square matrices $A$ for which the product DA is stable for any choice of the diagonal matrix D, with all positive diagonal elements. These matrices, introduced in economic analysis by Arrow and Mc Manus (1958), have...

The latest financial crisis has stressed the need of understanding the world financial system as a network of interconnected institutions, where financial linkages play a fundamental role in the spread of systemic risks. In this paper we propose to enrich the topological perspective of network...

We use an integrated approach to analyze the reasons behind the discount on the balance-sheet fair value of illiquid financial instruments held by European banks and classified into the Level 3 Fair Value hierarchy under IFRS 7. We believe that the potential sources of misalignment are 1) the...

This paper considers estimation in a stationary heterogeneous panel model where common unknown factors are present. A two-stage estimator is proposed. This estimator is based on the CCE estimator (Pesaran, 2006) in the first stage and on a similar approach to the Interactive Effect estimator...

What are the effects of a higher inflation target on the determinacy properties under alternative monetary/fiscal policy mixes in New Keynesian models? Would it be more difficult for the central bank to stabilize inflation expectations if the inflation target is raised? What role for central...