Among the instruments aimed to attract internationally mobile investors, “special economic areas” can be considered as well-defined zones where usually offering low rates of taxation, and infrastructures and services accessible on preferential basis. Are those instruments effective in...

The issue of the location of Foreign Direct Investment is receiving a renewed interest in the literature since developing countries have now started to compete for the attraction of foreign capital. In particular, the European Union is at the centre of a region where strong integration dynamics...

This paper focuses on the perspective role of Mutual Loan-Guarantee Consortia (MLGC) in mitigating credit constraints for SMEs located in the Italian Mezzogiorno. First, we argue how the functioning of MLGC fits into the theory of bank-firm relationships, also referring to the scarce empirical...

<em>Management Quality and Risk Preference as Determinants of Efficiency in the Italian Banking System</em> (by Luca Giordano, Antonio Lopes) - ABSTRACT: Italian banks are characterized by deep efficiency inequality across size, location, Cooperative Credit Banks, and Limited Companies. Moreover,...

The Italian banking system is characterized by deep efficiency inequality between banks operating in different regions, with northern banks that largely outperform the southern ones. Moreover the ratio of non-performing loans to total loans is significantly higher in the South than elsewhere. In...

Il sistema bancario italiano e' stato interessato da un profondo processo di ristrutturazione a partire dagli anni novanta. Gli esiti della liberalizzazione del settore e del conseguente fenomeno di concentrazione sono tuttora non completamente indagati. Questo lavoro utilizza tecniche...