Though Mass Open Online Courses are very different from each other in their structure, content or audience, they are all characterized by low completion rates. In this paper, we use the Cox proportional hazard model to analyze student retention in the MOOC Principle of Microeconomics. Using two...

This paper evaluates a unique R&D subsidy program implemented in northern Italy. Firms were invited to submit proposals for new projects and only those which scored above a certain threshold received the subsidy. We use a sharp regression discontinuity design to compare the investment spending...

The book brings together a series of research papers presented at a workshop on "Economic integration between the Mezzogiorno and the Centre North", held at the Bank of Italy in Rome on 15 March 2011. The workshop assessed the degree of economic integration between the two areas from several...

In this paper we estimate the long-run relationship between total factor productivity, R&D, human capital and public infrastructure between 1980 and 2001 across Italian regions. We take advantage of recent developments of panel cointegration techniques that control for endogeneity of regressors...

This paper proposes a taxonomy of the main regional transport infrastructure indicators available in Italy and discusses the principal merits and limitations of each of them. The indexes show scant correlation and may offer contrasting data on the infrastructure endowment of a given area. As a...

La Legge 488/92 prevede che le imprese che vogliano investire nelle aree in ritardo di sviluppo possano richiedere un sussidio che copre una frazione della spesa di investimento. Gli incentivi sono assegnati attraverso delle aste competitive che tengono conto di alcuni criteri, come la...

A number of empirical studies have analyzed the effect of agglomeration on multinational investment, verifying whether the agglomerated areas attract foreign direct investment inflows. Despite the large number of papers, no systematic attempt has been made to disentangle whether FDI are...

The paper examines how private investment responds to investment tax credit, enacted by Italy's Law 388/2000. To assess whether the program made investments possible that otherwise would not have been made, it exploits some features of the tax credit scheme, such as the fact that some Italian...

The aim of this paper is to evaluate whether domestic and foreign activities of Italian firms are mainly substitutes or complements. We take advantage of a unique firm-level panel data set from the Bank of Italy Survey of Industrial and Service Firms, which provides information on the...