The supply chain of the real estate sector accounts for one fifth of Italian GDP; its importance for the banking system is even greater: lending to this sector accounts for more than one third of total loans to the private sector. The crisis in the construction and real estate sector started...

Developments in the real-estate sector are of crucial importance for the business cycle and financial stability. This study analyses developments in the Italian housing market on the basis of both real and financial variables. Following the sharp contraction of the market during the financial...

<em>Competition and transparency in public procurement: a survey</em> - Italy suffers of a chronic lack of modern infrastructures. The market for public works is as a whole not transparent and inefficient in terms of costs and time of completion of the works; greater competition could improve the...

This paper compares the return to pre-crisis levels and the long-term performance of exports in the main Italian regions compared with some European regions with a similar production structure. The results show that the intensity and timing of recovery in the cyclical component of exports were...

This paper analyzes the linkages between banks� profitability and the main real and financial indicators. The results, derived by means of a reduced-form model for the period 1984-2002, highlight a strict relation between all income and cost components and the evolution of the economic...

To verify if a delegated monitor can certify its ability to perform its assigned tasks, we test whether syndicated loans in which a larger share of the facility is retained by the arranger have lower interest rates. For a large sample of syndicated loans in over 80 countries we find that this...

This paper analyses the effects of investment in information technologies (IT) in the financial sector using micro-data from a panel of 600 Italian banks over the period 1989-2000. Stochastic cost and profit functions are estimated allowing for individual banks' displacements from the best...

Estimating saving and fertility simultaneously by the VAR method, we find that social security cover has a positive effect on household saving, and a negative effect on fertility. In Germany, as in other countries where the hypothesis was tested, social security is thus good for growth. A...

Estimating saving and fertility simultaneously by the VAR method, we find that social security cover has a positive effect on household saving, and a negative effect on fertility. In Germany, as in other countries where the hypothesis was tested,social security is thus good for growth. A...