An influential literature shows that product quality varies widely across countries and industries. In this paper, we propose and test an explanation that rests on the interplay between cross-country differences in financial frictions and cross-industry differences in financial vulnerability. We...

In this paper, we empirically test the effects of the EU's "cohesion policy" on the performance of 273,500 European manufacturing firms after combining regional policy data at NUTS 2 level with firm-level data. In a framework of heterogeneous firms and different absorptive capacity of regions,...

In this paper, we empirically test the effect of the EU Cohesion Policy using a unique dataset of 273,500 European manufacturing firms, combining regional policy data at NUTS-2 level with firm-level total factor productivities (TFP). In a framework of heterogeneous firms and different absorptive...

In this paper we document a process of price convergence in the European market for pharmaceutical products and relate it to access to innovative medicines in individual countries. The EU is a peculiar case study, where free circulation of goods coexists with pricing policies designed and...

Making use of an original dataset we empirically investigate the determinants of state aid to the car industry in the European Union. The EU regulatory system on state aids and the long history of governments' grants to this industry make this an interesting case study. Our findings show that in...