Would you expect twins to reach different heights? The comparison is perhaps not so accurate, but in the early 1950s Abruzzo and Sicily were economically very similar. Both were 'full members' of the underdeveloped Mezzogiorno, with little industry, few natural resources, poor transport...

Would you expect twins to reach different heights? The comparison is perhaps not so accurate, but in the early 1950s Abruzzo and Sicily were economically very similar. Both were 'full members' of the underdeveloped Mezzogiorno, with little industry, few natural resources, poor transport...

In this paper we address the question on whether EMU has amplified or dampened intra euro area divergencies, by looking at a time-varying VAR model of Italy’s relative performance compared with the rest of the euro area, spanning from 1976 to 2009. Our main result is that EMU does not appear...

In this paper we investigate the potential costs and benefits of a comprehensive green fiscal reform in Italy. Using a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model for the country, we simulate scenarios of progressive reduction of emissions for 13 polluting substances. It is shown that the...

Empirical tests of the theories on the relationship between political competition and economic performance generate a puzzle: data tend to support the theory at the lower levels of government, but not in panels of countries. We argue that the larger set of policy instruments reduces the tax...