This paper discusses the relation between the financial structure and the determination of bank lending rates in Italy. It notes that the high degree of stickiness of bank lending rates observed in Italy in the past was related to constraints on competition within the banking and financial...

This paper examines the determinants of Italian unemployment by estimating and utilizing a structural vector autoregressive (VAR) model. Both long-run and short-run macroeconomic determinants of unemployment are examined; the latter are analyzed in much greater detail than is customary in the...

Under free capital mobility, a high-inflation country pursuing a nonaccommodating exchange rate policy will have higher real interest rates than its lower-inflation trading partners as long as that policy is not credible. If the policy gains credibility prior to inflation convergence, the sign...

This paper analyzes the choice between public debt denominated in domestic currency and foreign currency in the context of public debt management theories. It discusses the experience of Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand and Sweden and relates it to the theoretical arguments in favor...

The paper surveys three broad categories of labor market institutions in Italy: employment protection legislation, unemployment benefit systems, and wage bargaining arrangements. In each case, the recent evolution and current state of Italian institutions are evaluated and compared with those in...

This paper analyzes the quasi-fiscal effects of Italy’s relatively high bank reserve requirements, against the background of growing pressure to align them with those of other EC countries. The paper develops an integrated accounting framework for the measurement of implicit and explicit taxes...

Beginning in 1985 Italy embarked on a path of progressive removal of its system of controls on portfolio investment, a process formally completed with the abolition of all remaining restrictions in 1990. In this paper we review this policy of capital liberalization and integrate the analysis...

Public pension expenditure in Italy has been growing rapidly in the last three decades and is now among the highest in industrialized countries. Despite recent reforms, benefits remain generous by international standards and, unless additional measures are taken, the financial situation of the...

The literature stresses the importance of financial market characteristics in determining the supervisory architectures. In the real world it is not always clear to what extent market features are taken into account. We present two complementary approaches to gain insights in the above...

This Selected Issues paper for Italy presents updated estimates of potential growth for Italy, using new techniques that draw on co-movements of output, employment, and inflation over the business cycle to distinguish trends from cycles. The paper provides an assessment of an area—corporate...