This paper employs recently developed non stationary panel methodologies that assume some cross-section dependence to estimate the production function for Italian regions in the industrial sector over the period 1970-1998. The analysis consists in three steps. First, unit root tests for...

In this paper we use spatial dependence panel data models to analyse regional growth behaviour in Italy. Controlling for fixed-effects allows us to disentangle the effect of spatial dependence (or spatial interaction) from that of spatial heterogeneity and of omitted variables and, thus, to...

In spite of the huge amount of public aids to poor regions, relative movements in the distribution of income, labor productivity and employment rates across European regions show no positive relation with the distribution of the Structural Funds. Specifically, widening employment gaps and a...

This paper compares different conditional density estimators to analyze the cross-sectional distribution dynamics of regional per-capita incomes in Europe during the period 1980-2002. First, a kernel estimator with fixed bandwidth gives evidence of convergence. With a modified estimator with...

During the nineties, Europe became a major recipient of FDIs but Italian regions have been largely excluded from this process. Was it due to their characteristics, or were Italian regions 'doomed' by a negative country effect? In this paper we address this issue by estimating the determinants of...

We propose a semi-parametric spatial auto-covariance specification of the growth model to examine the growth behaviour of European regions in the period 1988-2000. This specification simultaneously takes account of the problems of non-linearities and spatial dependence. We obtain two main...

The existence and persistence of large spatial disparities in unemployment within national economies is a central issue in regional economics. Previous empirical analyses have largely disregarded the role of fundamentals. On the contrary in this paper we explore the link between labour...