[ENGLISH] We analyze the phenomenon of international labor productivity convergence at the light of the hypothesis of catching up in technology. We present evidence that the process is much slowed by international demand fluctuations and it reduces the possibility of catching up of the Recently...

In questo lavoro viene analizzata la dinamica del settore calzaturiero italiano a partire dal 1960. Tale dinamica è osservata da molteplici punti di vista; tuttavia la chiave interpretativa di fondo si basa sull’idea che l’aspetto fondamentale da cui partire è costituito dalla posizione...

It is customary in the empirical trade literature to analyze specialization patterns of countries using Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) measures. This paper explores the informational content of the most commonly used RCA index: the Balassa (1965) Index of RCA.

This paper contributes to trade diversification literature by comparing changes in relative (i.e. assessed in comparison with world patterns) heterogeneity of import and export structures in the process of economic development. In particular, by focusing on the diversification of imports, we add...

This paper assesses the role played by country specific factors as determinants of exports' diversification process. Using a panel data-set for 60 countries and twenty years (1985-2004) we confirm that even after clearing out differences in income per capita, cross section variability in the...