Labor productivity convergence is a key factor in the catching up process of less developed regions. For the regional economies as a whole labor productivity differentials can be traced back to three distinct determinants: - composition effects due to the peculiar structure of the regional...

In this paper we compare the magnitude of local productivity advantages associated to two different spatial concentration patterns in Italy, i.e. urban areas (UA) and industrial districts (ID). UA typically display a huge concentration of population and host a wide range of economic activities,...

The supply of international air transport by low cost carriers (LCC) recorded a tenfold increase in Italy over the last decade. Such rapid expansion, by affecting transport costs, is likely to have induced significant effects on both the level and the composition of foreign tourism inflows. In...

Nel lavoro si fornisce una misura dell’impatto dell’espansione dei vettori low cost sulla dinamica della spesa per vancanze dei turisti internazionali in Italia. Per stimare tale impatto utilizziamo un dataset originale sui posti a sedere offerti sui voli operati dai vettori low cost che...

Even before the global crisis, the Italian economy was experiencing international difficulties, although the slow growth and declining share of world trade were accompanied by a perceptible process of manufacturing transformation. The paper uses data from the Bank of Italy’s survey of...

This article aims at explaining substantial and persistent regional labour productivity differentials in Italy. First, the role played by the diversity of local economic structures is quantitatively assessed. Within-industry productivity levels are then related to regional endowments of physical...

This paper aims to analyze the macroeconomic impact of infrastructures through review of the literature, meta-analysis and empirical analysis of the Italian data. We report a general consensus over the positive effects of infrastructures, even though the results are affected by the estimation...