In this paper we highlight a new complementary channel to the business and social network effect à la Rauch (2001) through which immigrants generate increased export flows from the regions in which they settle to their countries of origin: they can become entrepreneurs. Using very small-scale...

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 analyse the dynamics of trade patterns in the six largest industrialised countries and in eight fast growing Asian economies. For each of these countries we study the shape of the sectoral distribution of an index of trade specialisation and its evolution over time. Our analysis...

This paper presents descriptive evidence on the role of industrial districts in Italian exports. Recent data released by ISTAT allow to identify exports at the level of single industrial district. The paper first presents synthetically the main features of the Italian pattern of international...

In this paper we focus on the post Bretton Woods period and analyze whether a PPP relationship is accepted by the data for Italy, United States and Germany. We adopt a multivariate system approach in which, initially, we test for cointegration and then we try to identify a cointegration space in...

In this paper we address the Rogoff's (1996) puzzle on the exchange rate excess volatility and the slow convergence to PPP. We argue that the evidence in favour of the latter stylised fact could be biased by the adoption of unreliable measures of the speed of convergence. In fact, adopting...