The paper models the incentives for a self-interested government to implement ""good policies"". While good policies lead to investment and growth, they reduce the government''s ability to increase supporters'' consumption. The model predicts that resource abundance is conductive to poor...

The paper provides an empirical investigation of labor market pooling. The analysis concentrates on Italian industrial districts and shows that there is scattered evidence of a widespread wage premium. In particular, there is no evidence of district differentials for the returns to seniority...

The paper examines micro data on Italian manufacturing firms'' inventory behavior to test the Meltzer (1960) hypothesis according to which firms substitute trade credit for bank credit during periods of monetary tightening. It finds that their inventory investment is constrained by the...