Given the recent traumatic events in the world?s banking industry it is important to understand what drives bankers to create larger and larger, often multinational, banking groups. In this paper we investigate whether the targets in cross-border bank M&As are materially different from those...

Paolo Sylos Labini's Oligopoly Theory and Technical Progress (1957) is considered one of the major contributions to entry-prevention models, especially after Franco Modigliani's famous formalization. Nonetheless, Modigliani neglected Labini's major aim when reviewing his work (JPE, 1958),...

Modigliani's 1944 "Econometrica" article is considered one of the most important efforts to reconcile Keynes with classical economic thinking. The aim of this paper is to reconstruct the genesis of Modigliani's article and to reexamine its place in the construction of Neoclassical Synthesis....

Sequential panel selection methods (spsms) are based on the repeated application of panel unit root tests and are increasingly used to identify I (0) time series in macro- panels. We check the reliability of spsms by using Monte Carlo simulations based on generating the individual test...

This note contributes to the development of the theory of stochastic dependence by employing the general concept of copula. In particular, it deals with the construction of a new family of non-exchangeable copulas characterizing the multivariate total positivity of order 2 (MTP2) dependence.

In decision theory projects are usually evaluated in terms of their riskiness, and often decision under risk is intended as the one-shot-type binary choice of accepting or not accepting the risk. This paper elaborates on the concept of risk acceptance, and aims at developing a theoretical...

The main arguments for the Stability and Growth Pact turn on the need to protect the European Central Bank against inflationary pressures from the fiscally prodigal countries (repudiation through inflation). Taking a political economy approach, in this paper we inquire into the conditions under...

This paper analyzes the issue of money superneutrality through an intertemporal optimizing model of capital accumulation with endogenous fertility, i.e. endogenous population growth. Two elements of this setup invalidate money superneutrality: i) a demand for fertility that depends on real money...

This paper deals with the EU’s trade policy with two objectives: on the one hand, we study the performance of EU's preferential agreements in granting their partners improved market access; on the other hand, we assess the extent to which domestic sectors are effectively protected. As far as...