We analyze the impact of the financial crisis on the structure and the dynamics of the Italian inter-bank market, focusing on monthly banks' assets and liabilities data between January 2007 and December 2010. The analysis is developed using an ad hoc data-set based on supervisory reports. The...

In most advanced countries, future retirees will have to rely less on social security schemes and more on private pension plans, which mostly leave to the worker the choice between ashing-in or annuitizing pension wealth at retirement. Therefore, a better understanding of the determinants of the...

This paper examines the retirement decisions of Italian households using data from the Survey on Household Income and Wealth (SHIW) for 2008. The analysis focuses on the adequacy of pension wealth, knowledge of supplementary retirement rules, the determinants of enrolment decisions and...

We propose a new method to identify the impact of a change in the tax burden on mutual fund inflows, exploiting a switch from an accrual-based to a realization-based tax regime. We use quasi-experimental data from Italy where, starting from July 2011, the tax regime for domestic mutual funds was...

Optimal Portfolio Theory prescribes that investors reduce their exposure to financial market risk as they get near to retirement. To assess the effect of ageing on portfolio choices, we study the case of an Italian defined contribution pension fund during the period 2002-08. We find that on...

After August 2007 the plumbing system that supplied banks with wholesale funding, the interbank market, failed because toxic assets obstructed the pipes. Banks were forced to squeeze liquidity in a �lemons market� or to ask for liquidity �on tap� from central banks. This...

We evaluate the relation between firm leverage and taxation of corporate income using a dataset of mostly unlisted European corporations, highly representative of medium-sized and large firms. We use a correlated random effect approach in order to take into account unobserved heterogeneity and...

Italy is the European country where firms with fewer than 10 employees account for the largest share of value added and employment. On the basis of data from the company balance sheets and the Central Credit Register during the period 2003-2010, this work contributes to the analysis of these...

The paper analyses the main differences in the financial structure of Italian and European non financial corporations in the 2004-2007 period, that is during the years before the financial crisis. The research is based on individual balance sheets of Amadeus (Analyse Major Databases from...