In response to the increasing demand for elderly care, Italy has experienced an intense debate on what should be the most appropriate way to extend coverage for long-term care (LTC). This paper bridges a gap into existing literature by analysing household preferences for LTC coverage in light of...

This paper proposes a fixed-effect panel methodology that enables us to simultaneously take into account both TFP convergence and the traditional neoclassical-type of convergence. We analyse a sample of Italian regions between 1963 and 1993 and find strong evidence that both mechanisms were at...

This paper provides a structural estimation of the recent model proposed by Pissarides and Vallanti, a simplified equilibrium model which draws heavily on models with frictions and quasi-rents. The structural model is a system of three equations. The estimation method is a three-stage least...

We contrast two potential explanations of the substantial differences in entrepreneurial activity observed across geographical areas - entry costs and external effects. We extend the Lucas model of entrepreneurship to allow for heterogeneous entry costs and for externalities that shift the...

This article studies the behavior of a firm searching to fill a vacancy. The main assumption is that the firm can offer two different kinds of contracts to the workers, either a short-term contract or a long-term one. The short-term contract acts as a probationary stage in which the firm can...

We present a simple model which establishes a non linear and possibly non monotonic relationship between financial development and economic growth. Applying a threshold regression model to King and Levine™s (1993) data set, we find evidence that is consistent with the main implications...

This paper extends the VAR methodology to examine the consequences of monetary policy decisions by considering two types of nonlinearities in the determination of official interest rates - 1) the asymmetry related to the different nature of the discrete and infrequent positive and negative...

This paper uses a comprehensive firm level data set for the manufacturing sector in Italy to investigate the effect of government support on privately financed R&D expenditure. Estimates from a two-step equation model suggest that public assistance has a positive effect on private R&D...

This paper analyses how a set of economic variables and a deterrence variable affect criminal activity. Furthermore, it highlights the extent to which crime is detrimental for the economic activity. The case study is Italy for the time span 1970 up to 2004. An Autoregressive Distributed Lags...

We develop a New Economic Geography and Growth model which, by using a CES utility function in the second-stage optimization problem, allows for expenditure shares in industrial goods to be endogenously determined. The implications of our generalization are quite relevant. In particular, we...