The paper critically reviews the large amount of empirical studies on diversification strategies and on closely related topics (acquisition and divestment patterns, corporate coherence, return to the core). In the theoretical literature three main motivations have been proposed to explain...

This paper analyses the effects of corporatization, mixed ownership and board composition on the behaviour and performance of a sample of 114 Italian local public utilities, for which information about 1,630 directors during 1994-2004 has been collected. Our main findings indicate that, while...

This paper contributes to the literature on firms' productivity and exporting decisions by analyzing the role played by organizational choice aspects. Rather than setting up a vertically integrated structure, manufacturers may act as sub-contractors in both domestic and foreign markets, and...

We review recent proposals put forward by the Italian Regulator of Telecommunications (AGCOM) with the aim of reducing intrusive ex ante regulation in the industry. In particular, we discuss a) the abolition or relaxation of retail price control for the operator with significant market power, b)...

This paper analyses from both an institutional and strategic point of view the market of telecommunications' directory services, i.e. the "White and Yellow Pages" directories, that has been recently liberalised due to the European Directive 19/96/CE. The theoretical background of the analysis is...

This paper first summarises the main results of the recent literature on competition in telecommunication networks, based on the models of Armstrong (1998) and Laffont et al. (1998). We then extend the basic framework by introducing an investment stage, prior to price competition, in order to...

The liberalization of the natural gas market in Europe has been pursued by sectoral EU Directives aimed at progressively opening the market to competition. Not-withstanding the European action, in many member states the development of competition had progressed rather slowly. In this impasse,...