Castagnetti, Rossi and Trapani (2014) propose two max-type statistics to test for the presence of a factor structure in a large stationary panel data model. We investigate the use of alternative approaches as average-type and Hausman-type statistics. We show that both approaches can not be used....

This paper assesses the importance of firms' financial resources that are necessary to overcome sunk entry costs associated with export. We propose a new methodology to identify \textit{a priori} constrained firms, exploiting a rich data-set on Italian firms' assets and liabilities. We provide...

The purpose of this paper is twofold; first, to present a simple proof of the Farkas theorem (or Farkas lemma or Farkas-Minkowski lemma), proof performed through a nonlinear theorem of the alternative; second, to present various new proofs of the so-called "Tucker key theorem", and to show that...

We give an overview and make some remarks on the approximate optimality conditions, for a nonlinear programming problem, given by Haeser and Schuverdt (2011) and by Fiacco and McCormick (1968a). Other first-order optimality conditions in absence of constraint qualifications are examined....

The Gross National Income (GNI) is often used as an indicator for a country’s living standards. Yet, it does not record unilateral transfers and notably remittances, which in the last decades have gained growing importance as a source of income for developing countries. Gross National...