This paper assesses the effects of public capital in Italy on the main macroeconomic aggregates: GDP, private capital and labour. A cointegrated vector autoregressive (VAR) model, in line with recent advancements in the field, allows us to take into account the complex nexus of direct and...

Based on a VAR model, which allows to take into account direct and indirect links between the variables, this paper shows that public capital positively and persistently affects GDP in Italy and in its main geographic areas. This result is also attributable to a strong stimulus exerted on...

The paper attempts to bring to public debate certain asymmetrical evolutions present in the complicated and difficult process of command economy transformation into a functional market economy, with a special focus on Romania’s agri-food sector. One of the economic phenomena acting as a...

In the less developed regions of Italy, the so-called Mezzogiorno, the level of human capital is lower compared to the advanced regions od the Centre-North. We use a Computable General Equilibrium (Cge) Model to show that an increase in the demand and supply of skilled labor in the human...

This work provides some evidence for the italian regions that social capital, under a broad definition, can have a positive impact on development outcomes. Our empirical analysis includes measures of social capital related to the enforcement of formal norms, the extent of social networks, the...

Assuming that a theory of development is incomplete without a theory of institutions, we propose in this paper to analyze, in a first part, the interrelation formal institutions-regional development and the ways trough which these two components sustain themselves, then, in the second part of...

The analysis presented in this paper highlights entities, the main characteristics and dynamics of regional gaps in Germany and Spain. In the case of Germany, the geographical distribution of weak regions reflects the existence of a well-known West-East gap. After a first phase of sustained...