In a simple theoretical model we show that impatience affects academic performance through two different channels: impatient students spend less effort in studying activities and set less ambitious objectives in terms of grades at exams. As a consequence, the relationship between impatience and...

We analyze how overconfidence is affected by superstitious beliefs and emotions induced by positive and negative stimuli in a field experiment involving about 700 Italian students who were randomly assigned to numbered seats in their written examination sessions. According to widespread...

We investigate to what extent crowd support contributes to the home advantage in soccer, disentangling this effect from other mechanisms such as players’ familiarity with the stadium and travel fatigue. To evaluate the relevance of crowd support in determining home advantage we analyze...

This paper analyses the influence of universities on Italian firms’ probability to innovate. Using firm-level data, we focus on institutionalised technology transfer (TT) activities in universities, namely spin-offs, patents and research contracts. Results show that TT activities play a...

The paper studies the impact of firms’ over-indebtedness on innovation. First, we build up an over-indebtedness index which takes account of the firm’s level and structure of the debt as well as of its sustainability. Secondly, we investigate to what extent over-indebtedness explains...

The relationship between firms and environment is complex. The impact that firms have on the environment include the use of primary resources to make products and the production of wastes and emissions. The impact of firms’ products on the environment, moreover, is not negligible....

Liquorice root has been dug up and traded for centuries in a Euro-Asiatic belt stretching from the Iberic Peninsula to Eastern China. In this area it was possible to distinguish three different cultural traditions and markets: the Mediterranean and Middle East one, the Indian and the Chinese,...

This paper assesses the effectiveness of the Everything But Arms (EBA) initiative launched by the EU in 2001. It evaluates whether EBA was effective in increasing the exports from LDCs to the EU over the period 1995-2006. After arguing that the impact of trade preferences should be estimated by...

This paper investigates the role of institutional differences at the local level as determinants of firms’ capital structure. Specifically, its aim is to empirically assess whether and to what extent SMEs’ financial decisions are affected by local financial development – evaluating this...

Questo lavoro presenta un'analisi territoriale della produttività totale dei fattori (PTF) in Italia dal 1998 al 2006, utilizzando dati di impresa. L'aspetto territoriale è approfondito scomponendo la PTF negli effetti within-firms e between-firm. Queste due componenti sono calcolate per...