In the last two decades, due to falling barriers to trade and investment, the world economic scenario has profoundly changed. Few rich countries (United States, Great Britain, France, Japan, Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands) have been securing a substantial stake in worldwide production...

When in 1860 Southern Italy was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy, it suddenly found itself within a larger national market characterised by high levels of public debt, a new currency and increased competition in banking. Monetary problems, the depreciation of public bonds and the loss of...

For several decades advanced economies have been undergoing a profound structural change. Its main characteristic appears to be the progressive decline of industry as the driving force of economy. The propulsory role once played by the manufacturing industry seems to have been replaced by the...

In the last decades, the world economy has been undergoing a process of production reorganisation and relocation of unprecedented scale and scope. The era of ?globalisation? has been characterised by falling barriers to trade and increasing capital flows, both of speculative and investment...

The last decades have witnessed the rise of a new wave of economic regionalism, the most remarkable example of which is the European Union. Regional economic integration is generally interpreted either as an attempt to resist the centrifugal forces of globalisation by strenghtening economic ties...