We test whether labor flexibility acts as a substitute to delocalization. Using Italian survey data, we show that a higher share of temporary workers appears to reduce the likelihood of future offshoring. However, once reverse causality and spurious correlation are controlled for with IV...

Globalization poses the imperative for firms to link with other actors and find new ways to interact and learn from the relationship. Employing original empirical evidence and featuring new case studies from Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and Nicaragua, Upgrading to Compete shows that the form of...

Negli ultimi vent'anni, l'apertura commerciale delle economie dell'Asia orientale – con abbondanza relativa di lavoro - ha eroso il vantaggio comparato dei paesi a reddito medio-alto nei manufatti ad alta intensità di lavoro. Questo fenomeno ha colpito particolarmente l’Italia, notoriamente...

This paper investigates the position of China in the international fragmentation of production in the ICT industry, the most dynamic and globally dispersed sector in the world economy. The evidence shows that during the 1990s China dramatically increased its market shares in ICT products and now...

The increasing outward orientation of the Chinese economy — specialized in the same sectors included in the "Made in Italy" — has raised worries on the future of Italy's international specialization. This paper analyses OECD imports from Italy, France, Spain and China and shows that the...

We study the evolution of specialization patterns of the Italian provinces over 1995-2005 by analyzing the dynamics of the sectoral distribution of the Balassa index of revealed comparative advantages for several manufacturing sectors. Our results show that behind a relatively stable...

In the debate on future prospects in East Asia after the recent economic crisis, this paper focuses on trade-based explanations of growth to study whether exports may lead the recovery of the five crisis-hit countries. For each of them, it analyses, at different levels of disaggregation, the...

Amighini A., Leone M. and Rabellotti R. Persistence versus change in the international specialization pattern of Italy: how much does the 'district effect' matter?, Regional Studies. This paper investigates the evolution of specialization patterns for the Italian provinces over the period...