Search results for "Italian Firms"

Social media adoption in Italian firms. Opportunities and challenges for lagging regions

2021

Social media are an important growth opportunity for firms, especially small‐sized ones operating in peripheral and lagging regions. In this paper, we investigate not only whether firms are able to take this opportunity, but also if they are able to face the challenge of adopting social media at a professional level to obtain a significant economic impact, measured in terms of exporting activities. Exploring the Italian case, our empirical study indicates that smaller firms in lagging areas are more likely to adopt social media but at the same time less likely to use them at a professional level. This reflects poor strategic targets of social media adoption and lower probabilities of enteri…

Individual vs Multi-level Effects in Italian Manufacturing Firms

2008

Banks, Firms and Economic Culture: Economists and Research Centres in Interwar Italy

2020

In the interwar years, Italy experimented a strong growth of applied economic research. The foundation of research centers can be read and placed in a much wider international trend that emerged during the Great War. In this essay, we offer a map of the most important research centers, exploring the extensive web of relationships between the academia and the productive world. We then focus on a set of case studies, selected for their relevance. Section 2 is devoted to the banking sector, with reference to four important cases (Banca Commerciale Italiana, Banca d’Italia, Associazione Bancaria Italiana and Banco di Sicilia); section 3 to the industrial sector (IRI, Finsider, Ansaldo, Edison, …

Estimating Verdoorn law for Italian firms and regions

2011

In empirical regional economics, returns to scale are typically estimated at the regional level in search for evidence on alternative theories of growth and agglomeration. However, returns to scale may also have a firm-level dimension. In this paper, we exploit micro level data and estimate the dynamic Verdoorn law in a multilevel-setting, where returns to scale are obtained simultaneously for the micro and the regional level. Using Italian firm-level data and the NUTS-3 level of aggregation, we estimate the classic and augmented versions of Verdoorn law for the manufacturing sector, and the rest of the economy for comparison. Our results show that increasing returns to scale co-exist at bo…

Agglomeration Externalities and the Productivity of Italian Firms

2015

Despite the richness of contributions on the effects of agglomeration on economic activity, the empirical evidence still falls short, especially at the microeconomic level, where they should matter the most. This paper adds to this literature by performing an empirical exploration of the role of Marshallian, Jacobian, and Porterian externalities for the productivity of Italian firms. In particular, a large dataset of small and medium enterprises is first employed to estimate firm-level total factor productivity (TFP). Then dynamic panel and instrumental variables estimation methods are used to assess the effects of agglomeration externalities. The findings seem to suggest that these effects…

Knowledge Flows and Innovative Performance. Evidence from Italian Firms

2013

A Test of Spatial Convergence from the Micro-Level

2010

Testing for convergence from the micro-level

2011

Empirical convergence analysis is typically envisaged from a macro aggregate perspective. However, researchers have recently highlighted how investigating convergence at the disaggregate level may yield interesting insights into the convergence debate. In this paper, we suggest an approach that allows exploiting large micro panels to test for convergence. Compared to the traditional convergence analysis, this approach allows obtaining beta- and sigma-like convergence parameters for both the micro and the macro level of interest. We provide a practical example that analyses productivity convergence across firms and provinces using a large sample of Italian firms.