Spillovers among sovereign debt markets: Identification through absolute magnitude restrictions∗

This paper studies spillovers among US and European sovereign yields. We employ absolute magnitude restrictions on the impact matrix to identify the countries that were the main sources of spillovers. Despite the large size of shocks from euro area stressed countries, connectedness among sovereign yields declined between 2008 and 2012 due to financial fragmentation, particularly between countries with more divergent business and fiscal cycles. We show that none of the sovereign yields were insulated from foreign shocks and that shocks to the Greek bond market in 2010 explained 20–30% of the variance of sovereign yields in stressed countries, while in 2011–2012 Italy (not Spain) was the source of systemic risk.     

Effects of redistributing policy support on farmers’ technical efficiency

The objective of this article is twofold: first, investigating the relationship between technical efficiency and decoupled direct payments of a sample of Italian farms prior to the application of the 2014–2020 Common Agricultural Policy reform; second, evaluating possible implications of alternative scenarios about distribution of direct payments on technical efficiency. To these aims, a stochastic frontier analysis is adopted. Results indicate that direct payments produce significant effects on technical efficiency in specialized farms, which received higher levels of support. However, effects are contrasting. Moreover, results show that redistribution of policy subsidies may negatively impact on technical efficiency to an extent depending upon the criterion of redistribution applied. Finally, some policy suggestions are given.     

Managing supply chain resilience to pursue business and environmental strategies

Resilience has become a crucial topic in the field of strategic management as it requires companies to design resilient business models to tackle managerial and environmental disruptions of individual firms and supply chains. However, extant research still lacks deep insights into how companies design and manage supply chains according to the resilience principles. With this premise, this paper aims at conducting a state of the art review on supply chain resilience (SCR) considering 125 relevant papers collected from Scopus and Web of Science academic search engine. Starting from the results of the literature review, this study proposes a systemic framework of SCR assessment and contributes to improve the understanding of the impact of different empirically tested constructs on the development of the resilience concept. Further, the findings are summarized in several areas including barriers in developing resilience, metrics to measure the resilience performance, and effective strategies to foster the SCR. Finally, this study outlines promising future research directions for scholars and practitioners.     

The role of industry variety in the creation of innovative start-ups in Italy

Small Business Economics - This paper aims to ascertain whether related and unrelated industry variety affects the creation of innovative as opposed to other start-ups in Italian local labor market...     

Investment opportunities and R&D investments in family and nonfamily firms

The firm’s investment opportunity set (IOS) reflects the prospective growth opportunities related to physical and human capital investments. IOSs are largely firm specific, embedded in assets-in-place, or generated by experience curves, learning-by-doing, and other similar phenomena. However, the value of an IOS can be destroyed if a firm does not exercise the option to invest. In this study, we theorize that a firm’s ability to invest in R&D is conditional on the availability of a favorable IOS. We test our theoretical propositions in the European business environment using a sample of large publicly traded firms with concentrated ownership. Our findings support the notion that the IOS is a significant determinant of corporate R&D investments, but the magnitude of this effect depends on the identity of the ultimate owner. Specifically, the sensitivity of R&D investments of family- and state-owned corporations is higher to favorable IOS than that of widely held corporations, suggesting these firms are more responsive to favorable IOS than others. By introducing the IOS dimension, our results have interesting implications for both theory and practice.     

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE WILLINGNESS OF COMPANIES TO INVEST AFTER THE FINANCIAL CRISIS? EVIDENCE FROM LATIN AMERICAN COUNTRIES

In this article we investigate the changes in corporate investment dynamics in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Using firm-level data from six Latin American countries from 2002 to 2015, we show that firms are less constrained and have greater ability to invest after the crisis. However, the willingness of firms to invest optimally is reduced. This is supported by strong evidence that during the postcrisis period investment–cash flow sensitivity disappears, investment-q sensitivity increases, and the estimated speeds of adjustment for target investment decrease. Moreover, after the crisis, firms notably increase their efforts to attain optimal cash and leverage levels. Our analysis implies that firms may not always be willing to invest optimally. The willingness to invest optimally appears to be time variant and moves together with the dynamics of cash and leverage policies, albeit in opposite directions.     

Incubation matters: Measuring the effect of business incubators on the innovation performance of start‐ups

This article explores the role of business incubators on the innovation performance of start‐ups; in addition, we also investigate how the incubation effect moderates other important factors driving their innovation performance. The empirical evidence comes from a sample of firms located in Northern Italy belonging to the manufacturing (mechanical engineering firms) and service sectors (knowledge‐intensive business services). The results suggest that the incubation effect is very important in shaping the innovation performance of new ventures (measured as a percentage of sales of new‐to‐market innovations). Moreover, it positively moderates the impact of (1) the internal technical capabilities and (2) the adoption of a limited portfolio of collaborations for innovation.     

A model to evaluate transient industry effects

In this paper we present a model to evaluate transient industry effects, that is, the impact of business cycles on the industry. While the importance of the economic cycle for industry and firm performance is widely recognized, we do not know much about how much the business cycle influences industry activity. The aim of this paper is to present a method that helps to understand the relationship between the business cycle and an industry's level of activity. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Environmental Kuznets Curves for Air Pollutant Emissions in Italy: Evidence from Environmental Accounts (NAMEA) Panel Data

This paper provides new empirical evidence on delinking and Environmental Kuznets Curves (EKC) for greenhouse gases and other air pollutant emissions in Italy. A panel dataset based on the Italian NAMEA (National Accounts Matrix including Environmental Accounts) for 1990–2001 is analysed. The highly disaggregated dataset (29 production branches, 12 years and nine air emissions) provides a large heterogeneity and can help to overcome the shortcomings of the usual approach to EKC based on cross-country data. Both value added and capital stock per employee are used as alternative drivers for analysing sectoral NAMEA emissions. Trade openness at the same sectoral level is also introduced among the covariates. We find mixed evidence supporting the EKC hypothesis. The analysis of NAMEA-based data shows that some of the pollutants such as two greenhouse gases (CO₂ and CH₄) and CO, produce inverted U-shaped curves with coherent within-range turning points. Other pollutants (SO_X, NO_X, PM₁₀) show a monotonic or even N-shaped relationship. Macro sectoral disaggregated analysis highlights that the aggregated outcome should hide some heterogeneity across different groups of production branches (industry, manufacturing only and services). Services tend to present an inverted N-shape in most cases. Manufacturing industry shows a mix of inverted U and N-shapes, depending on the emission considered. The same is true for industry (all industries, not only manufacturing): although a turning point has been experienced, N-shapes may lead to increased emissions with respect to very high levels of the economic driver. In general, EKC evidence is more pronounced for greenhouse gases. The results suggest that analysis at macro sector (whole industry, manufacturing only and services) can be the most promising approach to future research on EKC.