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This paper takes advantage of the COVID-19 outbreak to explore the determinants of firms' R&D choices around an exogenous shock. We make use of unique panel data on 7,800 Italian companies between January –right before the pandemic– and March 2020 –amid lockdown policies. We exploit the short-run revision in firms' research plans to test the impact of deteriorating expectations and uncertainty on firms' R&D. In addition to the significant role played by firms' expectations, we find that preexisting innovative activities significantly shaped the reaction to the general uncertainty shock. • We explore the determinants of firms R&D choices around an exogenous shock. • We test the differential effect of deteriorating expectations and uncertainty on firms' R&D. • Expectations on future demand have a dramatic effect, especially for innovative companies. • Characteristics of the innovative process shape firms' reaction to the general uncertainty. • Newly innovative and transitioning companies are particularly affected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a sample of almost 7000 Italian municipalities from 2002 to 2019, we investigate how the removal of mafia‐infiltrated firms affects commercial sale and rental prices. We conjecture that targeting mafia businesses leads to a reduction in local disamenities and an increase in the demand for commercial properties. Applying the latest methodologies based on difference‐in‐differences approaches, we show that antimafia policies aimed at confiscating and reassigning mafia firms have positive spillover effects on commercial real estate prices, driving values upward by about 4%. This is especially true for small–medium municipalities in mafia‐ridden provinces. The evidence we provide supports the enforcement of antimafia policies with an economic content, as they pose a threat to criminal financial interests and curb the mafia influence in the market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the effect of workplace unionization and product market volatility on firms’ propensity to use temporary employment. Using Italian firm-level data, the authors show that volatility has a positive impact on the share of temporary contracts. The baseline estimates for the impact of unions are inconclusive, but a clear pattern emerges when a specification including an interaction term with volatility is used. This approach allows a richer characterization of the impact of workplace unionization, which is positive for low levels of volatility and negative for high levels. The authors discuss various direct and indirect mechanisms to explain this novel finding. Furthermore, they find that these effects hold only for cases in which the employer does not provide training for temporary workers, whereas temporary contracts with training provisions are not affected by unions, volatility, and their interplay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data from Italian firms during the period 2008–2012, this study empirically explores how the presence of foreign-owned firms can affect the domestic firm's probability to invest abroad (i.e., Outward FDI spillovers from Inward FDI). The findings revealed positive spillovers via horizontal linkages and negative spillovers via forward and backward linkages. However, both the origin of IFDI and destination of OFDI play an important role. • A reduction in foreign competitors located within a country leads domestic firms to stay at home. • A decrease in foreign firms along the supply chain pulls domestic firms into global markets. • Both the origin and destination of Foreign Direct Investment matter in elucidating OFDI spillovers from IFDI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 hit firms by surprise. In a high frequency, representative panel of German firms, the business outlook declined and business uncertainty increased only at the time when the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic led to domestic policy changes: The announcement of nation-wide school closures on March 13 was followed by the largest change in business perceptions by far. In contrast, the data provides no evidence for the relevance of other potential sources of information on business perceptions: Firms did not learn from foreign policy measures, even if they relied on inputs from China or Italy. The local, county-level spread of COVID-19 cases affected expectations and uncertainty, albeit to a much lesser extent than the domestic policy changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the relationship between immigration and firms for Italy at NUTS 3 level, during the period 2012–2015. The main contribution to the existing literature is to provide results disaggregated at the sectoral level, taking into account the important heterogeneities existing across both provinces and sectors. At the aggregate level, the main result is the positive effect of immigrants on both the number of local units and employees. The analysis on employees by citizenship suggests that there are no displacement effects of immigrants relative to both Italian and foreign employees. When moving to the sectoral perspective, the results display a highly heterogeneous picture. However, sectors showing a statistically robust link for both establishments and employees sum up to 52 per cent of total value added and 48 per cent of total employment, while for five out of 19 sectors, immigrants do not exert any impact, neither in terms of local units nor employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study adopts a nonparametric approach to assess the efficiency performances in the forestry firms and then stratifies them according to an environmental risk metric, revealing the existing nexus between economic profitability, environmental vulnerability and risks. Data cover the period 2013–2015 and refer to 69 Italian firms which carry out forestry and use forest areas. Results highlight that the input‐ and output‐oriented efficiency performances in Italy are, on average, higher for forestry firms belonging to the medium and high environmental risk classes. Nevertheless, forestry firms exposed to low environmental risk show greater improvement towards efficiency over time, demonstrating that the adoption of responsible firm strategy can lead to concrete operative results, both economically and environmentally, even in a short‐term perspective. As a scientific contribution, both methodological and empirical, the study highlights managerial and policy implications in terms of environmental risk management strategy for the Italian forestry firms and devoted regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the effect of immigration on innovation in Italy, a country characterized by prevalently unskilled immigration. After addressing the potential endogeneity of the share of immigrants in the population using immigrant enclaves, no evidence is found of either positive or negative effects of migrants on innovation. This result is robust to allowing for different effects of low- and medium-high-skilled migrants, to using linear and non-linear models, and to considering both province-level data on patent applications and firm-level self-reported measures also capturing innovation adoption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]