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Using firm-level survey information, we investigate whether relationship lending affects firms' employment decisions in the face of negative sales shock. We find that firms with a durable relationship with their main bank display significantly less employment growth sensitivity to such shocks, especially where these are transitory. The result is stronger for younger and smaller firms that benefit from tighter bank-firm relationships, and for firms in sectors or economic environments where the costs of employment adjustment are greater. Our findings indicate that relationship lending provides liquidity insurance to firms to meet their demand for labor hoarding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper combines administrative data from the Italian social security administration and proprietary data from a major Italian commercial bank to analyse the impact of job protection legislation on mortgage conditions. An exogenous change in the degree of job protection against individual dismissals of workers with open‐ended contracts is identified by exploiting the labour market reform of 2015, the 'Jobs Act', which weakened the employment protection of new hires at medium‐sized and large private firms. We find that the lessening of job security led to lower mortgage amounts and a fall in leveraging capacity, as measured by the loan‐to‐value ratio. The impact of job insecurity is mitigated by the presence of co‐mortgagors; it is aggravated for young and low‐income mortgagors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We estimate the effect of financial inclusion on transition probabilities into/out of poverty. By exploiting a longitudinal sample of Italian households between 2002 and 2016, we find that financial inclusion is effective in both reducing the likelihood of entering poverty and helping the poor to climb out of it. According to our estimates, access to deposit accounts reduces the risk of falling below the poverty line by 2.7 percentage points (pp) and increases the chance of exiting poverty by 4.4 pp. Significance and magnitude of such effects are confirmed when considering different poverty thresholds and definitions, alternative proxies for financial inclusion as well as alternative empirical strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a model of self-employment with financial restraints. The author asserts that the entrepreneur can choose traditional or innovative models; difficulties in obtaining financing from banks which fail to correctly assess different types of projects may discourage potential entrepreneurs.

We analyse the effect of human capital obsolescence due to the introduction of technological innovations on the long-run growth rate, and show that in equilibrium the pace of technical change may be faster than is socially optimal. In such cases, the existence of market imperfections, and their costs for firms, may improve the welfare for the society as a whole. In particular, we assume that firms do not have full information on workers' skills but can arrange some form of internal training that permits them to acquire the lacking information. Training costs reduce research and development investments by firms and in this way draw the market equilibrium closer to the social optimum.