The Italian firms between crisis and the new globalization

Antonio Accetturo, Anna Giunta and Salvatore Rossi ()
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Salvatore Rossi: Banca d'Italia

No 86, Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) from Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area

Abstract: This paper analyzes the characteristics of Italian firms involved in global value chains (�intermediate� firms) by using the Bank of Italy survey on industrial companies. Intermediate firms show, on average, worse features than �final� firms: smaller size, lower share of white collars, lower productivity and export propensity. However we observe a strong heterogeneity, depending on the ability (and modalities) to upgrade along the value chains. There are wide differences between upgrading and non-upgrading (marginal) intermediate firms in terms of size, efficiency, human capital endowment and international competitiveness. During the 2008-09 crisis, marginal intermediate firms performed definitely worse; moreover, facing a collapse in world trade, firms that were upgrading by expanding their international linkages were more severely hit than those that were differentiating their internal functions.

Keywords: fragmentation; offshoring; upgrading (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D23 L23 L24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-cis, nep-eff and nep-int
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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Journal Article: The Italian Firms between Crisis and the new Globalization (2011)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bdi:opques:qef_86_11

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