This thesis addresses three issues in the fields of macroeconomics and international finance. The first chapter examines how institutional investors, such as mutual funds and hedge funds, tend to transmit economic and financial shocks across borders. Using a novel micro-level dataset on portfolio

In the first part of the thesis (Chapters 1 to 4), we analyze the near-universal gender gap reversal in secondary and tertiary education. In virtually all countries, males show a greater dispersion in ability test scores relative to females. We show that this simple fact, combined with an increase

- preliminary and incomplete-The global integration of goods and asset markets alters alters how fiscal shocks impact the economy and are propagated across countries. Using standard business cycle analysis we explore this international dimension of fiscal policy transmission. Most importantly, we find that the smaller and the more open an economy, the more likely will private investment rise following a fiscal expansion. This is because it appreciates the terms of trade and lowers the price of capital goods in terms of their return. An immediate implication is that smaller and more open economies are more likely to experience twin deficits.

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EUI Working Paper RSCAS 2012/37This text may be downloaded only for personal research purposes. Additional reproduction for other purposes, whether in hard copies or electronically, requires the consent of the author(s), editor(s). If cited or quoted, reference should be made to the full name of the author(s), editor(s), the title, the working paper, or other series, the year and the publisher.

The impact of emissions-performance benchmarking on free

EUI Working Paper RSCAS 2010/54This text may be downloaded only for personal research purposes. Additional reproduction for other purposes, whether in hard copies or electronically, requires the consent of the author(s), editor(s). If cited or quoted, reference should be made to the full name of the author(s), editor(s), the title, the working paper, or other series, the year and the publisher.

The relationship between wages, prices, productivity, inflation, and unemployment in Italy, Poland, and the UK between the 1960’s and the early 1990’s is modelled as a cointegrated vector autoregression subject to regime shifts. For each of these economies there is clear evidence of a change in the underlying equilibria of this sector of the economy. Hypotheses concerning the similarity of the transition from a rigid to a flexible labour market are tested.

Muslim women and the negotiation of autonomous migration. The case of female migrants from the Maghreb region in Italy

This text may be downloaded only for personal research purposes. Any additional reproduction for such purposes, whether in hard copies or electronically, require the consent of the author. If cited or quoted, reference should be made to the full name of the author(s), editor(s), the title, the working paper, or other series, the year and the publisher.