DOI: 10.2870/11929 This thesis consists of three manuscripts that analyze the role of finan-cial intermediation in the Great Recession from both a microeconomic and macroeconomic perspective. Although these papers differ in the adopted methodologies, they share the substantial idea that, to evaluate the real effects of the last recession, we need a deeper study of the role of the fi-nancial intermediation sector. The first chapter of this thesis is joint work with L. D’Aurizio and L. Ro-mano. It documents the credit allocation by Italian banks following the failure of Lehman Brothers. The empirical analysis reveals that Italian family firms experienced a significantly smaller contraction in granted loans than non-family firms. It is showed that the difference in the amount of credit granted to family and non-family firms is related to an increased role for soft information in Italian banks ’ operations.

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

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.

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.

The impact of emissions-performance benchmarking on free

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

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.

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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

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.