ABSTRACT
Most existing literature refers to the US case (e.g. Hawkins 1972; US Tariff Commission 1973; Frank and Freeman 1978; Glickman and Woodward 1989; Lipsey 1994; Almeida 1997; Brainard and Riker 1997; Lipsey 1999), while more recent studies have begun to raise the issue with reference to some European countries too (e.g. Blomstro¨m et al. 1997; Fors and Kokko 1999, for Sweden; Messerlin 1994, for France; Agarwal 1996, Nunnenkamp 1998, for Germany). However, evidence proposed with reference to the Italian case has been quite scanty and limited to some explorative studies about de-localization of production by Italian firms towards developing countries (Mutinelli and Piscitello 1997; Faini et al. 1998; Barba et al. 1999).1
