Measuring the Intangible Content of Goods Traded on International Markets. An Exercise on "Made in Italy" versus "Made in China" case 

Migration is now at the forefront of European and national policy agendas. Therefore, it is important to remark that cultural and institutional barriers exist in migration between developed countries and the different regime of labour functioning proves that. This paper provides evidence for the role of quantitative and qualitative restrictions, presents a driving model of growth through migration channels and their impact on labour market and, most important, brings out an empirical analysis of migration within the OECD countries and Romanian migration to Canada. Following a simple decomposition of income growth, migration can impact on growth through labour supply, productivity and changes in transfers.This article aims at proposing a simple, easily applicable, but still reliable methodology, based upon the analysis of price differentials, designed for quantifying the intangible versus tangible attributes embedded in commodities traded on the contemporary international ma University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy rkets. The proposed methodology is based upon the analysis of price differentials, considered as important indicators of consumer-perceived quality differentiation between similar goods having diverse suppliers. In the analysis exercise presented, we compared different products of Italy and China through disaggregating the available statistical data and highlighting the qualitative differences between "Made in Italy" and "Made in China" goods. The relationship between intangible assets, at firm and territory level, and the intangible contents of goods is also discussed, and implications for firms' strategies and industrial policy are drawn.

Keywords: goods, tangible content, intangible content, price differential, industrial policy
JEL Classification: L5, L6, O2, O5