Joint-Stock Companies Dynamics, Legal Institutions and Regional Economic Disparities in Italy (1858-1914)

Abstract

The paper represents the outcome of an ongoing research program on the dynamics of joint stock companies in Italy between the 1861 Unification of the country and World War 1. It is based on a considerable quantity of data, the bulk of which is constituted by the very detailed set covering the 1883-1913 period, which started to be collected many years ago and has a very reliable empirical support, the weekly companies' official bulletin. Furthermore evidence for the preceding years have requested accurate investigation about the disposable quantitative information, their homogeneity and comparability. Apart from commenting upon the result of this unique collection of quantitative information, the paper will hopefully provide a not negligible contribution to the explanation of the Italian first period of economic growth and -more specifically -to the origins and evolution of the country's regional inequalities. It is aimed at enlightening internal economic and social disparities also in terms of the diverging rhythm of private capital formation between the northern and southern regions. It will inquire if and how the jointstock companies long-term dynamics showed unequal regional concentration, therefore penalizing the economic growth of the areas less affected by the phenomenon.

Crowding out the change: business networks and persisting economic elites in the South of Italy over Unification (1840–1880)

“…More recently, a new strand of research in economic history, focused on a quantitative approach, has opened up a new terrain of debate on the long-term causes of the Italian divide. Moving away from the tradition of previous qualitative analyses, these studies have provided empirical evidence on the determinants of Italy's longterm regional development by producing estimates at the regional or provincial level of economic growth (GDP) (Daniele and Malanima 2011;Felice 2013;Ciccarelli and Fenoaltea 2013), various measures of industrial productivity and innovation (Toninelli and Pavese 2012;Basile and Ciccarelli 2018;Ciccarelli and Fachin 2017;Nuvolari and Vasta 2017), living standards and inequality (Felice and Vasta 2015;Vecchi 2017;Felice 2018) and other indices like market potential (Missiaia 2019).…”

The birth of joint stock companies in Chile, 1849-1875

“…For comparison, around this time, in Italy there were already some 700 JSC in operation. Toninelli and Pavese (2014). By 1867, there were over 600 in France.…”