The Roots of a Dual Equilibrium: GDP, Productivity and Structural Change in the Italian Regions in the Long-Run (1871-2011)

Felice, Emanuele

doi:10.2139/ssrn.3082184

Cited by 22 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…The reasons behind the relative backwardness of the Italian South have been investigated by an immense literature and have been constantly at the center of the economic and policy debate (see Federico et al 2019 and literature therein). As a matter of fact, when evaluated in a long-term perspective the only historical period when the North-South gap, at least in terms of per capita GDP, shrunk was the 1950-1970 period (Felice, 2019). The prevailing literature attributes the positive performance of the South to the heavy State intervention ("Cassa per il…”

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

The Legacy of Literacy: Evidence from Italian Regions

2020

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Italy was unified in 1861. As part of the process of nation-building, a free and mandatory national primary school system was established. While the new school system greatly contributed to the modernization of the country, its initial design did not reduce considerably regional disparities in human capital, with Southern regions lagging behind. The paper studies the effect of the heterogeneous territorial diffusion of literacy during the postunification period (1871-1911) on economic and social outcomes of Italian provinces 100 years later. We exploit the exogenous variations in the territorial spread in literacy rates arising from the gradual building and expansion of the railway network across provinces. We find evidence that provinces with a higher territorial diffusion of primary education in the post-unification period have today higher income per capita, less unemployment, and greater educational attainment. The evidence in terms of social capital outcomes is instead mixed, depending on the indicator considered.

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Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

The Legacy of Literacy: Evidence from Italian Regions

2020

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“…However, this development is different from a historical point of view. Felice discusses this in his publications of 2016 and 2018 (Felice, ). The author defines four periods: liberal age, interwar age, golden age, and the tale of two Italys.…”

Section: Historical Development Of Italymentioning

confidence: 99%

Regional inequality: An analysis under the core–peripheral model

Gumpert¹

2019

Growth and Change

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Desmet, Gumpert, and Ortίn have analyzed regional development using the Ricardian model or the Heckscher–Ohlin theorem. However, aspects such as consideration of combined wages, substitution elasticities, marginal costs, fixed costs, and number of companies were completely ignored. This study investigates the underdevelopment of regions in light of Krugman`s core–peripheral model. The extension of the model is intended to analyze the aspects that have so far been ignored and their influence on the benefits of the two regions. The following aspects characterize the model. Two regions with two sectors are considered for the model. The regions are characterized by different technological equipment. The first region is industrial. The second region has an agricultural character. When a new technology is available, both regions can benefit under certain conditions. The financial transfers lead to a convergence of wages.

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“…Bergeaud et al ., 2016), or on a maximum of three broad macro‐sectors, namely agriculture, industry and services, often only in benchmark years (e.g. Clementi et al ., 2015; Felice, 2019). Based on a novel reconstruction of historical labour and capital series at an annual frequency since 1861, this article reassesses the supply‐side sources of yearly long‐run growth in Italy in a sectoral perspective.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long‐run Factor Accumulation and Productivity Trends in Italy

Giordano

Zollino

2020

Journal of Economic Surveys

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In this article, we employ a novel historical reconstruction of labour and capital stock data since 1861 in order to reassess the proximate causes of Italy's economic development in a historical perspective. Amongst many new findings, our estimates slightly reduce the role of industry in Italy's first growth spurt at the beginning of the 20th century and amplify the severity of the Great Depression years relative to the existing literature. In general, Italy's post‐unification development was hindered by the large size of its poorly productive primary sector and by sluggish total factor productivity (TFP); expanding manufacturing and strong TFP dynamics were instead the main drivers of the country's impressive post‐World War II growth spurt. The disappointing performance of the Italian economy since 1993 is explained largely by slow labour productivity dynamics in the now dominant services sector and, more generally, by weak aggregate TFP growth and subdued capital accumulation.

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The Roots of a Dual Equilibrium: GDP, Productivity and Structural Change in the Italian Regions in the Long-Run (1871-2011)

Cited by 22 publications

References 69 publications

The Legacy of Literacy: Evidence from Italian Regions

The Legacy of Literacy: Evidence from Italian Regions

Regional inequality: An analysis under the core–peripheral model

Long‐run Factor Accumulation and Productivity Trends in Italy

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