The Origins of the Italian Regional Divide: Evidence from Real Wages, 1861-1913

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: University of Pisa; Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna; University of Siena
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC HISTORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0507
• DOI: 10.1017/S0022050718000712
• 发表日期: 2019
• 页码: 63-98
• 关键词: convergence; prices; PERSPECTIVE; divergence

摘要

The origins of the Italian North-South divide have always been controversial. We fill this gap by estimating a new dataset of real wages (Allen 2001; Allen et al. 2011) from Unification (1861) to WWI. Italy was very poor throughout the period, with a modest improvement since the late nineteenth century. This improvement started in the Northwest industrializing regions, while real wages in other macro-areas remained stagnant. The gap Northwest/South widened until the end of the period. Focusing on the drivers of regional trends, we find that human capital formation exerted strong positive effect on the growth of real wages.