Falling disparities and persisting dualism: Regional development and industrialisation in Italy, 1891–2001

Abstract

The particular development of the Italian regional disparities and North-South inequality is correlated with the structural change which came about during the process of industrialisation. This process began in certain Northern poles producing a sudden increase in regional inequality, but, as it later spread through the North and Centre, a fall in regional disparities resulted. Industrialisation only superficially interested the South, which remained relatively backward. While regional convergence occurred both within the North and the South, divergence between North and South persisted. After presenting series of both labour force in industry and regional GDP, we analyse the relationship between industrialisation and inequalities and, finally, quantify the importance of the North-South dualism within the context of the Italian regional disparities.

Two Italies? Genes, intelligence and the Italian North–South economic divide

“…Nowadays, per capita income in the South is 57% of that of the Centre-North (Istat, 2013). As in other countries, the evolution of regional economic inequality is, in Italy, strictly related to the process of the geographic concentration of economic activities in the Northern regions (Daniele & Malanima, 2014).…”

Regional inequality: An analysis under the core–peripheral model

“…This encouraged divergence and regionally different wage structures and investment measures. After the central government adopted a uniform wage structure (uniform national collective agreements) and investment measures from 1970 onward, the regional alignment in Northern and Southern Italy stagnated (Daniele & Malanima, , p. 167).…”

Geography, market potential and industrialization in Italy 1871–2001

“…From 1911 to 1951 regional disparities increased notably. In 1951, per capita GDP in the South was about 50 per cent of that in the Centre‐North (Daniele and Malanima ).…”

“…In the previous two decades, manufacturing progressively spread in the regions of the North‐East and Centre, and, to a lesser extent, the South. The golden age of Italian industrialization, between the 1950s and 1970s, involved the South as well, thanks to investments by the State (Cassa per il Mezzogiorno) and private entrepreneurs (Terrasi ; Daniele and Malanima , ). The bulk of the industrial production was, however, concentrated in the North.…”

“…From the 1970s, when industry began to shrink in the North, it dropped dramatically in the Mezzogiorno (Southern Italy). The disparities existing today among Italian regions, and particularly between North and South, depend above all on this unequal spread of industrialization (Daniele and Malanima ).…”