Institutions and literacy rates: the legacy of Napoleonic reforms in Italy

Abstract

The provincial gap in human capital at the time of Italy’s unification is a plausible explanation for the North–South divide of the following decades. We show that the roots of the literacy gap that existed in 1861 can be traced back to Napoleonic educational reforms enacted between 1801 and 1814. We use exogenous variation in provincial distance to Paris to quantify effects, linking the duration of Napoleonic control to human capital. If the south had experienced the same Napoleonic impact as the north, southern literacy rates would have been up to 70 percent higher than they were in 1861.

Whither Education? The Long Shadow of Pre-Unification School Systems into Italy’s Liberal Age (1861–1911)

“…Our findings resonate with the results offered by Postigliola and Rota (2021), who emphasize the importance of the legacy of French reforms, which improved the quality of schooling and changed “collective preferences” toward more education. Our results suggest that there existed different equilibria of educational provision across Italian macro-regions, even if the French reforms did not necessarily translate into quality of schooling during the Liberal Age.…”

“…Yet, over time, the net coefficient of 1831 literacy gets smaller, as the areas that expanded enrollments early reduced the GER-LIT Gap starting in the 1890s (the North and Center), whereas the South and Islands improved it in the first decade of the twentieth century. 36 Our findings resonate with the results offered by Postigliola and Rota (2021), who emphasize the importance of the legacy of French reforms, which improved the quality of schooling and changed "collective preferences" toward more education. Our results suggest that there existed different equilibria of educational provision across Italian macro-regions, 3) and (4), respectively.…”

“…Although this is acknowledged as a crucial aspect, the legacy of pre-unification states on Italian economic development has been explored by a few pioneering contributions concerning state capacity (Dincecco, Federico, and Vindigni 2011), trade (Federico and Tena-Junguito 2014), and innovation (Nuvolari and Vasta 2019). Within this literature, a new contribution by Postigliola and Rota (2021) focuses on human capital, arguing that Napoleonic educational reforms between 1801 and 1815 represented an important positive shock for Italy's pre-unification school systems. According to their estimates, longer political control by the French is associated with higher literacy at the time of unification.…”

The Dynamic Consequences of State-Building: Evidence from the French Revolution

“…Finally, we contribute to a growing literature studying the economic consequences of the Revolution and the Napoleonic period inside and outside of France (Acemoglu et al, 2011;Finley et al, 2021;Franck and Michalopoulos, 2017;Juhász, 2018;Postigliolaa and Rota, 2021;Squicciarini and Voigtländer, 2016). de Tocqueville (1856) famously argued that the Revolution did not fundamentally disrupt social and political dynamics inherited from the Ancien Régime, since centralizing trends had already been at work under the monarchy.…”

Internal Borders and Population Geography in the Unification of Italy

“…Out of the literature on the Italian economy in the long run have emerged numerous hypotheses about factors holding back development. Recent contributions, which typically adopt a regional perspective, have focused on human capital (Ciccarelli and Weisdorf 2019;Federico et al 2021;Postigliola and Rota 2021); social capital (Cappelli 2017;Guiso, Sapienza, and Zingales 2016;Mariella 2022); institutions (Federico and Dincecco 2021;de Oliveira and Guerriero 2018;Di Martino, Felice, and Vasta 2020); and natural resources and geography (Malanima 2016;Bardini 1997;A'Hearn and Venables 2013). Here our focus is on an older concern, one that loomed especially large in the minds of contemporaries: the problem of market fragmentation.…”