Regional growth with spatial dependence: A case study on early Italian industrialization

Ciccarelli, Carlo; Fachin, Stefano

doi:10.1111/pirs.12217

Cited by 26 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…Among the controls, and in line with the results in Ciccarelli and Fachin (2017) and Bozzano and Cappelli (2019), both the Pupil − teacher ratio and the SchoolDens variables are positively correlated with our measure of territorial diffusion of literacy at 5% level of significance, while the coefficient of Exp. − pupil is only significant at 10% significance level.…”

Section: Zero-stage Estimation Resultssupporting

confidence: 85%

The legacy of literacy: evidence from Italian regions

2021

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Italy was unified in 1861. As part of the process of nation-building, a mandatory free-of-charge primary school system was established. Whereas the new school system greatly contributed to the modernization of the country, its initial design did not considerably reduce regional disparities in human capital, with Southern regions lagging behind. The paper studies the effects of the heterogeneous territorial diffusion of literacy during the post-unification period (1871-1911) on economic 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 literacy in the post-unification period today have higher income per capita, lower unemployment and greater educational attainment.

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Section: Zero-stage Estimation Resultssupporting

confidence: 85%

The legacy of literacy: evidence from Italian regions

2021

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“…Among the controls, and in line with the results in Ciccarelli and Fachin (2017) and Cappelli (2018, 2019), both the Pupil − teacher ratio and the SchoolDens variable are positively correlated with our measure of territorial diffusion of literacy at 5% level of significance, while the coefficient of Exp. − pupil is only significant at 10% significance level.…”

Section: Zero-stage Estimation Resultssupporting

confidence: 84%

The Legacy of Literacy: Evidence from Italian Regions

2020

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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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“…In contrast, the pre-treatment values of the synthetic control group (column 2) resemble more closely the predictors' pre-treatment values for the "treated" province (column 1). This confirms that the synthetic control group acts as a better counterfactual for the treated 24 The number of postal offices and number of schools in Italian provinces are also used as control variables in Ciccarelli and Fachin (2017), who investigate the main determinants of the productivity growth in the Italian manufacturing industry during 1871-1911. 25 As mentioned in the main text, the treated provinces need to be collapsed at province and year level as they belonged to one single "treated" province.…”

Section: Evidence From the Scm Approachmentioning

confidence: 75%