The effects of unification: markets, policy, and cyclical convergence in Italy, 1861–1913

Abstract

This paper uses time-series evidence on construction movements to examine the convergence of regional business cycles in the decades that followed Italy's Unification. The aggregate series point to cyclical convergence, but a sector-level analysis traces this result to the decline in differentiated "regional-policy" shocks. The regional market cycles diverged, as regions specialized in different sectors of production; market-cycle convergence is observed only within the "industrial triangle," the regions of which also developed different specializations. This suggests that the balance between growing interdependence and growing differentiation is not general, as the current literature presumes, but specialization-specific

Past Dominations, Current Institutions and the Italian Regional Economic Performance

“…In southern areas religious marriages are still 76 percent of total marriages. 24 On this see also Knack and Keefer (1997) and La Porta et al (1997). 25 On this, see also Granovetter (1973) and Pugh and Telhaj (2008).…”

“…This study also shows that, unlike productivity and GDP, in terms of culture and social indicators the North-South pre-unitary divide was significant. See also Ciccarelli et al (2010 39 Needless to say, since the exclusion restriction cannot be tested, our claim is open to criticism. On the growing concern among researchers about the difficulty of picking instruments that "perfectly" satisfy the exclusion restriction and a recent proposal for a test see Riquelme et al(2013).…”

“…On one side we include Putnam's (1993) view that classifies "hierarchical" religions and, thus, also Catholicism as being detrimental for horizontal ties and trust. 24 On the other, in his seminal contribution on social and human capital, Coleman (1988) argues that broad-based churches enable to develop social capital in the forms of community relationships, trust, norms and sanctions and thus, at micro level, he suggests that Catholic schools or other faith communities promote weak-ties social capital and exert a beneficial effect on students attainment. 25 Therefore, a priori, we cannot exclude either a positive or negative sign on this variable in our regression analysis.…”

The ripples of the industrial revolution: exports, economic growth, and regional integration in Italy in the early nineteenth century

“…6 This fact is not so surprising, as most of the potential market for industrial products was in the "small country" or in its close neighborhood (A'Hearn and Venables 2013). Ciccarelli et al (2010) find that, until World War I, the timing of regional business cycles in private construction diverged, as though the North and the South did not belong to a unified economy. Last, but not least, prices of agricultural products started to converge in the 1830s, and interregional gaps were already small in the late 1850s (Federico 2007).…”

GDP and Convergence in Modern Times

“…27 For instance, the industrial production of Italy in the liberal age (1861-1913) (e.g., Ciccarelli and Fenoaltea, 2009, forthcoming). In fact, time series techniques have been applied to the Italian regional construction movements during the liberal age (Ciccarelli, Fenoaltea and Proietti, 2010). Even in this case, however, it must be pointed out that although the regional series by Ciccarelli and Fenoaltea running from 1861 to 1913 look accurate, they are estimated at constant 1911 prices, with possible distortions in interregional comparisons for the early years.…”