State intervention and economic growth in Southern Italy: the rise and fall of the «Cassa per il Mezzogiorno» (1950-1986)

Emanuele Felice and Amedeo Lepore

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: In the second half of the twentieth century, the Italian government carried out a massive regional policy in southern Italy, through the State-owned agency «Cassa per il Mezzogiorno» (1950-1986). The article reconstructs the activities of the Cassa, by taking advantage of its yearly reports. The agency was effective in the first two decades, thanks to substantial technical autonomy and, in the 1960s, to a strong focus on industrial development; however, since the 1970s it progressively became an instrument of waste and misallocation. Below this broad picture, we find important differences at the regional level, and significant correspondence between the quality of state intervention and the regional patterns of GDP and productivity.

Keywords: Southern Italy; regional development; State intervention; industrialization; convergence. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H54 N44 N84 N94 R12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-02-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-gro, nep-his and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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