The Legacy of Literacy: Evidence from Italian Regions

Roberto Basile (), Carlo Ciccarelli () and Peter Groote ()
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Roberto Basile: University of L'Aquila
Peter Groote: Faculty of Spatial Sciences,Groningen

No 497, CEIS Research Paper from Tor Vergata University, CEIS

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: Education; long-term effects; regions; Italy. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H75 J24 N13 R12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 50 pages
Date: 2020-06-19, Revised 2020-06-19
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo and nep-his
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Journal Article: The legacy of literacy: evidence from Italian regions (2022)
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