LONG‐RUN FACTOR ACCUMULATION AND PRODUCTIVITY TRENDS IN ITALY

Claire Giordano and Francesco Zollino

Journal of Economic Surveys, 2021, vol. 35, issue 3, 741-803

Abstract: In this article, we employ a novel historical reconstruction of labour and capital stock data since 1861 in order to reassess the proximate causes of Italy's economic development in a historical perspective. Amongst many new findings, our estimates slightly reduce the role of industry in Italy's first growth spurt at the beginning of the 20th century and amplify the severity of the Great Depression years relative to the existing literature. In general, Italy's post‐unification development was hindered by the large size of its poorly productive primary sector and by sluggish total factor productivity (TFP); expanding manufacturing and strong TFP dynamics were instead the main drivers of the country's impressive post‐World War II growth spurt. The disappointing performance of the Italian economy since 1993 is explained largely by slow labour productivity dynamics in the now dominant services sector and, more generally, by weak aggregate TFP growth and subdued capital accumulation.

Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/joes.12361

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:jecsur:v:35:y:2021:i:3:p:741-803

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0950-0804

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Economic Surveys from Wiley Blackwell
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().