Regional income inequality in Italy in the long run (1871–2001). Patterns and determinants

Emanuele Felice

No 2013_08, UHE Working papers from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Departament d'Economia i Història Econòmica, Unitat d'Història Econòmica

Abstract: The chapter presents up-to-date estimates of Italy’s regional GDP, with the present borders, in ten-year benchmarks from 1871 to 2001, and proposes a new interpretative hypothesis based on long-lasting socio-institutional differences. The inverted U-shape of income inequality is confirmed: rising divergence until the midtwentieth century, then convergence. However, the latter was limited to the centrenorth: Italy was divided into three parts by the time regional inequality peaked, in 1951, and appears to have been split into two halves by 2001. As a consequence of the falling back of the south, from 1871 to 2001 we record s-divergence across Italy’s regions, i.e. an increase in dispersion, and sluggish ß-convergence. Geographical factors and the market size played a minor role: against them are both the evidence that most of the differences in GDP are due to employment rather than to productivity and the observed GDP patterns of many regions. The gradual converging of regional GDPs towards two equilibria instead follows social and institutional differences - in the political and economic institutions and in the levels of human and social capital - which originated in pre-unification states and did not die (but in part even increased) in postunification Italy.

Keywords: Italy; regional convergence; long-run economic growth; geography; institutions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N13 N14 O11 O18 O52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 33 pages
Date: 2013-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo, nep-gro, nep-his, nep-soc and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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