The Origins of the Italian Regional Divide: Evidence from Real Wages, 1861-1913

Giovanni Federico (), Alessandro Nuvolari and Michelangelo Vasta

Department of Economics University of Siena from Department of Economics, University of Siena

Abstract: The historical origins of the long lasting Italian North-South divide have always been controversial, but the scholarly debate has been hampered by the dearth of actual data on the size of the gap and its historical evolution. In this paper, we fill this gap by estimating a new provincial data-set of welfare ratios (Allen 2001) from the Unification of Italy in 1861 to World War One. Italy as a whole was very poor throughout the period, with a rather modest improvement since the late 19th century. This improvement had started in the North-West regions, the cradle of Italian industrialization, in the 1880s, while real wages in other macro-areas (North-East, Centre, South and islands) remained stagnant until the early 20th century, rising sizably only in the pre-war years. The gap between North-West and the South, already substantial in 1861 widened until the very end of the period. The Continental South was poorer than the North East, but not always of the Centre, while real wages in the Islands (i.e. Sicily) were close to national average.

JEL-codes: N01 N13 N33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Related works:
Journal Article: The Origins of the Italian Regional Divide: Evidence from Real Wages, 1861–1913 (2019)
Working Paper: THE ORIGINS OF THE ITALIAN REGIONAL DIVIDE: EVIDENCE FROM REAL WAGES, 1861-1913 (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:usi:wpaper:748

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