Emanuele Felice

Regional value added in Italy, 1891–2001, and the foundation of a long‐term picture

This article presents value added estimates for the Italian regions, in benchmark years 1891–1951, which are linked to those from official figures available from 1971 on, in order to offer a long‐term picture of Italys regional development. Regional activity rates and productivity are also discussed and compared. Some basic questions about Italys economic history are briefly considered, including the origins and extent of the north–south divide, the role of migration and regional policy in shaping the pattern of regional inequality, and the positioning of Italy in the international debate on regional convergence, where it stands out because of the long‐run persistence of its disparities.

Regional development: reviewing the Italian mosaic

Abstract This article presents estimates of per capita gross domestic product, workforce, product per worker and activity rates for the Italian regions in benchmark years from 1891 and 1951; historical estimates are linked to the official figures available from 1971 onwards, in order to capture the evolution of the long-term regional economic disparities. In light of this picture, the main analyses concerning the take-off of the north-west, the rise of the central north-east regions, and the failure of southern Italy and of regional policies are briefly reviewed. A long-term, albeit still preliminary interpretative hypothesis is proposed, which is based on the distinction between key fixed resources (energy, human capital, social capital) and mobile resources (technical and financial capital). During the period of ‘extraordinary intervention’ in the south, the Italian state favoured the latter, not the former, thus achieving only transitory and unsatisfactory results.

Italy's Growth and Decline, 1861–2011

The large body of new statistical data that became available after the 150th anniversary of Italy’s unification permits a re-examination of Italy’s economic growth. Up-to-date estimates and re-interpretations of Italy’s gdp from 1861 to 2011—at both the national and regional levels—in the light of institutional and technological changes within an international context find that Italy’s economic growth was substantial early in the twentieth century but slackened considerably since the 1990s, despite successes in long-term performance. Analysis suggests that the country is on the road to irreversible decline. Part of the problem lies in the failure of the southern regions to converge economically with the more highly developed central and northern regions.

The Socio-Institutional Divide: Explaining Italy's Long-Term Regional Differences

The recent availability of more accurate estimates of regional gdp, of social indicators (human capital, life expectancy, the human development index [hdi], heights, inequality, and social capital), and of other indices (such as market potential) has helped to advance the study of the growth patterns within Italian regions from (approximately) unification to the present day. This up-to-date information provides the basis for a new explanation of Italy’s industrial expansion and economic growth: The North–South socio-institutional divide that existed in Italy before unification in some respects grew stronger after unification, never to be bridged. This geographical division ultimately carried differences in human and social capital, governmental policies, and various institutions that exerted considerable influence on the regional structure of Italy’s economic growth.

NOTES ON THE DETERMINANTS OF SUICIDE RATES IN ITALY'S REGIONS: A REPLY TO VORACEK (2009)

This article is a review of Voraceks report (2009) of aggregate intelligence and suicide rates in Italys regions, contending some findings and proposing new evidence and suggestions for further research. Voracek did not use intelligence data, but educational attainment, which in Italys regions is affected by sharp imbalances in the quality of public schools and may not reflect differences in intelligence. The statistical analyses were inadequate given the small number of cases; the resulting correlation could be meaningless or even misleading. The paper shows that when the analysis is extended to other variables (latitude) or historical periods (1911) the correlations reported by Voracek are not significant. This criticism is based on perspectives among different branches of psychology and cognitive sciences, economic and social history, and economic geography.