IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/jechis/v60y2000i01p67-93_02.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Could Southern Italians Cooperate? Banche Popolari in the Mezzogiorno

Author

Listed:
  • 'Hearn, Brian A

Abstract

Recent work by Robert Putnam has revived a contentious debate about the role of culture in Italian regional disparities. Southern Italy is argued to have been locked in an impoverishing, no-trust equilibrium. This article explores an apparent exception to Putnam's historical evidence: the South's late-nineteenth-century cooperative banks (banche popolari). Econometric investigation reveals important differences in the strategy and performance of these banks in North and South during the crucial decade of the 1890s, and shows that these differences cannot be attributed to differences in the local environment. In fact, the evidence is broadly consistent with Putnam's hypothesis.

Suggested Citation

  • 'Hearn, Brian A, 2000. "Could Southern Italians Cooperate? Banche Popolari in the Mezzogiorno," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 60(1), pages 67-93, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jechis:v:60:y:2000:i:01:p:67-93_02
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022050700024657/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hongbin Cai & Ginger Z. Jin & Chong Liu & Li-An Zhou, 2013. "More Trusting, Less Trust? An Investigation of Early E-Commerce in China," NBER Working Papers 18961, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Emanuele Felice, 2011. "The determinants of Italy’s regional imbalances over the long run: exploring the contributions of human and social capital," Oxford University Economic and Social History Series _088, Economics Group, Nuffield College, University of Oxford.
    3. Chiaruttini, Maria Stella, 2020. "Banking integration and (under)development: A quantitative reassessment of the Italian financial divide (1814-74)," IBF Paper Series 03-20, IBF – Institut für Bank- und Finanzgeschichte / Institute for Banking and Financial History, Frankfurt am Main.
    4. Emanuele Felice, 2010. "Regional inequalities in Italy in the long run (1891-2001): the pattern and some ideas to explain it," Department of Economics University of Siena 597, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    5. Yamamura, Eiji, 2008. "The role of social capital in homogeneous society: Review of recent researches in Japan," MPRA Paper 11385, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Adriano Giannola & Antonio Lopes & Alberto Zazzaro, 2013. "La convergenza dello sviluppo finanziario tra le regioni italiane dal 1890 ad oggi," Rivista di Politica Economica, SIPI Spa, issue 1, pages 145-197, January-M.
    7. Emanuele Felice, 2011. "The determinants of Italy's regional imbalances over the long run: exploring the contributions of human and social capital," Oxford Economic and Social History Working Papers _088, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    8. Anna Missiaia, 2016. "Where do we go from here? Market access and regional development in Italy (1871–1911)," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 20(2), pages 215-241.
    9. Emanuele Felice, 2017. "The socio-institutional divide. Explaining Italy's regional inequality over the long run," Carlo Alberto Notebooks 503, Collegio Carlo Alberto.
    10. Emanuele Felice, 2012. "Regional convergence in Italy, 1891–2001: testing human and social capital," Cliometrica, Journal of Historical Economics and Econometric History, Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC), vol. 6(3), pages 267-306, October.
    11. Giovanni Iuzzolino & Guido Pellegrini & Gianfranco Viesti, 2011. "Convergence among Italian Regions, 1861-2011," Quaderni di storia economica (Economic History Working Papers) 22, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.

    More about this item

    Lists

    This item is featured on the following reading lists, Wikipedia, or ReplicationWiki pages:
    1. Historical Economic Geography

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:jechis:v:60:y:2000:i:01:p:67-93_02. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/jeh .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.