IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/mod/recent/025.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Industrial Policy and Artisan Firms in Italy, 1945-1981

Author

Listed:
  • Giuseppe Maria Longoni
  • Alberto Rinaldi

Abstract

This paper shows that after the Second World War the Italian state carried out an artisanship policy (that is, for the smallest firms) of an extent that was unparalleled in Europe. This policy was based on the provision, on the one hand, of lower tax and employers' contributions and welfare benefits at reduced premiums and, on the other hand, of 'substitutive factors': soft loans, services and promotional initiatives by state agencies. Such an artisan policy played a twofold role: partly 'defensive', protecting a segment of marginal firms, and partly 'proactive', prompting modernisation and innovation of more promising firms. The latter were clustered especially in the industrial district of the centre and north-easte of the country, whose development turned out to be boosted to a significant extent by state intervention.

Suggested Citation

  • Giuseppe Maria Longoni & Alberto Rinaldi, 2008. "Industrial Policy and Artisan Firms in Italy, 1945-1981," Center for Economic Research (RECent) 025, University of Modena and Reggio E., Dept. of Economics "Marco Biagi".
    • Handle: RePEc:mod:recent:025
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://155.185.68.2/campusone/web_dep/Recentpaper/recent-wp25.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anna Spadavecchia, 2005. "Financing Industrial Districts in Italy, 1971-91: A Private Venture?," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(4), pages 569-593.
    2. Carnevali, Francesca, 2005. "Europe's Advantage: Banks and Small Firms in Britain, France, Germany, and Italy since 1918," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199257393.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Colli, Andrea & Rinaldi, Alberto, 2015. "Institutions, Politics, and the Corporate Economy," Enterprise & Society, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(2), pages 249-269, June.
    2. Emanuele Felice, 2013. "Regional income inequality in Italy in the long run (1871–2001). Patterns and determinants," UHE Working papers 2013_08, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Departament d'Economia i Història Econòmica, Unitat d'Història Econòmica.
    3. Paolo Di Martino & Michelangelo Vasta, 2012. "Happy 150th Birthday Italy? Institutions and Economic Performance Since 1861," Department of Economics University of Siena 662, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    4. Francesco Aiello & Graziella Bonanno, 2016. "Looking at the determinants of efficiency in banking: evidence from Italian mutual-cooperatives," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(4), pages 507-526, July.
    5. Aiello, Francesco & Bonanno, Graziella, 2016. "Bank efficiency and local market conditions. Evidence from Italy," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 70-90.
    6. Emanuele Felice, 2017. "The socio-institutional divide. Explaining Italy's regional inequality over the long run," Carlo Alberto Notebooks 503, Collegio Carlo Alberto.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Italy; Industrial districts; Artisan firms; Indsutrial Policy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N24 - Economic History - - Financial Markets and Institutions - - - Europe: 1913-
    • N44 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation - - - Europe: 1913-
    • O25 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy - - - Industrial Policy
    • O38 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Government Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:mod:recent:025. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/demodit.html .

    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.