IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_5438.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Railways and the Productivity Gap in Italy: Persistence and Divergence after Unification

Author

Listed:
  • Nicola Pontarollo
  • Roberto Ricciuti

Abstract

The political unification of Italy in 1861 led to the establishment of a single market, by removing the trade barriers across the pre-existing states, with a single currency. Market integration was the economic outcome of this process. At the same time, the Kingdom of Italy started a large infrastructure project to spread railways, which were largely confined in Northern Italy, all over the country. Using tools from spatial econometrics, we find that railways played a positive effect on productivity, but this effect was stronger in the areas in which railways were already built. Moreover, railways helped industrial firms to locate closer to water sources and gain access from there to the overall market. This effect is in line with New Economic Geography according to which infrastructure lead to a widening of territorial disparities.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicola Pontarollo & Roberto Ricciuti, 2015. "Railways and the Productivity Gap in Italy: Persistence and Divergence after Unification," CESifo Working Paper Series 5438, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_5438
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp5438.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Roberto Patuelli & Daniel A. Griffith & Michael Tiefelsdorf & Peter Nijkamp, 2011. "Spatial Filtering and Eigenvector Stability: Space-Time Models for German Unemployment Data," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 34(2), pages 253-280, April.
    2. Dincecco, Mark & Federico, Giovanni & Vindigni, Andrea, 2011. "Warfare, Taxation, and Political Change: Evidence from the Italian Risorgimento," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 71(4), pages 887-914, December.
    3. Philippe Martin, 1998. "Can Regional Policies Affect Growth and Geography in Europe?," Post-Print hal-03416388, HAL.
    4. Aschauer, David Alan, 1989. "Is public expenditure productive?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 177-200, March.
    5. De Grauwe, Paul, 2016. "Economics of Monetary Union," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, edition 11, number 9780198739876.
    6. Paul Krugman & Anthony J. Venables, 1995. "Globalization and the Inequality of Nations," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(4), pages 857-880.
    7. Ciccarelli, Carlo & Nuvolari, Alessandro, 2015. "Technical Change, Non-Tariff Barriers, and the Development of the Italian Locomotive Industry, 1850–1913," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 75(3), pages 860-888, September.
    8. Martin Andersson & Charlie Karlsson, 2007. "Knowledge in Regional Economic Growth—The Role of Knowledge Accessibility," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(2), pages 129-149.
    9. Krugman, Paul, 1991. "Increasing Returns and Economic Geography," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(3), pages 483-499, June.
    10. Vittorio Daniele & Paolo Malanima, 2007. "Il prodotto delle regioni e il divario Nord-Sud in Italia (1861-2004)," Rivista di Politica Economica, SIPI Spa, vol. 97(2), pages 267-316, March-Apr.
    11. Zamagni, Vera, 1997. "The Economic History of Italy 1860-1990," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198292890.
    12. repec:hhs:iuiwop:430 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Holtz-Eakin, Douglas & Schwartz, Amy Ellen, 1995. "Infrastructure in a structural model of economic growth," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 131-151, April.
    14. Fenoaltea,Stefano, 2014. "The Reinterpretation of Italian Economic History," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107658080.
    15. Barro, Robert J, 1990. "Government Spending in a Simple Model of Endogenous Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(5), pages 103-126, October.
    16. Philippe Martin, 1998. "Can Regional Policies Affect Growth and Geography in Europe?," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(6), pages 757-774, August.
    17. Stefano Fenoaltea, 2007. "I due fallimenti della storia economica: il periodo post-unitario," Rivista di Politica Economica, SIPI Spa, vol. 97(2), pages 341-358, March-Apr.
    18. Daniel A. Griffith, 2003. "Spatial Autocorrelation and Spatial Filtering," Advances in Spatial Science, Springer, number 978-3-540-24806-4, Fall.
    19. Rosina Moreno & Enrique López-Bazo, 2007. "Returns to Local and Transport Infrastructure under Regional Spillovers," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 30(1), pages 47-71, January.
    20. Diego Puga, 2002. "European regional policies in light of recent location theories," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 2(4), pages 373-406, October.
    21. Bogart, Dan, 2010. "A global perspective on railway inefficiency and the rise of state ownership, 1880-1912," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 158-178, April.
    22. Carlo Ciccarelli & Stefano Fenoaltea, 2013. "Through the magnifying glass: provincial aspects of industrial growth in post-Unification Italy," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 66(1), pages 57-85, February.
    23. Carlo Ciccarelli & Alessandro Nuvolari, 2014. "Technical Change, Non-Tariff Trade Barriers and the Development of the Italian Locomotives Industry, 1850-1913," CEIS Research Paper 305, Tor Vergata University, CEIS, revised 07 Feb 2014.
    24. Blane D. Lewis, 1998. "The Impact Of Public Infrastructure On Municipal Economic Development: Empirical Results From Kenya," Review of Urban & Regional Development Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(2), pages 142-156, September.
    25. Fenoaltea, Stefano, 2003. "Peeking Backward: Regional Aspects of Industrial Growth in Post-Unification Italy," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 63(4), pages 1059-1102, December.
    26. M Tiefelsdorf & B Boots, 1995. "The Exact Distribution of Moran's I," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 27(6), pages 985-999, June.
    27. Martin, Philippe & Rogers, Carol Ann, 1995. "Industrial location and public infrastructure," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(3-4), pages 335-351, November.
    28. Chiara F. Del Bo & Massimo Florio, 2011. "Infrastructure and Growth in a Spatial Framework: Evidence from the EU regions," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(8), pages 1393-1414, October.
    29. Emanuele Felice, 2011. "Regional value added in Italy, 1891–2001, and the foundation of a long‐term picture," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 64(3), pages 929-950, August.
    30. Giovanni Federico, 2005. "Seta, agricoltura e sviluppo economico in Italia," Rivista di storia economica, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 2, pages 123-154.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Mendieta Muñoz, Rodrigo & Pontarollo, Nicola, 2015. "Cantonal Convergence in Ecuador: A Spatial Econometric Perspective," MPRA Paper 68399, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    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. Sarantis Lolos, 2009. "The effect of EU structural funds on regional growth: assessing the evidence from Greece, 1990–2005," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 42(3), pages 211-228, August.
    2. Ugo Fratesi, 2008. "Regional policy from a supra-regional perspective," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 42(3), pages 681-703, September.
    3. Giovanni Federico & Antonio Tena-Junguito, 2014. "The ripples of the industrial revolution: exports, economic growth, and regional integration in Italy in the early nineteenth century," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 18(3), pages 349-369.
    4. Ingrid Ott & Susanne Soretz, 2006. "Governmental activity, integration, and agglomeration," Working Paper Series in Economics 57, University of Lüneburg, Institute of Economics.
    5. Wolfgang Eggert & Maximilian Von Ehrlich & Robert Fenge & Günther König, 2007. "Konvergenz‐ und Wachstumseffekte der europäischen Regionalpolitik in Deutschland," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 8(2), pages 130-146, March.
    6. Stéphane Riou, 2003. "Géographie, croissance et politique de cohésion en Europe," Revue Française d'Économie, Programme National Persée, vol. 17(3), pages 171-220.
    7. Emanuele Felice, 2011. "The Rule and the Exception: Italy’s Regional Imbalances (1891-2001) through a Shift-Share Analysis," QA - Rivista dell'Associazione Rossi-Doria, Associazione Rossi Doria, issue 4, December.
    8. Joan Costa‐Font & Eduardo Rodriguez‐Oreggia, 2005. "Trade and the Effect of Public Investment on Regional Inequalities in Heterogeneously Integrated Areas," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(6), pages 873-891, June.
    9. Fabien Candau, 2008. "Entrepreneurs' Location Choice And Public Policies: A Survey Of The New Economic Geography," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(5), pages 909-952, December.
    10. repec:got:cegedp:17 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Sudekum, Jens, 2002. "Subsidizing Education in the Economic Periphery: Another Pitfall of Regional Policies?," Discussion Paper Series 26130, Hamburg Institute of International Economics.
    12. Ott, Ingrid & Soretz, Susanne, 2010. "Productive public input, integration and agglomeration," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 538-549, November.
    13. Bartłomiej Rokicki, 2007. "Przegląd budżetu Unii Europejskiej a reforma polityki spójności," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 7-8, pages 105-125.
    14. Luis Fernando Lanaspa & Fernando Sanz, 2004. "Regional policy and industrial location decisions," Investigaciones Economicas, Fundación SEPI, vol. 28(1), pages 67-87, January.
    15. Elburz, Zeynep & Nijkamp, Peter & Pels, Eric, 2017. "Public infrastructure and regional growth: Lessons from meta-analysis," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 1-8.
    16. Rodriguez-Oreggia, Eduardo & Rodriguez-Pose, Andres, 2004. "The Regional Returns of Public Investment Policies in Mexico," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(9), pages 1545-1562, September.
    17. Roberto Basile & Sergio de Nardis & Alessandro Girardi, 2001. "Regional inequalities and cohesion policies in the european union," ISAE Working Papers 23, ISTAT - Italian National Institute of Statistics - (Rome, ITALY).
    18. Paweł Gajewski, 2007. "Ekonomiczne efekty polityki regionalnej," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 1-2, pages 59-81.
    19. Emanuele Felice, 2017. "The socio-institutional divide. Explaining Italy's regional inequality over the long run," Carlo Alberto Notebooks 503, Collegio Carlo Alberto.
    20. Simón Sosvilla Rivero & Oscar Bajo Rubio & Carmen Díaz Roldán, "undated". "Sobre la efectividad de la política regional comunitaria: El caso de Castilla-la Mancha," Studies on the Spanish Economy 178, FEDEA.
    21. Puga, Diego, 2008. "Agglomeration and cross-border infrastructure," EIB Papers 9/2008, European Investment Bank, Economics Department.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    railways; productivity; economic growth; spatial econometrics;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N73 - Economic History - - Economic History: Transport, International and Domestic Trade, Energy, and Other Services - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • N93 - Economic History - - Regional and Urban History - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • L92 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Railroads and Other Surface Transportation
    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • O18 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure

    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:ces:ceswps:_5438. 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: Klaus Wohlrabe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cesifde.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.