IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cns/cnscwp/202102.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

From the historical Roman road network to modern infrastructure in Italy

Author

Listed:
  • L. DeBenedictis
  • V. Licio
  • Am Pinna

Abstract

An integrated and widespread road system, like the one built during the Roman Empire in Italy, plays an important role today in facilitating the construction of new infrastructure. It first influenced the growth of cities, regardless of the variety of historical paths after the fall of the Roman Empire and before the unification of the country. Through this channel Roman roads have been the main determinant of both motorways and railways in the country. Even the Italian North-South divide can be ascribed, among other factors, to the way the ancient infrastructure had an influence on the modern one.

Suggested Citation

  • L. DeBenedictis & V. Licio & Am Pinna, 2021. "From the historical Roman road network to modern infrastructure in Italy," Working Paper CRENoS 202102, Centre for North South Economic Research, University of Cagliari and Sassari, Sardinia.
    • Handle: RePEc:cns:cnscwp:202102
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://crenos.unica.it/crenos/node/7317
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://crenos.unica.it/crenos/sites/default/files/wp-21-02.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fabian Wahl, 2017. "Does European development have Roman roots? Evidence from the German Limes," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 313-349, September.
    2. Stefania Cosci & Loredana Mirra, 2018. "A spatial analysis of growth and convergence in Italian provinces: the role of road infrastructure," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(4), pages 516-527, April.
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. 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.
    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. Vania Licio, 2023. "The Italian coal shortage: the price of import and distribution, 1861–1911," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 17(3), pages 501-532, September.

    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. de Oliveira, Guilherme & Guerriero, Carmine, 2018. "Extractive states: The case of the Italian unification," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 142-159.
    2. Luca De Benedictis & Vania Licio & Anna Pinna, 2022. "From the historical Roman road network to modern infrastructure in Italy," Papers 2208.06675, arXiv.org.
    3. Martinelli Lasheras, Pablo, 2012. "Von Thünen South of the Alps : Access to Markets and Interwar Italian Agriculture," IFCS - Working Papers in Economic History.WH wp12-12, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Instituto Figuerola.
    4. Nicola Pontarollo & Roberto Ricciuti, 2015. "Railways and the Productivity Gap in Italy: Persistence and Divergence after Unification," CESifo Working Paper Series 5438, CESifo.
    5. Bertocchi, Graziella & Bozzano, Monica, 2016. "Women, medieval commerce, and the education gender gap," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 496-521.
    6. Dutta, Rohan & Levine, David Knudsen & Modica, Salvatore, 2018. "Collusion constrained equilibrium," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 13(1), January.
    7. Nan Zhang & Melissa M. Lee, 2020. "Literacy and State–Society Interactions in Nineteenth‐Century France," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 64(4), pages 1001-1016, October.
    8. Ciccarelli, Carlo & De Fraja, Gianni & Vuri, Daniela, 2021. "Effects of passive smoking on prenatal and infant development: Lessons from the past," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 42(C).
    9. Agustín Goenaga & Oriol Sabaté & Jan Teorell, 2023. "The state does not live by warfare alone: War and revenue in the long nineteenth century," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 393-418, April.
    10. Graziella Bertocchi & Monica Bozzano, 2019. "Origins and Implications of Family Structure Across Italian Provinces in Historical Perspective," Studies in Economic History, in: Claude Diebolt & Auke Rijpma & Sarah Carmichael & Selin Dilli & Charlotte Störmer (ed.), Cliometrics of the Family, chapter 0, pages 121-147, Springer.
    11. Bozzano, Monica, 2017. "On the historical roots of women's empowerment across Italian provinces: religion or family culture?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 24-46.
    12. Giorgio Brosio, 2017. "Equalization transfers and convergence between federal and unitary systems: A contribution to their historical analysis," ECONOMIA PUBBLICA, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2017(3), pages 21-66.
    13. Matthias Flückiger & Erik Hornung & Mario Larch & Markus Ludwig & Allard Mees, 2022. "Roman Transport Network Connectivity and Economic Integration," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 89(2), pages 774-810.
    14. Graziella Bertocchi & Monica Bozzano, 2015. "Family Structure and the Education Gender Gap: Evidence from Italian Provinces," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 61(1), pages 263-300.
    15. Fanti, Lucrezia & Pereira, Marcelo C. & Virgillito, Maria Enrica, 2023. "The North-South divide: Sources of divergence, policies for convergence," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 405-429.
    16. Luca Salvati & Marco Zitti, 2017. "Urban Concentration, Agglomeration Economies and the Spatial Structure of Italian Local Labor Market Areas," Research in Applied Economics, Macrothink Institute, vol. 9(2), pages 1-17, June.
    17. Maria Carmela Schisani & Luigi Balletta & Giancarlo Ragozini, 2021. "Crowding out the change: business networks and persisting economic elites in the South of Italy over Unification (1840–1880)," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 15(1), pages 89-131, January.
    18. Giorgio Calcagnini & Francesco Perugini, 2019. "A Well-Being Indicator for the Italian Provinces," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 142(1), pages 149-177, February.
    19. Stefan Kawalec & Ernest Pytlarczyk, 2013. "Controlled Dismantlement of the Eurozone: A Strategy to Save the European Union and the Single European Market," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 14(1), pages 31-49, February.
    20. Zhenxiong Huang & Hangtian Xu & Jianming Li & Nengsheng Luo, 2020. "Has highway construction narrowed the urban–rural income gap? Evidence from Chinese cities," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 99(3), pages 705-723, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Roman roads; Railways; Provinces; Motorways; Long-term effects of history; italy;
    All these keywords.

    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:cns:cnscwp:202102. 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: CRENoS (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/crenoit.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.