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Administrative Reforms and Urban Development: Lessons from Italian Unification

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Abstract

We study how changes in the political-administrative hierarchy of a country affect urban development. We exploit the 1865 administrative reform occurred in the aftermath of Italian unification as a quasi-natural experiment to assess whether district’s capital cities endowed with supra-municipal administrative functions by law gained a population growth premium compared to similar non-capital cities in the period 1871-1921. We rely on difference-in-differences and event study estimation strategies, and find that district’s capital cities recorded a time-persistent population growth premium. Three main mechanisms explain our results: increases in public employment; increases in manufacturing employment; and development of the infrastructure endowment.

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  • Giulio Cainelli & Carlo Ciccarelli & Roberto Ganau, 2022. "Administrative Reforms and Urban Development: Lessons from Italian Unification," CEIS Research Paper 538, Tor Vergata University, CEIS, revised 02 Apr 2022.
    • Handle: RePEc:rtv:ceisrp:538
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    1. 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.
    2. Ciccarelli, Carlo & Magazzino, Cosimo & Marcucci, Edoardo, 2021. "Early development of Italian railways and industrial growth: A regional analysis," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Administrative reforms; political-administrative hierarchy; urban development; Italian unification.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H11 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Structure and Scope of Government
    • N13 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • O11 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • R11 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes

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