YouTube video by CeSPI Centro Studi di Politica Internazionale

Few economic debates have lasted as long as the 160-year debate concerning the effects of Italian unification on the economies of Italy’s South and North. This column proposes a way to move the argument forward. The authors estimate the causal effects of unification on the agricultural share, literacy rates, and railway density in the South and the Centre-North using a rigorous counterfactual framework. Their findings challenge the idea that unification increased Italy’s North-South divide. In fact, neither region experienced widespread benefits from the unified state.

The Rivista di Storia Economica / Italian Review of Economic History (RSE/IREH) aims to promote fresh research on economic history covering a wide range of countries, periods, and methods. To this aim...