Political Economy Seminar - Alberto Bisin

In this paper we study the Questione meridionale, that is, the determinants of the socio-economic gap between the North and the South of Italy. We first provide an empirical analysis of conditional convergence (or lack thereof) by province and by sector, from Unification (1861) until World War I. We identify literacy as the main bottleneck to the convergence process. On the results of this empirical analysis we ground a theoretical model of the political economy of elites and civil society. The model allows us to produce qualitative dynamics in line with the main historical narratives and to illuminate new mechanisms in this process. These dynamics are supported by our further empirical analysis, leveraging data as well as a political economy event study across Unification and until World War I.