The Socio-Institutional Divide: Explaining Italy’s Long-Term Regional Differences

Abstract

The recent availability of more accurate estimates of regional gdp, of social indicators (human capital, life expectancy, the human development index [hdi], heights, inequality, and social capital), and of other indices (such as market potential) has helped to advance the study of the growth patterns within Italian regions from (approximately) unification to the present day. This up-to-date information provides the basis for a new explanation of Italy’s industrial expansion and economic growth: The North–South socio-institutional divide that existed in Italy before unification in some respects grew stronger after unification, never to be bridged. This geographical division ultimately carried differences in human and social capital, governmental policies, and various institutions that exerted considerable influence on the regional structure of Italy’s economic growth.