On the reconstruction and interpretation of regional inequality in Italy in the long-run: Main results and future lines of research

© FrancoAngeli. The essay outlines the main achievements in the estimation of the gdp of the Italian regions in the long term, and the resulting interpretation of the pattern of regional inequality. The latest estimates of regional gdp, for ten-year intervals from 1871 to 1951, at historical and present boundaries, are here presented and discussed: these allow us to test crosssectional models of conditional convergence, which suggest the presence of negative fixed effects slowing down the growth rate of the southern regions. Rather than to geographical factors or the market size, these fixed effects appear to be due to different socio-institutional conditions. In the future the production of historical gdp estimates at the provincial level, for the liberal age and the interwar years, would allow to qualify and possibly expand the interpretative framework.