YSI – Economic History Graduate Webinar: Vitantonio Mariella

Vitantonio Mariella, PhD student at Sapienza University, will present his work: Tenancy contracts and social capital at the origins of the North-South divide in Italy

Abstract:
This paper investigates the historical determinants of social capital in Italy, widely seen at the root of the North-South divide. By focusing on the rural economic structure of Italy during the “liberal age” (1861-1911) and using several measures of social capital in the present-day, I find that areas that had a higher share of casual workers in agriculture exhibit lower civic capital today. The results are robust to the inclusion of a set of control variables. IV estimates using the presence of malaria as a source of exogenous variation rule out further concerns regarding the presence of potential endogeneity. I carry out also a spatial analysis to account for spillover effects, and the share of casual workers still retains its significance. Therefore, the effect is robust even after controlling for the fact that occasional labour agreements were not randomly determined. Finally, I explore the role of the industrial districts as a mechanism to transmit the cultural trait of cooperation through time. As they took shape where casual workers were relatively rare, I find a positive association between municipalities exhibiting high civic capital and those belonging to an industrial district.