Recent studies suggest that the only convergence of Southern Italy towards the Italian and European average, from 1951 to 1973, was due to the massive regional policy pursued trough the State-owned agency “Cassa per il Mezzogiorno” (1950-1984). From the oil shocks onwards, however, the conventional wisdom holds that public intervention in Southern Italy deteriorated and was no longer effective in promoting convergence. In spite of the obvious importance of these arguments, at the present stage of research they are only hypotheses. In order to test their validity, the article makes profit of the balance sheets of the Cassa per il Mezzogiorno, never studied before: through them, we reconstruct for the first time the activities of the Cassa per il Mezzogiorno in favour of the economic development of Southern Italy at the regional level. After re-assessing the role of the Cassa in light of the recent advancements in economic and business history, with the avail of a detailed quantitative picture and some qualitative issues, we analyse the specific contribution of the Cassa to the convergence of Southern Italy.
Le politiche di sviluppo nel Sud dell’Italia rivisitate: storia d’impresa e conti regionali relativi all’intervento della "Cassa per il Mezzogiorno"
LEPORE, Amedeo;
2013-01-01
Abstract
Recent studies suggest that the only convergence of Southern Italy towards the Italian and European average, from 1951 to 1973, was due to the massive regional policy pursued trough the State-owned agency “Cassa per il Mezzogiorno” (1950-1984). From the oil shocks onwards, however, the conventional wisdom holds that public intervention in Southern Italy deteriorated and was no longer effective in promoting convergence. In spite of the obvious importance of these arguments, at the present stage of research they are only hypotheses. In order to test their validity, the article makes profit of the balance sheets of the Cassa per il Mezzogiorno, never studied before: through them, we reconstruct for the first time the activities of the Cassa per il Mezzogiorno in favour of the economic development of Southern Italy at the regional level. After re-assessing the role of the Cassa in light of the recent advancements in economic and business history, with the avail of a detailed quantitative picture and some qualitative issues, we analyse the specific contribution of the Cassa to the convergence of Southern Italy.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
