Professor Alberto Bisin, New York University

"The Questione Meridionale: Elites and Civil Society" (with Giovanni Federico, NYU AD)
Wednesday, 28 May 2025. 15:00-16:30 GMT
Online

Abstract

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 also produce estimates of the production structure of Italy over the same period. 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.

Bio

Alberto Bisin is Professor of Economics at New York University. He is an Elected Fellow of the Econometric Society. He is also a fellow of the NBER, the Center for Experimental Social Sciences at NYU, and Centro Baffi at Bocconi University. He is also a member of the Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Global Working Group at the Center for the Economics of Human Development of the University of Chicago. He is Specisl Issue Editor for the Economic Journal. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, obtained in 1994. His main contributions are in the fields of General Equilibrium Theory, Financial Economics and Macroeconomics, Behavioral Economics, and Social Economics. He is a co-editor of the Handbook of Social Economics and of the Handbook of Historical Economics.

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First published: 8 May 2025

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