Il divario Nord-Sud in Italia

The developmental differences between the North and the South of the country began to attract the attention of intellectuals, politicians, economists, historians, and geographers starting from the 1870s, first in Italy and then abroad. Since then, the debate has never ceased. The persistence of a Southern question in Italy stems precisely from the enduring imbalance between two territorial areas within the same national borders. Development disparities also exist in other countries. In Italy, however, the dualism between the North and the South is particularly strong and has so far proven irreducible, despite the interventions undertaken. The subject of the book is the economy of Southern Italy over the 150 years from Unification to the first decade of the 21st century. The topics addressed include the differences between the North and the South in the decades immediately following Unification (Chapter 1), the per capita product by region and then in the North and South (Chapter 2), the labor market (Chapter 3), and productivity (Chapter 4). Some of the materials collected and organized are presented in the Statistical Appendix of the volume.