Past dominations, current institutions and the Italian regional economic performance

TitlePast dominations, current institutions and the Italian regional economic performance
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2015
AuthorsDi Liberto, A, Sideri, M
JournalEuropean Journal of Political Economy
Volume38
IssueJune
Pagination12–41
Abstract

We study the connection between economic performance and the quality of government institutions for the sample of 103 Italian NUTS3 regions, including new measures of institutional performance calculated using data on the provision of different areas of public services. In order to address likely endogeneity problems, we use the histories of the different foreign dominations that ruled Italian regions between the 16th and 17th century and over seven hundred years before the creation of the unified Italian State. Our results suggest that past historical institutions play a significant role on the current public administration quality and show that the latter makes a difference to the economic performance of regions. Overall, our analysis confirms that the quality of institutions matters for development, and that history can be used to find suitable instruments.

URLhttp://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0176268014001153
DOI10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2014.12.006
Keywordseconomic development, history, institutions, Instrumental Variables