IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ehsrev/v78y2025i2p646-672.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

From the little divergence to the little divide: Real wages in the Kingdom of Sicily (1540‒1850)

Author

Listed:
  • Tancredi Buscemi

Abstract

This paper challenges the commonly held belief that Southern Italy was a homogeneous, backwards region by reconstructing real wages in the kingdom of Sicily over three centuries. The findings suggest more than one divide in pre‐unitarian regions, with Sicilian living standards being structurally higher than the Italian average. This study has important implications for traditional debates in European and Italian economic history, such as the timing of the little divergence and the Italian economic downturn. Additionally, it raises new questions regarding the origins of the regional divide, highlighting a heterogeneous picture of regional trends and the need for broader spatial coverage in wage studies to avoid the potential bias of single‐city analysis.

Suggested Citation

  • Tancredi Buscemi, 2025. "From the little divergence to the little divide: Real wages in the Kingdom of Sicily (1540‒1850)," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 78(2), pages 646-672, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ehsrev:v:78:y:2025:i:2:p:646-672
    DOI: 10.1111/ehr.13359
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/ehr.13359
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/ehr.13359?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ehsrev:v:78:y:2025:i:2:p:646-672. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ehsukea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.