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The measurement of production movements: Lessons from the general engineering industry in Italy, 1861–1913

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  • Fenoaltea, Stefano

Abstract

In the literature the (Italian) engineering industry is seen as one that transformed metal into machines; its time path is inferred from that of its consumption of metal. Newly recovered evidence indicates that far more metal was turned into (traditional) hardware than into (modern) machines. Machine production grew rapidly from a very small base: metal consumption fails to capture this change in the product mix, and understates the growth of new production at constant prices. Moreover, maintenance activity was in general as significant as new production. Maintenance was labor-intensive rather than metal-intensive, trend-dominated rather than cyclical, and relatively larger, next to new production, in 1861 than in 1913: metal consumption overstates the growth rate of the industry’s total product at constant prices, and much overstates its cyclical volatility. Technical progress was negligible in maintenance, but rapid in new production: constant-price-weighted physical measures fail to capture productivity growth, and even late-weighted series overstate the growth of the industry’s real product. These results are not tied to conditions peculiar to pre-War Italy: the new estimates presented here pave the way for emending, or at least reevaluating, the engineering-industry product series reconstructed for other times or places.

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  • Fenoaltea, Stefano, 2015. "The measurement of production movements: Lessons from the general engineering industry in Italy, 1861–1913," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 19-37.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:exehis:v:57:y:2015:i:c:p:19-37
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eeh.2015.03.004
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    1. Fenoaltea, Stefano, 2018. "The Growth of the Italian Economy, 1861−1913: The Composition Of Investment," MPRA Paper 88138, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Fenoaltea, Stefano, 2018. "The Growth of the Italian Economy, 1861-1913: Revised Second-Generation Expenditure-Side Estimates," MPRA Paper 88016, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Stefano Fenoaltea, 2020. "The fruits of disaggregation: The engineering industry, tariff protection, and the industrial investment cycle in Italy, 1861-1913," PSL Quarterly Review, Economia civile, vol. 73(292), pages 77-110.
    4. Stefano Fenoaltea, 2015. "Italian Industrial Production, 1861-1913: A Statistical Reconstruction. A. Introduction," Carlo Alberto Notebooks 412, Collegio Carlo Alberto.
    5. Fenoaltea, Stefano, 2017. "The Growth of the Italian Economy, 1861-1913: Revised Second-Generation Production-Side Estimates," MPRA Paper 83508, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Emanuele Felice, 2019. "Rethinking the take-off: the role of services in the new economic history of Italy (1861–1951)," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 13(3), pages 405-442, September.
    7. Alberto Baffigi, 2022. "In Search for Another "Fish Story": Stefano Fenoaltea's Last (Unfinished) Revolution," Annals of the Fondazione Luigi Einaudi. An Interdisciplinary Journal of Economics, History and Political Science, Fondazione Luigi Einaudi, Torino (Italy), vol. 56(1), pages 139-148, June.

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    Measurement; Engineering;

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