IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/wpaper/27885.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Regional market integration in Italy during the unification (1832-1882)

Author

Listed:
  • Missiaia, Anna

Abstract

The 19th century was a period of great transformations for Italy. Political unification was achieved in 1861 while economic unification was still far off. Ever since, Italian industrialization has been unbalanced, as the pre-existing gap between Northern and Southern economic development has widened. In this context, the creation of the Italian national market has been a highly debated topic. Originally, it was thought that Italian regions did not experience much market integration even after the Unification. This was due to the low complementarity between its regions. However, in recent work, Federico (2007) finds evidence of market integration starting even before 1861. The purpose of the present study is to examine market integration in 19th century Italy within its regional context. The question is whether the Italian market integration observed previously was due to a catch up of some regions in integrating with the international market while others were already integrated or whether the convergence was due to higher integration among Italian regions. Wheat prices will be used as a stand in for overall market integration. The analysis includes descriptive tools such as the mapping of prices and coefficients of variation as well as panel data analysis on the causes of price differentials among city pairs. The results tentatively confirm the hypothesis of the rise of a national market, as price differentials increased more after Unification in the presence of an adjacent foreign market in the city pair .

Suggested Citation

  • Missiaia, Anna, 2009. "Regional market integration in Italy during the unification (1832-1882)," Economic History Working Papers 27885, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
  • Handle: RePEc:ehl:wpaper:27885
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/27885/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christopher M. Meissner, 2003. "Exchange-Rate Regimes and International Trade: Evidence from the Classical Gold Standard Era," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(1), pages 344-353, March.
    2. James E. Anderson & Eric van Wincoop, 2003. "Gravity with Gravitas: A Solution to the Border Puzzle," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(1), pages 170-192, March.
    3. Federico, Giovanni, 2007. "Market integration and market efficiency: The case of 19th century Italy," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 44(2), pages 293-316, April.
    4. Max-Stephan Schulze & Nikolaus Wolf, 2009. "On the origins of border effects: insights from the Habsburg Empire," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 9(1), pages 117-136, January.
    5. Antoni Estevadeordal & Brian Frantz & Alan M. Taylor, 2003. "The Rise and Fall of World Trade, 1870–1939," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(2), pages 359-407.
    6. Jacks, David S., 2006. "What drove 19th century commodity market integration?," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 43(3), pages 383-412, July.
    7. Jacks, David S., 2005. "Intra- and international commodity market integration in the Atlantic economy, 1800-1913," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 381-413, July.
    8. Wolf, Nikolaus, 2005. "Path dependent border effects: the case of Poland's reunification (1918-1939)," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 414-438, July.
    9. Federico, Giovanni & Tena, Antonio, 1998. "Was Italy a protectionist country?," European Review of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 2(1), pages 73-97, April.
    10. North, Douglass, 1958. "Ocean Freight Rates and Economic Development 1730-1913," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 18(4), pages 537-555, December.
    11. O'Rourke, Kevin H., 1997. "The European Grain Invasion, 1870–1913," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 57(4), pages 775-801, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Uebele, Martin, 2011. "National and international market integration in the 19th century: Evidence from comovement," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 226-242, April.
    2. Chilosi, David & Murphy, Tommy E. & Studer, Roman & Tunçer, A. Coşkun, 2013. "Europe's many integrations: Geography and grain markets, 1620–1913," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 46-68.
    3. Laura Panza, 2024. "From a common empire to colonial rule: Commodity market disintegration in the Near East," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 77(2), pages 584-611, May.
    4. Timini, Jacopo, 2023. "Revisiting the ‘Cobden-Chevalier network’ trade and welfare effects," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    5. Keller, Wolfgang & Shiue, Carol, 2013. "The Trade Impact of the Zollverein," CEPR Discussion Papers 9387, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. Luigi Pascali, 2017. "The Wind of Change: Maritime Technology, Trade, and Economic Development," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(9), pages 2821-2854, September.
    7. Pinilla, Vicente & Serrano, Raúl, 2008. "The Agricultural and Food Trade in the First Globalization: Spanish Table Wine Exports 1871 to 1935 – A Case Study," Journal of Wine Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 3(2), pages 132-148, January.
    8. Keller, Wolfgang & Shiue, Carol, 2008. "Tariffs, Trains, and Trade: The Role of Institutions versus Technology in the Expansion of Markets," CEPR Discussion Papers 6759, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    9. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/6145 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Julio Martínez-Galarraga, 2014. "Market potential estimates in history: a survey of methods and an application to Spain, 1867-1930," Working Papers 0051, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    11. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/6145 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Meissner, Christopher M., 2014. "Growth from Globalization? A View from the Very Long Run," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 8, pages 1033-1069, Elsevier.
    13. James E. Anderson & Eric van Wincoop, 2004. "Trade Costs," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 42(3), pages 691-751, September.
    14. Lampe, Markus, 2009. "Effects of Bilateralism and the MFN Clause on International Trade: Evidence for the Cobden-Chevalier Network, 1860-1875," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 69(4), pages 1012-1040, December.
    15. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/6145 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. James Yetman, 2007. "Currency Unions, Trade Flows And Capital Flows," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(2), pages 189-204, May.
    17. Jacks, David S. & Meissner, Christopher M. & Novy, Dennis, 2011. "Trade booms, trade busts, and trade costs," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(2), pages 185-201, March.
    18. William Hynes & David S. Jacks & Kevin H. O'rourke, 2012. "Commodity market disintegration in the interwar period," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 16(2), pages 119-143, May.
    19. repec:dgr:rugggd:gd-126 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Klasing, Mariko & Milionis, Petros, 2012. "Reassessing the Evolution of World Trade, 1870-1949," MPRA Paper 39555, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    21. Klasing, Mariko J. & Milionis, Petros, 2014. "Quantifying the evolution of world trade, 1870–1949," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(1), pages 185-197.
    22. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/6145 is not listed on IDEAS
    23. Kris James Mitchener & Marc Weidenmier, 2008. "Trade and Empire," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(533), pages 1805-1834, November.
    24. Alan M. Taylor & Natalia Chernyshoff & David Jacks, 2005. "Stuck on Gold:Real Exchange Rate Volatility and the Rise and Fall of the Gold Standard, 1870?1939," Working Papers 237, University of California, Davis, Department of Economics.
    25. Vicente Pinilla & Agustina Rayes, 2019. "How Argentina became a super-exporter of agricultural and food products during the First Globalisation (1880–1929)," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 13(3), pages 443-469, September.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • L81 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Retail and Wholesale Trade; e-Commerce
    • N0 - Economic History - - General
    • O52 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Europe

    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:ehl:wpaper:27885. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: LSERO Manager on behalf of EH Dept. (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/chlseuk.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.