The firms’ size distribution in the Italian Golden age has been described as a successful example of the adoption of the big business model which is characterized by large firms able to exploit the economies of scale of the modern technologies. Two main questions are present in literature: was...

How did business networks among Italian firms evolve over time? We address this question by analyzing the Italian corporate boards network in four years (1952, 1960, 1972, 1983) with network theoretical methods. We find some typical properties of these networks, such as sparsity and...

The essay takes into consideration the theme of a new system of patent protection, represented by the law of Piedmont of 1855, based upon the effects that it exercised on the innovative capacity of a country. Starting from the theoretical literature on the subject, firstly, the essay evaluates...

Convergence of GDP per capita is a traditional topics in the history of economic growth. The different research traditions advance different explanation for this phaenomenon, but all measure it in the same way - i.e. with the coefficient of variation - and find the same periodization: 1870-1913,...