The Paper draws its motivation from the observation that, three years into the single currency, EMU financial markets are making only slow progress towards integration and from the belief that economic history can offer useful insight as to the causes of the phenomenon. In this vein, we...

This paper quantifies the extent and the main characteristics of child work in Italy during the years 1881-1961. From population censuses, we created a new database of the economically active population aged 10-14 by gender, region, and economic sector. We find that child work incidence declined...

This paper investigates secular changes in the distribution of personal expen-diture in Italy over the period 1881-1961. To do so, the authors constructed a new dataset, the Italian Household Budgets Database (IHBD), consisting of 4,370 family-level budgets. Methodologically, this paper improves...

The history of relations between the Italian banking industry and the State during the last 150 years from National Unification has affected the stability of deposits and credit flows, the effectiveness of investment choices. In carrying out these functions, banks have played an entrepreneurial...

The article is part of the special issue of the journal on Charles P. Kindleberger (CPK). By reviewing CPK's works the author investigates Kindleberger's historical economics analysis method. This is argued to be based on two elements: the analysis of the capitalist economies and, in particular,...

Taking an historical perspective, this unique book highlights the evolution of the many diverse forms of business enterprise, and discusses the contribution of these different types of firm to the economic growth of Italy.