This paper presents a model inspired by the Unified Growth Theory, where reductions in adult mortality together with improvements in technological progress are the deep causes of the transition from a Traditional (Malthusian) Regime to a Pre-Modern Regime, characterized by the accumulation of...

In this paper we analyze the relationship between (adult) mortality and the long-run development of countries from an empirical and theoretical perspective. A quantitative exploration of the model shows that improvements in adult survival rates alone bring an economy towards a Malthusian regime...

This paper analyses the dynamics of labour productivity across Italian Provinces in the period 1995-2006. Inequality decreased but a clear pattern of polarization emerged, with the formation of a cluster of high-productive provinces in the North and Centre-West of Italy and a cluster of...

The aim of the paper is twofold: i) to propose a methodology to compute the growth rate volatility of an economy, and ii) to investigate the relationship between growth volatility and economic development through the lenses of the structural characteristics of an economy. We study a large...