No. 1 - The industrial growth of the regions of Italy from national unification to the Great War:A preliminary estimate for the census years

This essay examines the regional distribution of industrial production in Italy in 1871, 1881, 1901 and 1911. The regional estimates are obtained by allocating national estimates of value added at 1911 prices for 15 major sectors in proportion to the regional distribution of the sectoral labor force reported by the censuses. Over time, the redistribution of aggregate production illustrates the extension of industrial leadership from Lombardy alone to Piedmont and Liguria, and the decline of traditional manufacturing attracted to the political-residential centres that recycled rents and taxes. The industrial structure of the various regions remained instead relatively similar, as if comparative advantages were generically industrial rather than sector-specific.