No. 37 - A Historical Reconstruction of Capital and Labour in Italy, 1861-2013

In this paper we provide a detailed explanation of the methodology underlying the construction of a new labour and capital stock dataset for Italy since 1861. The existing seminal paper (Rossi, Sorgato and Toniolo 1993) only covered the period 1911-1990 for labour and 1890-1990 for capital; moreover, sectoral disaggregation was limited. The labour dataset presented here includes both headcount and full-time equivalent annual estimates and provides a ten-sector breakdown. Net capital stock annual estimates are instead disaggregated by asset type (transport equipment, machinery and equipment, and construction, in turn divided into residential and non-residential). We then analyse the key features of the structural change in the Italian economy over the more than 150 years since unification. This dataset, combined with the new historical national accounts time series published by the Bank of Italy, finally makes a sectoral analysis of Italy’s long-run development possible.