Wie eine Waehrungsunion Italiens Sueden verarmen liess

Erst mit einiger Versptung merkten die Zeitgenossen, wie sehr die Whrungsunion den wirtschaftlich schwcheren Regionen zu schaffen machte. Ihre Ausfuhren gingen um 16 Prozent zurck. Manufakturen mussten schlieen, im Binnenmarkt wuchs der Exportberschuss des reichen Nordens. Investitionen blieben aus, weil die wohlhabenden Schichten lieber die als sicher geltenden Staatsanleihen des neuen Whrungsraums kauften. Es half nichts, dass eine rigorose Sparpolitik die anfngliche Schuldenkrise bald berwand und sogar zu einem ausgeglichenen Haushalt fhrte: Die Art, wie diese Austerittspolitik ins Werk gesetzt wurde, vergrerte die Kluft weiter.

So war es, nachdem die Italiener vor 150 Jahren ihren Nationalstaat grndeten, aus so gegenstzlichen Teilen wie dem liberalen Piemont und dem feudalistischen Knigreich beider Sizilien. Bis heute vereint das Land die konomischen Extreme Europas innerhalb der eigenen Grenzen. Im Sden lag die Jugendarbeitslosigkeit schon vor der Krise bei 50 Prozent, in einigen Regionen des Nordens herrschte hingegen stets Vollbeschftigung. Die Frage ist, was sich aus diesem Europa im Kleinen fr das groe Ganze lernen lsst.
This actually very informative article does illuminate some of the Italian issues and their origins for German readers. Not that their are well-known to an even small number of Italians. The Banca d'Italia has a lot of quaderni, basically papers, on the storia economica d'Italia. They do a good job at explaining the historical economic development of this country.

Convergence among Italian Regions, 1861-2011

Abstract

In 150 years, the trends in regional disparities in economic development within Italy have differed depending on whether they are gauged by longitude or by latitude. The disparities between western and eastern regions first widened and then closed; the North-South gap, by contrast, remains the main open problem in the national history of Italy.

This work focuses on the underlying causes of the turning points in regional disparities since national unification in 1861. The first came in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, with the industrialization of the so-called industrial triangle. This was followed by the failed new turn during the interwar years: not only were the beginnings of convergence blocked but the North-South gap, until then still natural, inevitable, was transformed into a fracture of exceptional dimensions. The second turning point, in the twenty years after the World War, produced the first substantial, lasting convergence between southern and northern Italy, powered by rising productivity and structural change in the South. The last turning point was in the mid-1970s, when convergence was abruptly halted and a protracted period of immobility in the disparity began.

JEL Classification: N63, N93, R11, R12
Keywords: Italy, regional disparities

Authors: Giovanni Iuzzolino * , Guido Pellegrini** , Gianfranco Viesti***

I will comment on it when I have more time.