EH.Net Abstracts in Economic History

                ABSTRACTS IN ECONOMIC HISTORY
                    (c) 1999 EH.Net
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Name:  Giovanni Federico
Email:  FEDERICO at STM.UNIPI.IT
Institution:  Universita di Pisa

Co-author:  Antonio Tena,  Universidad Carlos III de Madrid

Title:  Did Trade Policy Foster Italian Industrialization?  Evidences from
Effective Protection Rates, 1870-1930.

Internet Address of abstracted work:

By mail:
Giovanni Federico
Dipartimento di Storia Moderna e Contemporanea
Universita di Pisa
Piazza Torricelli 3/A
56126 Pisa, Italy

Language:  English

Abstract:
Trade policy, and its effects of tariffs on structural change and
industrialization, is arguably the most contentious topic in Italian
economic
history. However, so far the discussion has relied almost exclusively on
few scattered data and anecdotal evidence. This article builds on a
comprehensive data-base of nominal and effective protection rates to test
the main hypotheses put forward in the literature. We show that there is
little evidence of a deliberate strategy to foster industrialization, or of
any consistent strategy at all. So we argue that the actual structure of
Italian duties was the outcome of several causes, notably the need for
revenue and the lobbying by sectional interests.

Bibliography:  Federico, Giovanni and Antonio Tena.  "Did Trade Policy
Foster Italian Industrialization?  Evidences from Effective Protection
Rates, 1870-1930."  Research in Economic History, Vol. 19, 1999,
forthcoming.

Subject:  S
Geographical Area:  4
Country/Region:  Italy
Time Period:  0
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