Neo-Classical Economics

Regional convergence in Italy, 1891–2001: testing human and social capital

by Emanuele Felice

forthcoming in Cliometrica (already available on-line)

this in a highly incomplete draft. Please see the published copy (from the link) for the final and complete version, as well as for quotation

La copia in pdf è solo un abbozzo, incompleto. Per la versione definitiva e completa (e per eventuali citazioni) si veda l'articolo pubblicato, dal link

The article aims to present and discuss estimates of levels of human and social capital in Italy’s regions over the... more The article aims to present and discuss estimates of levels of human and social capital in Italy’s regions over the long term, i.e., roughly from the second half of the nineteenth century up to the present day. The results are linked to newly available evidence for regional value added in order to begin to form an explanatory hypothesis of long-term regional inequality in Italy: convergence in value added per capita is tested in light of the neoclassical exogenous growth approach, which incorporates human capital and social capital as conditioning variables into a long-term production function. In contrast with conventional wisdom (e.g. Putnam 1993), we find that social capital was not a significant predictor of economic growth in post-Unification Italy: It grew in importance only in the last decades. Conversely, human capital was more important in the first half of the twentieth century. Results suggest that there was not one single conditioning variable over the long run, thus supporting the view that, in different periods, conditioning variables can be determined by technological regimes.

Review of Mary Mellor, The Future of Money, and Tony Hill and Rod Myatt, The Economics Anti-Textbook

by John Barry

These two books in different ways speak to the current global economic crisis – and contribute in different ways to... more These two books in different ways speak to the current global economic crisis – and contribute in different ways to our understanding of the causes and consequences of that crisis and what opportunities for transformation it presents. Rod Hill and Tony Myatt’’s book The Economics Anti-Text Book, offers a comprehensive and devastating critique of the dominant economic paradigm – namely neo-classical economics – which has so spectacularly failed. Mary Mellor’s The Future of Money focuses on the theory and practical dynamics of the financial system, the credit crisis and the relationship between the money and real economies. Both offer important insights into the ideological dimensions of the current crisis of capitalism and the importance of ideas, particularly around questioning hegemonic and authoritative capitalist understandings of ‘economics’ and ‘the economy’.