Journal of European Economic History - 2017 issue 3


Volume XLVI

Editore
Bancaria Editrice
Anno
2017
Pagine
194
Disponibilità
Disponibile
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ARTICLES
The European Economic Community and Italian Regional Disparities, 1951-1987
Economic disparities across regions have been a concern for the European Economic Community since its foundation, despite the widespread belief that economic growth fostered by European integration would reduce the cross-country dispersion of per capita GDP. While there is empirical support for a positive link between the EEC and convergence among member states, the influence of European economic integration on within-country regional dispari - ties is more disputed. This paper examines the evolution of income dispersion among Italian regions in the period 1951-1987, in order to ascertain whether the substantial catching-up by the South during the 1950s and 1960s and the subsequent standstill in regional income and output gaps with respect to the North were primarily due to European integration. To this end, we analyse the dynamics of the main determinants of the evolution of regional income differentials in Italy since the birth of the EEC, as well as the South’s capability to cope with the new competitive environment. We argue that the performance of the South’s per capita GDP relative to the North’s was only indirectly related to European integration; to a great extent, it derived from changes in Italy’s general economic conditions and in the economic policy stance towards the South.
A Value to Labour. The ILO and the Process of European Economic Integration During the 1950s
The history of the International Labour Organization has been investigated in increasing depth over time. With recourse to selected historiography and press and periodical sources, this article reflects on a specific period, the 1950s, to highlight the ideals and methods of the ILO in carrying out its institutional task, operating during a functionalist phase in the construction of a European Community that has been studied in varying ways by different scholars from a social and labour perspective. Drawing on its own aspirations and expertise, and dealing with its own internal institutional dynamics, the ILO accompanied the beginning of the process by highlighting potential problems while constantly favouring the logic of market enlargement and economic integration, in the awareness that the model of development being pursued could constitute an invention unprecedented in the history of the European continent and crucial to its future. The Organization’s cooperation with the nascent European community was formalize by agreements with the Council of Europe in 1951 and the European Coal and Steel Community in 1953, by which the ILO guaranteed extensive advice and technical assistance over time that would focus particularly on working conditions, labour mobility, social security, labour reintegration, vocational training and workplace health and safety.
NOTES
Italian Values-Grounded Liberalism and the German Social Market Economy: A Transnational Convergence Behind the Treaty of Rome of 1957
Alcide De Gasperi and Konrad Adenauer, two founding fathers of European integration, shared a bilingual culture, a strong Catholic faith, and a market-oriented economic approach based on the principle of subsidiarity. We analyse the reflections on European economic integration by the Italian values-grounded liberals Luigi Sturzo and Luigi Einaudi and by the German social market economists Alfred Müller-Armack and Wilhelm Röpke, all of whom influenced the policies of De Gasperi and Adenauer and their contributions to the Treaty of Rome. The conclusion draws lessons for the present and future state of the European Union.
PROBLEMS
Cooperation and Investment for the Development of Southern Italy from a European and International Perspective, 1950-1960
This paper examines the significance of the development of southern Italy from an international perspective. Post-war underdevelopment and unemployment in the region were important issues in the context of European integration and the cold war. The European Investment Bank and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) supplied funds to rectify the situation. In addition, the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) viewed the development of southern Italy as a process that would likely increase trade between Italy and Eastern Europe. The backwardness of the Mezzogiorno was part of a vaster European problem that also affected Greece, Turkey, and Yugoslavia. This paper also traces Italy’s bilateral agreements with European trading partners such as France and Germany, noting the particular opportunities they offered for the region’s progress. It suggests, in conclusion, that the European Union today should revisit development policies of the kind that in the 1950s successfully brought Italy into the European Economic Community.
RETROSPECTIVE
Giuseppe Salvioli’s Capitalism in the Ancient World
BOOK REVIEWS
Assunta di Sante and Simona Turriziani
Quando la fabbrica costruì San Pietro. Un cantiere di lavoro, di pietà cristiana e di umanità XVI-XIX secolo 159
Donatella Strangio

Kenneth Dyson, Ivo Maes
Architects of the Euro 162
Giorgio La Malfa

Idamaria Fusco
La grande epidemia. Potere e corpi sociali di fronte all’emergenza nella Napoli spagnola 164
Gaetano Sabatini

Matteo Pasetti
L’Europa corporativa. Una storia transnazionale tra le due guerre mondiali 167
Valerio Torreggiani

Marina Romani
Storia economica e storia degli ebrei. Istituzioni, capitale sociale e stereotipi (secc. XV-XVIII) 175
Marco Moroni

Tiziano Torresi
Sergio Paronetto. Intellettuale cattolico e stratega dello sviluppo 180
Simone Misiani
BOOKS RECEIVED
REFEREES (2015-2017)