The rise and fall of the Italian economy / Carlo Bastasin, Gianni Toniolo.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bastasin, Carlo, 1959- author.

Toniolo, Gianni, 1942- author.

Series:

New approaches to economic and social history

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Italy--Economic conditions--1945-.

Italy.

Italy--Economic conditions--1918-1945.

Italy--Economic conditions--1870-1918.

Italy--Economic policy.

Italy--History.

Italy--Politics and government.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xii, 175 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2023.

Summary:

Carlo Bastasin and Gianni Toniolo provide a much-needed, up-to-date economic history of Italy from unification in 1861 to the present day. They show how, thirty years after unification, Italy began a long phase of convergence with more advanced economies so that by the late twentieth century Italy's per capita income reached the levels of Germany, France and the UK. From the mid-1990s, however, the Italian economy declined first in relative and then absolute terms. The authors describe the intertwined financial and institutional crises that eroded trust in the political system and in the economy at the exact juncture when new technologies and markets transformed the global economy. Longstanding problems of uneven levels of education and obsolete bureaucratic and judicial practices deepened the division between economically vibrant regions and the rest, causing polarization, political instability and rising public debt. Italy's contemporary malaise makes the country a test-case for understanding the implications of protracted declines in productivity and the flattening of GDP growth for the stability of western democracies, resulting in populism, mistrust and political instability.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 30 Aug 2023).

Other Format:

Print version:

ISBN:

9781009235303 (ebook)

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.