Gianni Marciante

Abstract: The roots of sustained growth in England are increasingly located in the period from the Scientific Revolution to the Age of the Enlightenment. Productivity increases have been suggestively linked to the development of communication infrastructures and the diffusion of useful knowledge. In this paper, we isolate the empirical impact of the evolution of the postal system in England and Wales over the period 1570-1769 on interpersonal communication exchanges in the context of the Republic of Letters. We exploit a quasi-natural experiment due to a postal system reform leading to the opening of the pre-existing network to the public in 1635. We build a novel geo-referenced database involving about 56,000 letters by roughly 9,000 correspondents. Using difference-in-differences, we show that the reform led to a substantial increase in interpersonal communications. The main findings are confirmed by event-study analyses and an instrumental-variables strategy, bolstering confidence in a causal interpretation of our estimates. Looking at the patterns of interactions, we detect a sizable intensification of communications between scholars and professionals. We collect the content of around 30,000 letters, classify their topics exploiting unsupervised text analysis, and detect a sizable impact of the reform on the evolution of communications related to useful knowledge. Finally, drawing on biographical data, we document the effects on innovation activities. Taken together, the findings provide the first systematic evidence of the role of the postal system for the rise of the Knowledge Economy in England on its way to the Industrial Revolution in the early modern period.

Abstract: This paper examines the effects of resistance to nation building on the local market for private protection in the context of 19th-century Sicily. In 1861 the Italian central government introduced conscription in Sicily for nation-building purposes. The policy provoked an identity backlash in Sicilian society that brought about a government-led repression campaign in 1863, to curb large-scale draft evasion on the island. Using a novel dataset on episodes of government repression and historical mafia presence, I find that the Sicilian mafia was more likely to develop in towns victimised by the repression campaign, where the demand for protection was higher. To infer causality, I use an instrumental variables approach based on a network of least-cost paths connecting garrison towns that were visited by the army during the 1863 expedition. I find suggestive evidence that increasing distrust in government in repressed towns helps account for the early spread of the Sicilian mafia.

Abstract: The role of women's education in driving the historical fertility transition remains poorly understood. Existing studies have focused on France, an early outlier, or on Prussia before the onset of its demographic transition. Less is known about the context where this effect is expected to be strongest: the onset of the transition in late transitioning countries. This paper fills this gap by studying the impact of womens education on fertility in Italy (1881 to 1921). Using original district level panel data, we exploit the interaction between proximity to the first female teacher training colleges opened under the Casati Law of 1859 and time fixed effects as an instrumental variable. IV estimates confirm a negative effect of education on fertility, operating through health knowledge and the economic independence that female teachers embodied.

Abstract: In this paper we study the effect of the launch of an educational TV programme in Italy, titled Telescuola, on women’s inclusion in the Italian labour market in the mid-20th century. This programme, broadcast in Italy from October 1958 to June 1966, was designed to allow children living in communities where no secondary school existed to complete the full cycle of compulsory education. Telescuola Viewing Groups (PAT) were spontaneously arranged in various places, including reformatories, jails, sanatoria, hospitals, and parishes. Taking advantage of both spatial heterogeneity in the presence of PATs and exogenous variation in TV signal strength resulting from topographic factors, we use an instrumental variables approach to estimate the causal impact of Telescuola on the change in female labour force participation across Italian municipalities from 1951 to 1961.