The historical economics of corruption and development within Italy Online publication date: Sun, 15-Sep-2013
by Ilaria Petrarca; Roberto Ricciuti
International Journal of Monetary Economics and Finance (IJMEF), Vol. 6, No. 2/3, 2013
Abstract: We investigate the relationship between corruption and economic performance, focusing on the historical roots of the former. We claim that a sequential mechanism linking history to development exists: first, history defines the quality of social capital; then, social capital determines the level of corruption; finally, corruption affects economic performance. We empirically test this hypothesis on a dataset of Italian provinces, and address the possible endogeneity of corruption by applying an IV model. We use three sets of historical instruments for corruption: 1) foreign dominations that ruled Italian regions between the 16th and 17th century; 2) autocracy/autonomous rule in the 14th century; 3) an index of social capital between the end of the 19th and at the onset of the 20th century. The results confirm the validity of the set of instruments (2) and (3), and indicate a significant impact of historically driven corruption on development.
Existing subscribers:
Go to Inderscience Online Journals to access the Full Text of this article.
If you are not a subscriber and you just want to read the full contents of this article, buy online access here.Complimentary Subscribers, Editors or Members of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Monetary Economics and Finance (IJMEF):
Login with your Inderscience username and password:
Want to subscribe?
A subscription gives you complete access to all articles in the current issue, as well as to all articles in the previous three years (where applicable). See our Orders page to subscribe.
If you still need assistance, please email subs@inderscience.com
Our Blog 
Follow us on Twitter 
Visit us on Facebook