The innovation-trade nexus: Italy in historical perspective (1861-1939)
Giacomo Domini
#2015-055
This work investigates the relationship between trade and technological
specialisation in Italy, during the long time span ranging from
Unification to the eve of the Second World War. To do this, new series
of Italy's indices of specialisation in trade and technology are
calculated on the base of o?cial data. Empirical analysis, based on
Spearman rank correlation coe?cients and fixed-e?ects regression, shows
the emergence of a positive relationship between specialisation in
technology and specialisation in trade after the start of the country's
modern economic growth, around the turn of the twentieth century. This,
however, was uniquely driven by a negative relationship between
technological specialisation and import shares, while no significant
relationship between the former and export shares emerges. Furthermore,
this finding excludes the most important sector, leading Italian
industrialisation, i.e. textiles, the outstanding performance of which
can be seen as largely determined by its being particularly suited to
the country's factor endowment.
Key words: innovation; trade; Italy; specialisation; comparative
advantages
JEL classification: N73, N74, O14, O33