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Understanding why some countries are prosperous while others fail in achieving high standards of welfare and wellbeing is one of the most interesting and investigated topics in economics. Several candidate exlplanations have been proposed, for instance cultural factors (Banfield 1958, Putnam 1993), geographical determinism (Diamond 1997), institutional determinants (North 1990, Acemoglu 2000, Acemoglu 2012). Interestingly, a common feature of any theoretical argument is that each of them fits well with the recent European history. If it is the theory which has been adapted to Europe or if it is Europe which presents the characteristics suited to successful economic growth is debatable. According to Landes (1999), it is just a stylized fact that Europe took and kept the lead for at least the last one thousand years. Therefore, even though "some would say that Eurocentrism is bad [.], hence to be avoided", it can be understood as an aknowledgement of history. Of course, there is not full agreement on the topic and different perspectives on the matter have been proposed (Hobson 2004). Whatever the story is, the European case is an interesting one, both in historical and in current terms. Indeed, since the Nineteenth century Europe (and the Western World) has been undertaking a continuous growth process, achieving unprecedented levels of wealth. Such a historical path allowed the Western countries to take the lead economically and politically. Using Landes (1999) words, "we live in a world of inequality and diversity, in which there are three kinds of nations: those that spend lots of money to keep their weight down; those whose people eat to live; and those whose people don't know where the next meal is coming from". Europe and the West have been constantly in the first kind. However, richies have never been evenly distributed also within rich countries and this is true for Europe as well. In particular, European geography has been characterized by a growing dichotomy. On the one hand, some countries have been performing succesfully, maintaining levels of wealth which are top standards on a global scale. This is the case for continental countries, including Scandinavian economies and the United Kingdom. On the other hand, other countries have been falling behind and have not been able to keep in touch with the fast growing core. In this group we find the so called South of Europe, i.e. the Mediterranean countries, as well as the former sovietic Eastern economies. Of course, disparities have always been with us and this is not necessarily bad, since growth does not need to be a perfectly balanced process (Hirschman 1958). However, such an issue becomes relevant as long as national and regional disparities either do not reduce or worsen overtime. This is even more important if the diverging economies belong to the same political entity. This is precisely the case of Europe, in particular of the European Union, a political and economic construct in which policy interventions have been implemented in the last decades to foster convergence and cohesion between economies. This dissertation investigates some of the main topics in the empirical literature on economic growth. The scope is to assess empirically the validity of some theoreatical statements and policy provisions, focussing mostly on European economies because of their peculiar economic history. A broader cross-country analysis is also provided in the last section. As a first step we will test whether under some specific circumstances economies will tend to get closer and closer in terms of wealth. Theoretically, following Solow (1957), the standard neoclassical model predicts that one should find evidence of convergence, in the sense that poorer economies ar expected to grow faster than richer ones (Barro 1992, Mankiw 1990). Of course, this holds as long as economies are similar in terms of structural characteristics (as the composition of output and the distribution of labour force across sectors) and technology. Hence, the first part of this dissertation will address unconditional convergence in European regions from 1990 to 2007, a relitvely homogeneous set of economies, emphasizing the role of sectoral dynamics in shaping aggregate outcome. The analysis of the dynamics of economic output provides an insightful picture of trends in economic growth and inequality between regions, fully describing the evolution of the distribution. Even though some policy implications can be drawn, they are quite limited. Indeed, such an unconditional analysis does not allow to tell which factors are positively associated with economic performance and which are not. The second section of this dissertation explores this line of research by focusing on two domains which have become particularly relevant after the last crisis in 2008: deregulation and liberalization of the labour market, fiscal parameters. The last part of this work takes a broader perspective on economic growth and correlated phenomena, also enlarging the sample under analysis beyond the European Union. One of the emerging topic in the empirical literature concerns the investigation of the relationship between environment degradation and economic growth. If at a first glance a positive relationship may be the more obvious pattern, some theoretical arguments suggest that under specific conditions environmental degradation may start declining at higher levels of GDP. In particular, three factors may be fostering such a process: environmental friendly technological innovation, structural change towards less energy-intensive activities, change in individual preferences together with regulation. Given this set of hypothesis, starting from the Nineties a large amount of empirical studies has been investigating the relationship between various indicators of environmental degradation and GPD. The main scope is to test empirically the so called Environmental Kuznetz Curve hypothesis, which states that environmental degradation increases with income until a threshold level, after which the relationship turns negative. The main idea is that at a sufficiently high level of income the three mechanisms above will trigger the switch in the relationship. We will test this hypothesis for a large sample of countries, augmenting the standard model in order to account for convergence in environmental degradation.

International audience ; This study differs from the traditional approach to the history of Genoa in the Middle Ages, which is tied to the definition of the ianuensis mercator. On the contrary, it aims at showing aspects of the artisans' life, and therefore at correcting an orientation which has excessively privileged a specific (albeit crucial) sector of the city society. Through a systematic survey of the very rich notary registers, the study traces a multifaceted profile of those belonging to Genoa's trade categories in the 12th and 13th centuries. The first part of the research begins with a definition of the artisans' identity through the analysis of the anthroponymic system, which is then used to illustrate the social and economic dynamics underlying the apprenticeship and wage work. The central part of the book, on the other hand, is dedicated to the commercial and financial tools available to artisans, and to their involvement in long-range trade. The family structure and the social relationships are defined on the basis of a large sample of skills, testaments and quarrels, and then followed by an analysis of the artisans' role in land and real estate transactions. The final discussion focuses on the participation of artisans in the political life and in military activities.

International audience ; This study differs from the traditional approach to the history of Genoa in the Middle Ages, which is tied to the definition of the ianuensis mercator. On the contrary, it aims at showing aspects of the artisans' life, and therefore at correcting an orientation which has excessively privileged a specific (albeit crucial) sector of the city society. Through a systematic survey of the very rich notary registers, the study traces a multifaceted profile of those belonging to Genoa's trade categories in the 12th and 13th centuries. The first part of the research begins with a definition of the artisans' identity through the analysis of the anthroponymic system, which is then used to illustrate the social and economic dynamics underlying the apprenticeship and wage work. The central part of the book, on the other hand, is dedicated to the commercial and financial tools available to artisans, and to their involvement in long-range trade. The family structure and the social relationships are defined on the basis of a large sample of skills, testaments and quarrels, and then followed by an analysis of the artisans' role in land and real estate transactions. The final discussion focuses on the participation of artisans in the political life and in military activities.

Le trasformazioni dell'economia globale e le dinamiche della crisi sistemica hanno avuto profonde ripercussioni sul lavoro. Utilizzando gli strumenti analitici propri della storia e della storia economica, gli autori tratteggiano il contesto economico della regione Friuli Venezia Giulia, ricostruendone specificità, percorsi, vischiosità e miti. Il quadro così delineato diventa lo scenario in cui ipotizzare, nel nuovo contesto globale, esiti e modi delle possibili politiche del lavoro messe in campo dall'amministrazione pubblica. Esiti e modi analizzati partendo da una lettura complessa delle relazioni che intercorrono tra la sfera dell'amministrazione, nei diversi livelli, e quella della politica. L'attenzione si focalizza sugli strumenti analitici piuttosto che sugli aspetti descrittivi. ; The mutations of global economy and the dynamics of the systemic crisis have carried deep repercussions upon labour. Through the use of analytical tools belonging to history as well as economic history the authors sketched the economic context of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region retracing its specificities, routes, viscosity and myths. Such description becomes the backdrop against which one can hypothesize, within this new global context, ways and outcomes of the possible politics of labour set in action by the public administration. Ways and outcomes that have been analysed starting from a complex reading of the relations weaved between the administration, in all its different levels, and the political scene. The focus is on the analytical tools rather than the descriptive aspects.

The thesis has been an historical reading of Taiwan industralization and of the formation of its labour movement. The research question was based on the evidence that the labour movement has been weak. The intention of the research was to understand why, by focusing the attention on the fragmentation of labour produced by the Taiwanese export oriented mode of industrialization. Taiwan's capitalist industrialization can be examined through an historical approach of state–society relations under the Gramsci model of historical analysis expressed on Notebook 25 "On the Margins of History, History of the Subaltern Groups". Gramsci assumed that labour history is a disaggregated function of civil society's history and of its relation with the state. To interpret the history of Taiwan labour through this kind of approach, it is necessary, according to the model, to understand the pre-capitalist mentality and social dynamics characterised by the so called guanxi (informal social networks), a typical aspects of Confucian societies. Industrialization installed on the top of this pre-existing social base that became the foundation of Taiwanese labour-state-capital relations. Guanxi in Taiwanese capitalist industrial society create such a strong hegemonic alliance between state and capital that constrained labour in a cage, preventing any autonomous initiative and reaction of workers. Thus, the movement was born as a tool of party politics and was directed by both the ruling party (KMT) and the opposition party (DPP). As a conclusion, labour movement in Taiwan rather than being a workers' way of affirming their interests, it has been a strategy of capital to affirm its hegemony.

La tesi esamina lo sviluppo delle relazioni fra il Partito comunista italiano e i partiti socialisti e socialdemocratici europei negli anni Sessanta e Settanta del Novecento. Vengono ricostruite, innanzitutto, le caratteristiche e l'evoluzione della rete di contatti che si costituisce tra i due soggetti. Del dialogo fra i comunisti italiani e i socialisti europei sono quindi evidenziati la rilevanza e gli esiti all'interno del contesto politico nazionale e internazionale di riferimento. Ad emergere è una rete di rapporti piuttosto articolata fra il Pci e i partiti dell'Internazionale socialista, che tuttavia non si traduce mai nel tentativo di una delle due parti di sviluppare un'organica alleanza. L'inserimento dell'internazionalismo comunista e socialista nel sistema internazionale della guerra fredda produce infatti un intreccio di fattori ideologici, di legittimazione politica e di ordine internazionale tale da limitare gli esiti politici del dialogo in seno alla sinistra europea. Anche nel quadro della distensione internazionale degli anni Settanta, la controversia ideologica social-comunista continua a giocare un ruolo decisivo. L'iniziativa dei comunisti italiani nei confronti delle socialdemocrazie rappresenta comunque un elemento rilevante del rinnovamento del Pci. Nel testo se ne distinguono tre fasi: 1964-1969 (avvio dei primi contatti nell'ambito della politica di distensione internazionale); 1970-1973 (avanzata socialdemocratica in Europa, che influenza anche l'innovazione politica del Pci); 1974-1979 (lancio dell'eurocomunismo e suo impatto sulla sinistra europea). Per quanto riguarda il punto di vista socialdemocratico, i dibattiti attorno alla "questione comunista" chiamano in causa le modalità della partecipazione dei partiti dell'Internazionale socialista al sistema occidentale. Nel testo tali dibattiti sono esaminati prima in relazione all'elaborazione di una risposta alle nuove domande sociali e internazionali emerse alla fine degli anni Sessanta, poi nel loro collegamento con i nuovi problemi dell'Europa della distensione e della crisi economica. Un'attenzione particolare è dedicata alla discussione dei partiti socialisti, e degli esecutivi che questi guidavano, attorno all'eventualità di una partecipazione al governo del Pci in Italia, alla metà degli anni Settanta. Nella definizione dell'approccio critico della maggior parte delle leadership socialiste europee risulta evidente un intreccio di motivazioni di natura politico-ideologica e internazionale. Il trattamento della vicenda italiana si connette alla dialettica interna con i settori "radicali" del movimento socialdemocratico, più sensibili alle istanze eurocomuniste. Lo studio è basato primariamente sulla ricerca archivistica incrociata sui documenti del Partito comunista italiano (conservati presso la Fondazione Istituto Gramsci di Roma), dell'Internazionale socialista (International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam), della Spd (Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Bonn), del Partito socialista francese (Fondation Jean Jaurès e Office Universitaire de Recherche Socialiste, Parigi) e del Labour Party britannico (Labour History Archives & Study Centre, Manchester). Si è fatto inoltre uso di altre collezioni e archivi digitali, oltre che dello spoglio sistematico della stampa periodica che faceva capo alle organizzazioni politiche che sono al centro della ricerca.

The end of the Second World War left in Europe millions of people who had been forced to leave their home countries. It was the most serious refugee crisis in western history. In the post-war years, refugees became a specific social category recognized by the international community. This category was allegedly universal, but hid a deep gender asymmetry. The essay analyses that asymmetry in a specific occurrence, the programme (named «Balt Cygnet») which arranged the employment of women who had fled Baltic countries as janitors in British sanatoriums. This programme became in fact a sort of laboratory test that defined the meaning of social and political resettlement – a process of integration deeply marked by gender differences.

The present research aims to give a contribution to the Sardinian history of migration in the post-war when, the economic plight, the high level of unemployment and the political instability leaded the Italian government to encourage mass emigration. The first chapter analyses studies on Sardinian migration within the Italian and international historiography, to highlight the relevance to the paradigms resulted during that time. The second chapter examines in depth the immediate post-war period, when Sardinia was facing a new political and administrative balance, and it analyses the national politics on migration into the island, as it was perceived by locals, moreover the operation of peripheral structures of the Ministry of labour in the management of internal and external labour employment. The third chapter outlines the main feature of the Sardinian migration flow, the development of migrants associations and their relation with the regional politic.

Facing severe pressure from increasing immigraton flows since the latter half of the 19th Century, in 1904 Argentina came up with a labour law draft to address the influx of foreign workers onto its national market: the Proyecto de Ley Nacional de trabajo of 1904. This very draft was written entirely by the eminent jurist and statesman Victor Joaquín Gonzalez, and it is combined with the Citizenship Law (Ley de residencia) of 1902, whose true purpose was to refuse entry in Argentina to any undesiderable aliens or to remove them from its territory if already entered into. Just like the infamous law of 1902, the National labour law draft would provide for several means to purify and to select migratory flows. Although not adopted by the argentinian Parliament, the Proyecto, with its own exclusion mechanisms and a two-faced rule of law, provokes a wider discussion on ius migrandi and its limitations, in the light of the measures taken in these times by many countries–including Italy–to counteract this phenomenon.

This paper intends to present Angelo Calemme's reconstruction of the Marxian project of a Critical history of technology offered in his most recent book Dalla Rivoluzione scientifica alla Rivoluzione industriale. Sulle condizioni marxiane dello sviluppo scientifico-tecnico (Meltemi Press Srl, Milano pp. 444, € 28, ISBN 9788855195652). This book questions the antithetical dominant approaches in the field of the history and theory of science and technology, which are crystallised in an at least centennial debate on the either external or internal logics of the development of scientific theory. Calemme proposes us a refreshing perspective in order to address the following problems: what has been the function of the applied mathematics in the technical development that brought to the Industrial Revolution? Such sciences develop themselves according to a proper ideology-free internal logic, or do they proceed according to an external causality, and namely, the value theory that directs economic structures and modes of production? The questions at stake are paramount to attempt a new critique of political economy able to expose the most inner logics of contemporary algorithmic and cognitive capitalism. This overview of Calemme's work argues that his proposal consists of a dialectical sublation of the debate through a genealogical understanding of Hegel's (concept of work-labour) and Charles Darwin's (concept of life) – among others – influence on Marx's notes on the history of technology. Ultimately, one must dialectically understand the relation between Critical history of technology and Critique of political economy, hence opening a perspective that can be productively integrated with Bernard Stiegler' sproject of a general organology. Marx; Darwin; Stiegler; Organology; Critical History of Technology; Critique of Political Economy.

International audience ; In recent years, the idea that national states should actively chose the persons to whom they confer legal access to their territories and labour markets has lead various European governments to adopt new point-based selection systems, inspired by older North-American models. These policies have been implemented – or are currently discussed – in the context of broader contemporary debates on migration which are strongly informed by utilitarian arguments and by a discursive contraposition of allegedly "useful" migrants, characterised by high levels of human capital, to poor migrants, who tend to be seen as economically "burdensome". Such dichotomous images have a long tradition in Europe, as is shown by a vast array of historical examples, stretching from late-medieval anti-vagrant laws to mercantilist policies aiming at attracting skilled craftsmen. However, these examples equally highlight that the central assumption of these policies – that is the belief that is possible to obtain a growth-enhancing regulation of migratory flows through a system of legal privileges – has mostly proven illusory, as it does not take into account the autonomous agency of migrant actors. Finally, the essay argues that granting different rights to migrants according to the perceived "usefulness" of the latter for the "nation" tends to degrade persons to means and to fuel a gradual erosion of the concept of equality. ; In anni recenti, l'idea che gli stati nazionali debbano scegliere attivamente le persone a cui concedere accesso legale al proprio territorio e mercato di lavoro ha indotto i governi di vari paesi europei ad adottare dei nuovi meccanismi selettivi basati su sistemi a punti. Ispirati a modelli nordamericani, questi dispositivi sono stati implementati – o sono attualmente in discussione – nel contesto di dibattiti di portata più generale: dibattiti che, a loro volta, sono permeati da argomenti utilitaristici e caratterizzati da una contrapposizione discorsiva tra migranti "utili", portatori di ...

The Author briefly summaries the legislative history of Italian social security cover for extra-occupational tuberculosis, and lists the economic benefits that the National Institute of Social Security (INPS) reserves for the individuals who are insured with it and suffer from this disease, describing both the administrative and health requirements. Thus, the publication attempts to place the purely conceptual medical-legal aspects on which social security for extra-occupational tuberculosis is based under the microscope of rational criticism; in this way, the medical and legal foundations for the prevalence of morbidity are examined, to reveal the anachronistic principles of a protection that, with current changes in social, geopolitical and labour dynamics, remains based on laws from the 1930s and 1970s, and the principles they expressed.

The aim of this paper is to provide, following an approach recently developed by Glaeser et al. (1992), an empirical investigation on the role of dynamic externalities in industrial agglomeration and long-run industrial development. By means of a very large dataset containing information at provincia level for 16 sectors of Italian manufacturing industry covering a thirty year period (1961-1991), geographical specialisation and variety of the local production are investigated, for both Italy and four geographical areas (North-West, North-East, South-East and South-West). It is argued that history matters, that is, initial conditions explain a very large share of industrial agglomeration, but within the geographical areas very different patterns of externalities emerge, as well as different local labour markets for the North and South of Italy.

ITALIANO: Questo studio si discosta dall'approccio tradizionale alla storia di Genova nel medioevo, vincolato alla definizione del genuensis mercator. Intende invece mostrare aspetti della vita degli artigiani, e correggere un orientamento che ha eccessivamente privilegiato uno specifico (e pur curuciale) settore della società cittadina. Attraverso una ricognizione sistematica dei ricchissimi registri notarili, lo studio traccia un profilo sfaccettato degli appartenenti alle categorie di mestiere nei secoli XII-XIII. Nella prima parte della ricerca, I si prendono le mosse da una definizione dell'identità degli artigiani attraverso l'analisi del sistema antroponimico, per illustrare poi le dinamiche sociali ed economiche alla base dell'apprendistato e del lavoro salariato. La parte centrale del libro è dedicata agli strumenti commerciali e finanziari a disposizione degli artigiani e al loro coinvolgimento nel commercio a lungo raggio. La struttura della famiglia e le relazioni sociali sono definiti sulla base di un largo campione di doti, testamenti e liti, a cui segue un'analisi del ruolo degli artigiani nelle transazioni fondiarie e immobiliari. La discussione conclusiva verte sulla partecipazione degli artigiani alla vita politica e alle attività militari. / ENGLISH: By shifting away from the traditional approach to Genoese medieval history, which has been hinged on the definition of the genuensis mercator, this book aims to offer insights into the life of artisans and redress the balance that has overly privileged merely one (if crucial) segment of the city's society. Through extensive research in Genoa's vast and rich notarial archives, this study traces a multifaceted history of artisans during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The first part of the study begins with a definition of artisan identity through an analysis of the onomastic system, ensued by a discussion on the social and economic dynamics underlying wage labour and apprenticeship. The central part of the book considers the use of the available commercial and financial instruments and the involvement of artisans in long-distance trade. Family structures and social relationships are defined on the basis of a wide sample of dowry acts, wills and litigations. This will be followed by an analysis of the artisans' role in the land and real estate market. The conclusive discussion will tackle artisan participation in politics and military campaigns.

During the Modern Age centuries, thousands of individuals were captured by pirates in the Mediterranean Sea and were enslaved in the land of the 'unfaithful: after being taken as prisoners, they were sold, forced to hard labour and rowing in the galleys or destined for redemption. Institutions, city judges and religious orders were involved in the redemption of Christians in the land of Islam, including the Mercedarians. This book reconstructs the history and activity of this Order and other protagonists of that activity in Italy and the Iberian Peninsula. After studying the books of redemption accounts sent to North Africa between the late 16th century and the early 18th century, the author shows how even religious men followed the orders of political power, and how that charitable activity ended up surrendering to economic and national interests.