Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/107566 
Year of Publication: 
2015
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 8776
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We study the connection between economic performance and the quality of government institutions for the sample of 103 Italian NUTS3 regions, including new measures of institutional performance calculated using data on the provision of different areas of public services. In order to address likely endogeneity problems, we use the histories of the different foreign dominations that ruled Italian regions between the 16th and 17th century and over seven hundred years before the creation of the unified Italian State. Our results suggest that past historical institutions play a significant role on the current public administration quality and show that the latter makes a difference to the economic performance of regions. Overall, our analysis confirms that the quality of institutions matters for development, and that history can be used to find suitable instruments.
Subjects: 
economic development
institutions
history
instrumental variables
JEL: 
O11
O43
C26
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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