Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/247037 
Year of Publication: 
2016
Series/Report no.: 
EHES Working Papers in Economic History No. 106
Publisher: 
European Historical Economics Society (EHES), s.l.
Abstract: 
The paper aims to analyze the effects of plague on the long-term development of Italian cities, with particular attention to the 1629-30 epidemic. By using a new dataset on plague mortality rates in 49 cities covering the period 1575-1700 ca., an economic geography model verifying the existence of multiple equilibria is estimated. It is found that cities severely affected by the 1629-30 plague were permanently displaced to a lower growth path. It is also found that plague caused a long-lasting damage to the size of Italian urban populations and to urbanization rates. These findings support the hypothesis that seventeenth-century plagues played a fundamental role in triggering the process of relative decline of the Italian economies.
Subjects: 
Plague
Italian cities
Urban development
Urban demography
Multiple equilibria
Early modern period
Mortality crises
Urbanization
Italy
JEL: 
N30
N33
N93
D31
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.