Monica Bozzano
University of Pavia. Department of Law
Gabriele Cappelli
DEPS, USiena
Abstract
This paper shows how historical institutions, inherited from pre-unification regional states, cast a long shadow on the evolution of literacy across the provinces of Liberal Italy (1871-1911). Although increasing local inputs into public primary schooling were associated with higher literacy, pre-unification schooling is found to be a crucial predictor of literacy in the period under study. New provincial estimates of school efficiency based on Data Envelopment Analysis suggest that pre-unification education and parental literacy were also important determinants of the success in converting schooling into literacy
Keywords
schooling, effectiveness, efficiency, human capital, education production function, economic history, institutions, reforms, Italy
Jel Codes
E02, H75, I25, N33.
