Railways 1871-1911

Data for the paper N. Pontarollo, R. Ricciuti (2018) Railways and manufacturing productivity in Italy after Unification. The political unification of Italy in 1861 led to the establishment of a single market with a single currency. Market integration was the economic outcome of this process. At the same time, the Kingdom of Italy started a large infrastructure project to spread railways all over the country. We find that railways played a positive effect on manufacturing productivity across the country over the period 1871-1911, without a differential effect along the North/South divide. Railways also had strong spillover effects in neighboring provinces.