On May 13, 2021, the School of Economics of Peking University(SOE) held an online economic history workshop. Matteo Magnaricotte, a 5th year Ph.D. student from Northwestern University, gave a presentation on "Local Specialization and Growth: The Italian Land Reform." Approximately 20 faculty and students attended the workshop, including Yiling Zhao, assistant professor of SOE; Yu Hao, associate professor of SOE; Hanhui Guan, associate professor of SOE and Joy Chen, assistant professor of the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business.
Matteo began the talk by introducing the historical background of this research. Following WWII, Italy was characterized by large areas of poor farmers, uncultivated land, and absentee landowners. To increase productivity and reduce inequality, the Christian Democrats, the ruling party since the 1948 elections, resolved to enact a law that defined the areas where expropriations of the largest landowners could be carried out. The law rested on the shoulders of the recently adopted Constitution, which declared that private property could be expropriated for general interest with compensation.
The authors use digitized data from the Italian Census and National Institution of Agrarian Economics. The main empirical strategy compares municipalities that were affected and unaffected by the land reform, measured by incidences of expropriation. In a generalized difference in differences model, Matteo showed that treated areas had a significantly higher share of employment in agriculture and a lower share of employment in manufacturing post reform. The results hold at both intensive and extensive margin.
While income and standard of living improved in the short run, Matteo highlighted a negative long-run relationship between land reform and income growth. Matteo ruled out the intermediate channel in a lower level of human capital and pointed out a mechanism through sectoral specialization.
Matteo and the audience had a wonderful discussion regarding the land reform literature and potential alternative mechanisms.
主讲人简介
Matteo is a 5th year Ph.D. student at Northwestern University working on topics of development economics with a particular interest in individual labor and educational choices. He uses contemporary and historical data to study the impact of regulation and public policy on a variety of factors that affect economic growth. Matteo will be on the job market next year.
北京大学经济学院工作坊简介
北大经济学院、国家发展研究院和新结构经济学研究院达成框架合作协议，采用轮流主持的方式共同举办“政治经济学”、“国际经济学与实证产业组织”、“宏观经济学”、“微观理论经济学”、“计量、金融和大数据分析”、“劳动-健康经济学”、“发展与公共财政”工作坊。截至2020年年底，工作坊共举办活动209场。这些活动为广大师生提供了良好的国内外一流学术交流平台，促进了学院之间的学术资源整合和人才培养，提升了广大师生和经济学领域的研究水平。
2021年伊始，北大经济学院继续扩大工作坊规模、扩展合作范围，与光华管理学院、国家发展研究院共同举办了“经济史”工作坊；与国家发展研究院、现代农学院共同举办了“能源、环境与气候经济学”工作坊；此外，打破高校间壁垒，与清华大学经济管理学院、中国人民大学财政金融学院共同举办了“风险、保险与不确定性经济学”三校联合工作坊。经济学院将与这些院校一道，继续深化合作，为广大师生的学术交流提供更为广阔的平台。
供稿单位：经济学院科研办公室
供稿人：李嫣然
美编：单祎琳、初夏
责编：量子、禾雨、予天
