Giovanni Federico, Alessandro Nuvolari & Michelangelo Vasta
The Journal of Economic History, 79/1 (2019), pp. 63-98
Type: Articles in scientific journals

The article explores the origins of the Italian North-South divide with a novel data-set of real wages by province from 1861 to 1913.  Nation-wide wages were only very low throughout the period.  Wages increased significantly only in the industrializing Northwest since the late XIX century, widening the gap with the South.  The main driver of this growth was human capital information.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-economic-history/article/origins-of-the-italian-regional-divide-evidence-from-real-wages-18611913/B376EC1A339AE4147E7171CA2086C90F