Econ Papers Daily / 期刊论文
追赶琼斯？现代大学的兴起与意大利地方经济发展
Keeping up with the Joneses? The rise of modern universities and local economic development in Italy
摘要
This paper uses own built historical register tracing the evolution of Italian higher education from the High Middle Ages to 2010 to analyse the economic effects of the rise of modern universities. The registry data prompts the creation of a panel dataset measuring higher education supply across 110 Italian provinces from 1870 to 2010, which corresponds to the transition from elite to mass higher education in Italy. Our econometric approach combines a fixed effects estimator with Bartik-style instruments that exploit the historical cross-province distribution of higher education institutions in Italy. We find significant economic returns of universities, particularly in synergy with industrialisation, contributing to Italy’s transition to sustained growth. Our estimates predict that a province exposed to an average supply (equivalent to 7 universities, approximately) experiences an annual 2% increase in real gross value added per capita compared to a province with a zero supply. We show that about two thirds of these returns arise locally, while the remaining third originates from externalities. We argue that such high local concentration of economic returns contribute to fostering inequalities between small peripheral areas and large university hubs. Similar content being viewed by others
中文摘要
本文利用自建的历史登记册，追溯意大利高等教育从中世纪盛期至2010年的演变历程，分析现代大学兴起的经济效应。该登记册数据构建了一个面板数据集，用于衡量1870年至2010年间意大利110个省份的高等教育供给，这一时期对应意大利从精英教育向大众教育的转型。我们的计量方法结合了固定效应估计量与巴蒂克式工具变量，后者利用了意大利各省份高等教育机构的历史分布差异。研究发现，大学具有显著的经济回报，尤其在与工业化协同作用时，推动了意大利向持续增长的转型。我们的估计预测，与零供给的省份相比，面临平均供给（约相当于7所大学）的省份，其人均实际总增加值每年增长2%。我们表明，这些回报中约三分之二产生于本地，其余三分之一源于外部性。我们认为，这种经济回报的高度本地集中加剧了小型边缘地区与大型大学中心之间的不平等。类似内容被其他读者阅读。