Gabriele Cappelli
Biographic Data
| ID | 1194543 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Gabriele Cappelli |
| GIVEN NAMES | Gabriele |
| FAMILY NAME | Cappelli |
| SIGNATURE | CAPPELLI G |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Siena |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8934-953X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 32 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 12 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Catching the technological frontier? Vocational and technical education (VTE) and inventive activity in Italy, 1861–1911
Italy's slow human capital accumulation during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is a key determinant of the limited inventive activity of the country. Whilst the education–innovation nexus was explored in previous research, the relationship between the diffusion of vocational and technical education (VTE) and inventive activity has not been assessed. In this paper, we present a brand‐new dataset of VTE schools across Italy's provinces in th…
Whither Education? The Long Shadow of Pre-Unification School Systems into Italy's Liberal Age (1861-1911)
This paper contributes to the literature on the determinants of the expansion of mass schooling and the long-term legacy of educational institutions. Based on a new provincial-level dataset for Italy in the period 1861-1911, we argue that different models of schooling provision adopted by the different pre-unification polities influenced primary-education organizations across macro-regions up to WWI. As a result, school access and the capability …
Missing girls in Liberal Italy, 1861-1921
By relying on the number of (surviving) boys per hundred girls observed in the population censuses as a cumulative measure of differential mortality during birth, infancy, and childhood, this paper shows that average Italian child sex ratios (aged 0-4) were abnormally high between 1861 and 1921. Our estimations indicate that unexplained excess female mortality resulted in around 2-3 per cent of 'missing girls' during this period. Likewise, by con…
Introduction
This article introduces the special issue of the Revista de Historia Industrial – Industrial History Review on theory and econometrics in historical analysis. First, it briefly reviews the literature on the evolution of economic history since the so-called cliometric revolution, i.e., the growing use of theory to frame historical evidence and the increasing use of quantitative techniques, particularly to study causality. Secondly, it provides an …
A “Silent Revolution”
This paper explores the evolution of the human capital gender gap in Liberal Italy (1871–1921). First, we show that Italy lagged some 50 years behind more advanced countries like France, Prussia and the UK, and that the regional divide in gendered literacy was unparalleled in the rest of Europe. Next, we test whether the shift to primary-school centralization in 1911 (the Daneo-Credaro Reform) brought about a decisive improvement in female litera…
Numeracy development in Africa
Female teachers and the rise of primary education in Italy and Spain, 1861-1921
This article provides the first harmonized quantitative evidence on the rise of mass education across the provinces (today's NUTS 3) of Italy and Spain in the period c. 1861-1921. Visual analysis of this new dataset suggests that an important factor linked to the expansion of schooling was the feminization of the teaching profession, something that has been largely neglected so far in quantitative historical studies of educational development. Th…
Can school centralization foster human capital accumulation? A quasi-experiment from early twentieth-century Italy
This article shows that a shift towards a more centralized school system can benefit countries that are characterized by poor levels of human capital and large regional disparities in education. In 1911, Italy moved from a fully decentralized primary school system towards centralization through the Daneo-Credaro Reform. The design of the Reform allows us to compare treated municipalities with those that retained school autonomy. Our quasi-experim…
Globalization and the Rise of Mass Education
European Trade, Colonialism and Human Capital Accumulation in Senegal, Gambia and Western Mali, 1770-1900
European Trade, Colonialism, and Human Capital Accumulation in Senegal, Gambia and Western Mali, 1770-1900
We trace the development of human capital in today's Senegal, Gambia, and Western Mali between 1770 and 1900. European trade, slavery, and early colonialism were linked to human capital formation, but this connection appears to have been heterogeneous. The contact with the Atlantic slave trade increased regional divergence, as the coast of Senegambia developed more quickly than inner areas. This pattern was affected by French early colonialism an…
One size that didn’t fit all? Electoral franchise, fiscal capacity and the rise of mass schooling across Italy’s provinces, 1870–1911
The Missing Link? Trust, Cooperative Norms, and Industrial Growth in Italy
Despite recent research about the link between social capital and economic growth, the degree to which social norms influenced the first phase of Italy's regional economic divergence remains largely unexplored. A methodology based on a multifaceted definition of social capital, employing data about charity, mutual aid, and crime permits estimates of the differences in the strength of trust and cooperative norms across Italy's provinces at ten-yea…
European Trade, Colonialism, and Human Capital Accumulation in Senegal, Gambia and Western Mali, 1770-1900
We trace the development of human capital in today's Senegal, Gambia, and Western Mali between 1770 and 1900. European trade, slavery, and early colonialism were linked to human capital formation, but this connection appears to have been heterogeneous. The contact with the Atlantic slave trade increased regional divergence, as the coast of Senegambia developed more quickly than inner areas. This pattern was affected by French early colonialism an…
Can school centralization foster human capital accumulation? A quasi-experiment from early twentieth-century Italy
This article shows that a shift towards a more centralized school system can benefit countries that are characterized by poor levels of human capital and large regional disparities in education. In 1911, Italy moved from a fully decentralized primary school system towards centralization through the Daneo-Credaro Reform. The design of the Reform allows us to compare treated municipalities with those that retained school autonomy. Our quasi-experim…
Numeracy development in Africa
Missing girls in Liberal Italy, 1861-1921
By relying on the number of (surviving) boys per hundred girls observed in the population censuses as a cumulative measure of differential mortality during birth, infancy, and childhood, this paper shows that average Italian child sex ratios (aged 0-4) were abnormally high between 1861 and 1921. Our estimations indicate that unexplained excess female mortality resulted in around 2-3 per cent of 'missing girls' during this period. Likewise, by con…
Whither Education? The Long Shadow of Pre-Unification School Systems into Italy's Liberal Age (1861-1911)
This paper contributes to the literature on the determinants of the expansion of mass schooling and the long-term legacy of educational institutions. Based on a new provincial-level dataset for Italy in the period 1861-1911, we argue that different models of schooling provision adopted by the different pre-unification polities influenced primary-education organizations across macro-regions up to WWI. As a result, school access and the capability …
Female teachers and the rise of primary education in Italy and Spain, 1861-1921
This article provides the first harmonized quantitative evidence on the rise of mass education across the provinces (today's NUTS 3) of Italy and Spain in the period c. 1861-1921. Visual analysis of this new dataset suggests that an important factor linked to the expansion of schooling was the feminization of the teaching profession, something that has been largely neglected so far in quantitative historical studies of educational development. Th…
One size that didn’t fit all? Electoral franchise, fiscal capacity and the rise of mass schooling across Italy’s provinces, 1870–1911
The Missing Link? Trust, Cooperative Norms, and Industrial Growth in Italy
Despite recent research about the link between social capital and economic growth, the degree to which social norms influenced the first phase of Italy's regional economic divergence remains largely unexplored. A methodology based on a multifaceted definition of social capital, employing data about charity, mutual aid, and crime permits estimates of the differences in the strength of trust and cooperative norms across Italy's provinces at ten-yea…
European Trade, Colonialism and Human Capital Accumulation in Senegal, Gambia and Western Mali, 1770-1900
European Trade, Colonialism, and Human Capital Accumulation in Senegal, Gambia and Western Mali, 1770-1900
We trace the development of human capital in today's Senegal, Gambia, and Western Mali between 1770 and 1900. European trade, slavery, and early colonialism were linked to human capital formation, but this connection appears to have been heterogeneous. The contact with the Atlantic slave trade increased regional divergence, as the coast of Senegambia developed more quickly than inner areas. This pattern was affected by French early colonialism an…
Globalization and the Rise of Mass Education
Can school centralization foster human capital accumulation? A quasi-experiment from early twentieth-century Italy
This article shows that a shift towards a more centralized school system can benefit countries that are characterized by poor levels of human capital and large regional disparities in education. In 1911, Italy moved from a fully decentralized primary school system towards centralization through the Daneo-Credaro Reform. The design of the Reform allows us to compare treated municipalities with those that retained school autonomy. Our quasi-experim…
A “Silent Revolution”
This paper explores the evolution of the human capital gender gap in Liberal Italy (1871–1921). First, we show that Italy lagged some 50 years behind more advanced countries like France, Prussia and the UK, and that the regional divide in gendered literacy was unparalleled in the rest of Europe. Next, we test whether the shift to primary-school centralization in 1911 (the Daneo-Credaro Reform) brought about a decisive improvement in female litera…
Numeracy development in Africa
Female teachers and the rise of primary education in Italy and Spain, 1861-1921
This article provides the first harmonized quantitative evidence on the rise of mass education across the provinces (today's NUTS 3) of Italy and Spain in the period c. 1861-1921. Visual analysis of this new dataset suggests that an important factor linked to the expansion of schooling was the feminization of the teaching profession, something that has been largely neglected so far in quantitative historical studies of educational development. Th…
Introduction
This article introduces the special issue of the Revista de Historia Industrial – Industrial History Review on theory and econometrics in historical analysis. First, it briefly reviews the literature on the evolution of economic history since the so-called cliometric revolution, i.e., the growing use of theory to frame historical evidence and the increasing use of quantitative techniques, particularly to study causality. Secondly, it provides an …
Whither Education? The Long Shadow of Pre-Unification School Systems into Italy's Liberal Age (1861-1911)
This paper contributes to the literature on the determinants of the expansion of mass schooling and the long-term legacy of educational institutions. Based on a new provincial-level dataset for Italy in the period 1861-1911, we argue that different models of schooling provision adopted by the different pre-unification polities influenced primary-education organizations across macro-regions up to WWI. As a result, school access and the capability …
Missing girls in Liberal Italy, 1861-1921
By relying on the number of (surviving) boys per hundred girls observed in the population censuses as a cumulative measure of differential mortality during birth, infancy, and childhood, this paper shows that average Italian child sex ratios (aged 0-4) were abnormally high between 1861 and 1921. Our estimations indicate that unexplained excess female mortality resulted in around 2-3 per cent of 'missing girls' during this period. Likewise, by con…
Catching the technological frontier? Vocational and technical education (VTE) and inventive activity in Italy, 1861–1911
Italy's slow human capital accumulation during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is a key determinant of the limited inventive activity of the country. Whilst the education–innovation nexus was explored in previous research, the relationship between the diffusion of vocational and technical education (VTE) and inventive activity has not been assessed. In this paper, we present a brand‐new dataset of VTE schools across Italy's provinces in th…
Economics (11 works) · Political science (10 works) · Culture, Economy, and Development Studies (9 works) · Economic growth (8 works) · Geography (7 works) · Demographic economics (6 works) · Development economics (6 works) · Historical Economic and Social Studies (6 works) · Human capital (6 works) · Literacy (4 works)