Alessandro Nuvolari
Biographic Data
| ID | 369851 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Alessandro Nuvolari |
| GIVEN NAMES | Alessandro |
| FAMILY NAME | Nuvolari |
| SIGNATURE | NUVOLARI A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7275-4827 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 28 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 88 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 28 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Tracing Inventions and Inventors in Italy (1861–1938): Evidence from a New Patent Dataset, Historical Italian Patents (HIP)
This article introduces a new large-scale historical database, Historical Italian Patents (HIP), containing all 270,000 patents registered in Italy from the political unification (1861) to 1938. Drawing on this database, we provide a reappraisal of the sources and structure of inventive activities, considering both domestic and foreign inventions and inventors. The major findings of the article are as follows: (i) foreign patentees registered mor…
Digital piracy in times of Covid-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected the consumption patterns of cultural goods. Using novel data from a consumer survey conducted in January 2022 across 14 countries, we address two key issues. First, we provide a descriptive analysis of changes in the consumption of four cultural goods—music, films and series, games, and books—focusing on shifts between legal and illegal consumption. Second, we reassess the relationship between digi…
Rails of Progress? Exploring the nexus between railroad access and innovation in Italy (19th-20th centuries)
Railroads construction in Italy during the period 1855–1936 fostered a “democratization of invention”, increasing access to the patent system for independent inventors in peripheral areas, particularly in the Centre-North of the country. • The construction of railroads during Italy's Liberal Age led to a 4.3 % annual increase in patenting, with significant impact for the railroads constructed during the phase of the Destra storica (1861–1878). It…
Italy's long-term economic performance: GDP estimates from 1300 to 1861
We present new demand-side estimates of gross domestic product (GDP) per capita for Italy and its two macro-areas, Centre-North and South, for the pre-industrial period (1328-1861) on the basis of a novel dataset including almost 100,000 observations from 169 different locations. Our estimates confirm the chronology of the 'Little Divergence' relative to the Netherlands and England. Italy maintained its leading position relative to the other Euro…
British-French Technology Transfer from the Revolution to Louis Philippe (1791-1844): Evidence from Patent Data
This paper examines the patterns of technology transfer from Britain to France during the early phases of industrializing using a dataset comprising all patents granted in France in the period 1791-1844. Exploiting the peculiarities of French legislation, we construct an array of patent quality indicators and investigate their determinants. We find that patents filed by British inventors or French inventors with personal connections to British in…
Age heaping and its discontents: A response to Baten, Benati, and Ferber
This note is a rejoinder to Baten, Benati, and Ferber. We reiterate that, on close inspection, nineteenth‐century Italian census data contain a number of anomalies that sit uncomfortably with a straightforward age‐heaping‐as‐numeracy interpretation. In particular, we respond to Baten, Benati, and Ferber on the technical matters they have raised; then we show that our findings are robust to such criticism. Finally, we conclude with some general re…
Rethinking age heaping: A cautionary tale from nineteenth-century Italy
Age heaping is widely employed as an indicator of human capital, more specifically of numeracy. We re-examine the age heaping-numeracy link in the light of evidence from nineteenth-century Italian censuses, in which education explains little of the variation in age heaping. We argue that in general age heaping is most plausibly interpreted as an indicator of cultural, economic, and institutional modernization rather than a straightforward measure…
The race between the snail and the tortoise: Skill premium and early industrialization in Italy (1861–1913)
Intellectual Property Rights and Agricultural Development: Evidence from a Worldwide Index of IPRs in Agriculture (1961-2018)
This paper revises and updates the Campi-Nuvolari index of intellectual property protection for plant varieties. The new index provides yearly scores for the period 1961–2018 for 104 countries, which have legislation on plant variety protection in force. The new evidence highlights the ongoing shift towards more similar and stronger systems of intellectual property rights (IPRs) worldwide, regardless of individual characteristics of countries. Th…
Patterns of innovation during the Industrial Revolution: A reappraisal using a composite indicator of patent quality
The distinction between macro- and microinventions is at the core of recent debates on the Industrial Revolution. Yet, the empirical testing of this notion has remained elusive. We address this issue by introducing a new quality indicator for all patents granted in England in the period 1700–1850. The indicator provides the opportunity for a large-scale empirical appraisal of macro- and microinventions. Our findings indicate that macroinventions …
Patenting the Risorgimento: Economic Integration and the Formation of the Italian Patent System (1855–1872)
In 1864, the patent law of the Kingdom of Sardinia was extended to the newly created Kingdom of Italy. In this paper, on the basis of a new dataset containing all Italian patents granted over the period 1855-1872, we examine the formative years of this crucial institutional change. Firstly, we map the characteristics of the inventors before and after the 1864 reform. In particular, we look at their nationality and geographical distribution within…
Understanding successive industrial revolutions: A “development block” approach
The Origins of the Italian Regional Divide: Evidence from Real Wages, 1861-1913
The origins of the Italian North-South divide have always been controversial. We fill this gap by estimating a new dataset of real wages (Allen 2001; Allen et al. 2011) from Unification (1861) to WWI. Italy was very poor throughout the period, with a modest improvement since the late nineteenth century. This improvement started in the Northwest industrializing regions, while real wages in other macro-areas remained stagnant. The gap Northwest/Sou…
Innovation and technological diffusion: An economic history of early steam engines
Innovation and technological diffusion: An economic history of early steam engines." Business History, 60(6), pp. 930–931
The Ghost in the Attic: The Italian National Innovation System in Historical Perspective, 1861–2011
The Ghost in the Attic? The Italian National Innovation System in Historical Perspective, 1861–2011
In this paper we provide a survey of the long term evolution of the Italian “National innovation system” since the unification. . First we provide a broad reconstruction of long term trends by examining a wide range of quantitative indicators of science and technological activities in comparative perspective. Second, on the basis of this quantitative picture, we put forward a conjectural interpretation of the fundamental features of the Italian n…
Technical Change, Non-Tariff Barriers, and the Development of the Italian Locomotive Industry, 1850-1913
The locomotive industry was one of the relatively sophisticated "high tech" sectors in which Italy, a late industrializer, was successful before 1913. Using technical data on the performance of different vintages of locomotives, we construct a new industry-level index of technical change. We also study the impact of different policy instruments (import duties, non-tariff trade barriers, and other discretionary interventions) in shaping the develo…
Independent invention inItaly during the Liberal Age, 1861-1913
This article examines the phenomenon of independent invention inItaly during theLiberalAge (1861-1913). It makes use of a new dataset comprising all patents granted inItaly in five benchmark years: 1864-5, 1881, 1891, 1902, and 1911. The following exercises are carried out. First, an examination is undertaken of the shares of independent, corporate, and foreign inventions and their evolution over time and across industries. Second, by exploiting …
Innovation Without Patents: An Introduction
International audience
Inventors, Patents, and Inventive Activities in the English Brewing Industry, 1634–1850
This article examines the relationship between patents, appropriability strategies, and market for technology in the English brewing industry before 1850. Previous research has pointed to the apparent paradox that large-scale brewing in this period showed both a self-aware culture of rapid technological innovation and a remarkably low propensity to patent. Our study records how brewery innovators pursued a wide variety of highly distinct appropri…
The early diffusion of the steam engine in Britain, 1700–1800: A reappraisal
We examine the diffusion of steam technology across British counties during the eighteenth century. First, we provide new estimates for the regional variations in the timing, pace and extent of usage of steam engines. Our main data source is an updated version of the list of steam engines erected in Britain during the eighteenth century originally compiled by Kanefsky and Robey (Technol Cult 21:161–186, 1980). Following a rather established appro…
Bennet Woodcroft and the value of English patents, 1617–1841
We examine the potentialities of a new indicator measuring the value of English patents in the period 1617–1841. The indicator is based on the relative visibility of each individual patent in the contemporary technical and legal literature as summarized in Bennet Woodcroft's Reference Index of Patents of Invention. We conclude that the indicator provides a reasonable proxy for the value of patents and that it can be usefully employed to shed ligh…
Intellectual property rights and the life science industries: Past, present and future - By Graham Dutfield
The rise and decline of Dutch technological leadership: Technology, economy and culture in the Netherlands, 1350-1800 - By Karel Davids
Technical choice, innovation, and British steam engineering, 1800-501
The development of the high-pressure expansive engine represented a watershed in the evolution of steam power technology, allowing the attainment of major fuel economies. In Britain, Cornish engineers took the lead in the exploration of this specific technological trajectory. Notwithstanding its superior fuel efficiency was immediately widely discussed, the high-pressure expansive engine did not find widespread application in other steam-using re…
The Origins of the Italian Regional Divide: Evidence from Real Wages, 1861-1913
The origins of the Italian North-South divide have always been controversial. We fill this gap by estimating a new dataset of real wages (Allen 2001; Allen et al. 2011) from Unification (1861) to WWI. Italy was very poor throughout the period, with a modest improvement since the late nineteenth century. This improvement started in the Northwest industrializing regions, while real wages in other macro-areas remained stagnant. The gap Northwest/Sou…
Bennet Woodcroft and the value of English patents, 1617–1841
We examine the potentialities of a new indicator measuring the value of English patents in the period 1617–1841. The indicator is based on the relative visibility of each individual patent in the contemporary technical and legal literature as summarized in Bennet Woodcroft's Reference Index of Patents of Invention. We conclude that the indicator provides a reasonable proxy for the value of patents and that it can be usefully employed to shed ligh…
Independent invention inItaly during the Liberal Age, 1861-1913
This article examines the phenomenon of independent invention inItaly during theLiberalAge (1861-1913). It makes use of a new dataset comprising all patents granted inItaly in five benchmark years: 1864-5, 1881, 1891, 1902, and 1911. The following exercises are carried out. First, an examination is undertaken of the shares of independent, corporate, and foreign inventions and their evolution over time and across industries. Second, by exploiting …
Patterns of innovation during the Industrial Revolution: A reappraisal using a composite indicator of patent quality
The distinction between macro- and microinventions is at the core of recent debates on the Industrial Revolution. Yet, the empirical testing of this notion has remained elusive. We address this issue by introducing a new quality indicator for all patents granted in England in the period 1700–1850. The indicator provides the opportunity for a large-scale empirical appraisal of macro- and microinventions. Our findings indicate that macroinventions …
Understanding successive industrial revolutions: A “development block” approach
The Pitfalls of Prosopography: Inventors in the Dictionary of National Biography
This article investigates the representation in the Dictionary of National Biography (1885–1900) of inventors and inventive activities during the British industrial revolution. We analyse a data-set of all individuals born in the period 1650–1850 whose entry credits them with at least one invention, in order to interrogate the late Victorians' concept of invention and its influence on successive narratives of the British industrial revolution. Ou…
Rethinking age heaping: A cautionary tale from nineteenth-century Italy
Age heaping is widely employed as an indicator of human capital, more specifically of numeracy. We re-examine the age heaping-numeracy link in the light of evidence from nineteenth-century Italian censuses, in which education explains little of the variation in age heaping. We argue that in general age heaping is most plausibly interpreted as an indicator of cultural, economic, and institutional modernization rather than a straightforward measure…
The Ghost in the Attic? The Italian National Innovation System in Historical Perspective, 1861–2011
In this paper we provide a survey of the long term evolution of the Italian “National innovation system” since the unification. . First we provide a broad reconstruction of long term trends by examining a wide range of quantitative indicators of science and technological activities in comparative perspective. Second, on the basis of this quantitative picture, we put forward a conjectural interpretation of the fundamental features of the Italian n…
Technical choice, innovation, and British steam engineering, 1800-501
The development of the high-pressure expansive engine represented a watershed in the evolution of steam power technology, allowing the attainment of major fuel economies. In Britain, Cornish engineers took the lead in the exploration of this specific technological trajectory. Notwithstanding its superior fuel efficiency was immediately widely discussed, the high-pressure expansive engine did not find widespread application in other steam-using re…
British-French Technology Transfer from the Revolution to Louis Philippe (1791-1844): Evidence from Patent Data
This paper examines the patterns of technology transfer from Britain to France during the early phases of industrializing using a dataset comprising all patents granted in France in the period 1791-1844. Exploiting the peculiarities of French legislation, we construct an array of patent quality indicators and investigate their determinants. We find that patents filed by British inventors or French inventors with personal connections to British in…
Age heaping and its discontents: A response to Baten, Benati, and Ferber
This note is a rejoinder to Baten, Benati, and Ferber. We reiterate that, on close inspection, nineteenth‐century Italian census data contain a number of anomalies that sit uncomfortably with a straightforward age‐heaping‐as‐numeracy interpretation. In particular, we respond to Baten, Benati, and Ferber on the technical matters they have raised; then we show that our findings are robust to such criticism. Finally, we conclude with some general re…
Technical Change, Non-Tariff Barriers, and the Development of the Italian Locomotive Industry, 1850-1913
The locomotive industry was one of the relatively sophisticated "high tech" sectors in which Italy, a late industrializer, was successful before 1913. Using technical data on the performance of different vintages of locomotives, we construct a new industry-level index of technical change. We also study the impact of different policy instruments (import duties, non-tariff trade barriers, and other discretionary interventions) in shaping the develo…
Inventors, Patents, and Inventive Activities in the English Brewing Industry, 1634–1850
This article examines the relationship between patents, appropriability strategies, and market for technology in the English brewing industry before 1850. Previous research has pointed to the apparent paradox that large-scale brewing in this period showed both a self-aware culture of rapid technological innovation and a remarkably low propensity to patent. Our study records how brewery innovators pursued a wide variety of highly distinct appropri…
The Making of Steam Power Technology: A Study of Technical Change during the British Industrial Revolution
Writing in 1845 Friedrich Engels (and with him many other informed contemporaries) had few hesitations in pointing out the driving forces of the epochal transformation he was witnessing: The history of the proletariat in England begins with the second half of the last century, with the invention of the steam engine and the machinery for working cotton. These inventions gave rise, as is well known to an industrial revolution, a revolution which al…
Innovation Without Patents: An Introduction
International audience
The Making of Steam Power Technology: A Study of Technical Change during the British Industrial Revolution
Writing in 1845 Friedrich Engels (and with him many other informed contemporaries) had few hesitations in pointing out the driving forces of the epochal transformation he was witnessing: The history of the proletariat in England begins with the second half of the last century, with the invention of the steam engine and the machinery for working cotton. These inventions gave rise, as is well known to an industrial revolution, a revolution which al…
The Pitfalls of Prosopography: Inventors in the Dictionary of National Biography
This article investigates the representation in the Dictionary of National Biography (1885–1900) of inventors and inventive activities during the British industrial revolution. We analyse a data-set of all individuals born in the period 1650–1850 whose entry credits them with at least one invention, in order to interrogate the late Victorians' concept of invention and its influence on successive narratives of the British industrial revolution. Ou…
A Culture of Improvement: Technology and the Western Millennium – By Robert Friedel
The rise and decline of Dutch technological leadership: Technology, economy and culture in the Netherlands, 1350-1800 - By Karel Davids
Technical choice, innovation, and British steam engineering, 1800-501
The development of the high-pressure expansive engine represented a watershed in the evolution of steam power technology, allowing the attainment of major fuel economies. In Britain, Cornish engineers took the lead in the exploration of this specific technological trajectory. Notwithstanding its superior fuel efficiency was immediately widely discussed, the high-pressure expansive engine did not find widespread application in other steam-using re…
Intellectual property rights and the life science industries: Past, present and future - By Graham Dutfield
The early diffusion of the steam engine in Britain, 1700–1800: A reappraisal
We examine the diffusion of steam technology across British counties during the eighteenth century. First, we provide new estimates for the regional variations in the timing, pace and extent of usage of steam engines. Our main data source is an updated version of the list of steam engines erected in Britain during the eighteenth century originally compiled by Kanefsky and Robey (Technol Cult 21:161–186, 1980). Following a rather established appro…
Bennet Woodcroft and the value of English patents, 1617–1841
We examine the potentialities of a new indicator measuring the value of English patents in the period 1617–1841. The indicator is based on the relative visibility of each individual patent in the contemporary technical and legal literature as summarized in Bennet Woodcroft's Reference Index of Patents of Invention. We conclude that the indicator provides a reasonable proxy for the value of patents and that it can be usefully employed to shed ligh…
Innovation Without Patents: An Introduction
International audience
Inventors, Patents, and Inventive Activities in the English Brewing Industry, 1634–1850
This article examines the relationship between patents, appropriability strategies, and market for technology in the English brewing industry before 1850. Previous research has pointed to the apparent paradox that large-scale brewing in this period showed both a self-aware culture of rapid technological innovation and a remarkably low propensity to patent. Our study records how brewery innovators pursued a wide variety of highly distinct appropri…
The Ghost in the Attic: The Italian National Innovation System in Historical Perspective, 1861–2011
The Ghost in the Attic? The Italian National Innovation System in Historical Perspective, 1861–2011
In this paper we provide a survey of the long term evolution of the Italian “National innovation system” since the unification. . First we provide a broad reconstruction of long term trends by examining a wide range of quantitative indicators of science and technological activities in comparative perspective. Second, on the basis of this quantitative picture, we put forward a conjectural interpretation of the fundamental features of the Italian n…
Technical Change, Non-Tariff Barriers, and the Development of the Italian Locomotive Industry, 1850-1913
The locomotive industry was one of the relatively sophisticated "high tech" sectors in which Italy, a late industrializer, was successful before 1913. Using technical data on the performance of different vintages of locomotives, we construct a new industry-level index of technical change. We also study the impact of different policy instruments (import duties, non-tariff trade barriers, and other discretionary interventions) in shaping the develo…
Independent invention inItaly during the Liberal Age, 1861-1913
This article examines the phenomenon of independent invention inItaly during theLiberalAge (1861-1913). It makes use of a new dataset comprising all patents granted inItaly in five benchmark years: 1864-5, 1881, 1891, 1902, and 1911. The following exercises are carried out. First, an examination is undertaken of the shares of independent, corporate, and foreign inventions and their evolution over time and across industries. Second, by exploiting …
Innovation and technological diffusion: An economic history of early steam engines
Innovation and technological diffusion: An economic history of early steam engines." Business History, 60(6), pp. 930–931
Patenting the Risorgimento: Economic Integration and the Formation of the Italian Patent System (1855–1872)
In 1864, the patent law of the Kingdom of Sardinia was extended to the newly created Kingdom of Italy. In this paper, on the basis of a new dataset containing all Italian patents granted over the period 1855-1872, we examine the formative years of this crucial institutional change. Firstly, we map the characteristics of the inventors before and after the 1864 reform. In particular, we look at their nationality and geographical distribution within…
Understanding successive industrial revolutions: A “development block” approach
The Origins of the Italian Regional Divide: Evidence from Real Wages, 1861-1913
The origins of the Italian North-South divide have always been controversial. We fill this gap by estimating a new dataset of real wages (Allen 2001; Allen et al. 2011) from Unification (1861) to WWI. Italy was very poor throughout the period, with a modest improvement since the late nineteenth century. This improvement started in the Northwest industrializing regions, while real wages in other macro-areas remained stagnant. The gap Northwest/Sou…
The race between the snail and the tortoise: Skill premium and early industrialization in Italy (1861–1913)
Intellectual Property Rights and Agricultural Development: Evidence from a Worldwide Index of IPRs in Agriculture (1961-2018)
This paper revises and updates the Campi-Nuvolari index of intellectual property protection for plant varieties. The new index provides yearly scores for the period 1961–2018 for 104 countries, which have legislation on plant variety protection in force. The new evidence highlights the ongoing shift towards more similar and stronger systems of intellectual property rights (IPRs) worldwide, regardless of individual characteristics of countries. Th…
Patterns of innovation during the Industrial Revolution: A reappraisal using a composite indicator of patent quality
The distinction between macro- and microinventions is at the core of recent debates on the Industrial Revolution. Yet, the empirical testing of this notion has remained elusive. We address this issue by introducing a new quality indicator for all patents granted in England in the period 1700–1850. The indicator provides the opportunity for a large-scale empirical appraisal of macro- and microinventions. Our findings indicate that macroinventions …
Age heaping and its discontents: A response to Baten, Benati, and Ferber
This note is a rejoinder to Baten, Benati, and Ferber. We reiterate that, on close inspection, nineteenth‐century Italian census data contain a number of anomalies that sit uncomfortably with a straightforward age‐heaping‐as‐numeracy interpretation. In particular, we respond to Baten, Benati, and Ferber on the technical matters they have raised; then we show that our findings are robust to such criticism. Finally, we conclude with some general re…
Rethinking age heaping: A cautionary tale from nineteenth-century Italy
Age heaping is widely employed as an indicator of human capital, more specifically of numeracy. We re-examine the age heaping-numeracy link in the light of evidence from nineteenth-century Italian censuses, in which education explains little of the variation in age heaping. We argue that in general age heaping is most plausibly interpreted as an indicator of cultural, economic, and institutional modernization rather than a straightforward measure…
British-French Technology Transfer from the Revolution to Louis Philippe (1791-1844): Evidence from Patent Data
This paper examines the patterns of technology transfer from Britain to France during the early phases of industrializing using a dataset comprising all patents granted in France in the period 1791-1844. Exploiting the peculiarities of French legislation, we construct an array of patent quality indicators and investigate their determinants. We find that patents filed by British inventors or French inventors with personal connections to British in…
Digital piracy in times of Covid-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected the consumption patterns of cultural goods. Using novel data from a consumer survey conducted in January 2022 across 14 countries, we address two key issues. First, we provide a descriptive analysis of changes in the consumption of four cultural goods—music, films and series, games, and books—focusing on shifts between legal and illegal consumption. Second, we reassess the relationship between digi…
Economics (17 works) · Political science (16 works) · Historical Economic and Social Studies (13 works) · Law (13 works) · Business (9 works) · Geography (9 works) · Italy: Economic History and Contemporary Issues (9 works) · Computer Science (8 works) · History (8 works) · Intellectual Property and Patents (7 works)