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This paper examines the evolution of consumption practices in Venice in the long eighteenth century through the combined use of post‐mortem inventories and household budgets. Although Italy experienced a period of relative decline between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, our findings suggest that Venetian households enjoyed a rich and vibrant material culture that was fully comparable with those of the most advanced European urban economies. However, although new products, practices, and fashions were adopted by Venetian society, the architecture of consumption did not undergo sudden and extreme changes; rather, consumption was gradually refined, following the path that it had begun during the Renaissance. We therefore argue that the Venetian economy did not experience a consumer revolution but, instead, consumer evolution. Moreover, this study shows that sophisticated consumption practices were not exclusive to the more dynamic economies of the continent but were widespread even in those regions that were victims of the Little Divergence. We thus suggest that the relationship between consumption development and economic development was not necessarily causal and that the diffusion of new consumption practices throughout society was a necessary, but insufficient, prerequisite for economic take‐off. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Papers in Regional Science is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Regional Science Policy & Practice is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Papers in Regional Science is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Wine cooperatives were relatively scarce in Europe before the Second World War, but by the 1980s accounted for more than half of all wines made in France, Italy, and Spain, the three major producer countries. Unlike Danish dairy cooperatives, whose success before the First World War was linked to their ability to improve product quality and compete in high-value niche markets, wine cooperatives are often associated with the production of large volumes of low-quality products. This article argues that the initial slow diffusion of wine cooperatives was caused by the difficulties of improving quality due to environmental conditions in European vineyards ('terroir') and measurement problems, rather than institutional shortcomings. Cooperatives only became widespread when the state found them a useful instrument to regulate markets, especially after 1950. The problems associated with poor wine quality were never resolved, and cooperatives have become increasingly uncompetitive in the market place, especially following the major decline in per capita consumption and shift towards premium wines from the 1980s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines innovation investment during the major economic downturn of 2008-2009. Drawing from prospect theory, it suggests that increasing levels of slack resources enhance innovation investment during a crisis; slack resources also moderate the impact of historical performance on investment. This study also examines how, during global crises, the board of directors can affect the CEO's proclivity to invest by leveraging performance management devices, such as target-setting and behavioural evaluation criteria. A test based on a sample of Italian companies provides support for the hypothesized effects. Results suggest that firms may respond to global crisis with innovation investment, and that organizational factors, as well as the board of directors, may play a major role in this response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents value added estimates for the Italian regions, in benchmark years 1891–1951, which are linked to those from official figures available from 1971 on, in order to offer a long-term picture of Italy’s regional development. Regional activity rates and productivity are also discussed and compared. Some basic questions about Italy’s economic history are briefly considered, including the origins and extent of the north–south divide, the role of migration and regional policy in shaping the pattern of regional inequality, and the positioning of Italy in the international debate on regional convergence, where it stands out because of the long-run persistence of its disparities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the governmental scheme of planning and control in Sicily, Italy. It states that the regional administration Act of 2000 gave rise to the Sicilian management and strategic control program. It tells that the government pushes the region forward in attaining development as compared with European and Italian counterparts. Moreover, it asserts that Sicily should strive towards economic growth by using liquid assets of the public for the structuring of general wealth.

The article explores some reasons as to why Florence, Italy was ever able to establish a position of clear primacy in the trade of southern Italy. This exploration has been conducted not by the direct comparison between Florentines and their rivals, but by looking at internal strengths and weaknesses in the link between Florence and Naples, Italy--strengths which reduced southern reliance on Florence's real and potential rivals, weaknesses which created especially close bonds of economic interdependence. Scholars have long been aware that the scale of the relationship between Florence and Naples was unusually great. Some areas of Florentine success have been indicated in banking, in commerce, in office-holding, in land-getting, in culture too. But it is also necessary to present the Florentine balance-sheet keeping alive the question what specific advantage Florence derived from the south. The first point that must be made is that Florence was well suited to pay for the grain, oil, and livestock it bought in the south. It is abundantly clear that the Florentines paid for these goods by exporting finished cloth to southern Italy. A second consideration was the dependence of Florence on outside food supplies.

The article analyzes factors which affect economic structure and its development. The factors on which production of the country depends are discussed and gives three variables, the technology available, institutional framework and the structural relationship that exists among that country's population, resources, and technology. The article author says that by modifying any one of these variables, the other two remaining constant, the national product of a society can be increased or decreased. The agrarian reform in Italy are discussed in this regard. It further mentions that the institutionalists, from whom the theory expounded above is derived, until recently, approached the problem of production and development as a function of only two variables, technology, the driving force and institutions, the retarding force. Problem of unemployment in Italy and its possible solution is discussed here in this regard. The importance of "appropriateness" of raw material to the existing population and technology, with its drawbacks has been discussed in detail. The article concludes with the view that when viewed in the light of the theoretical framework presented, the problems connected with economic development become much clearer and it is possible to conclude that increases in a country's production of goods and services can be obtained in three ways, by altering the existing institutional framework, or by introducing new and better techniques or by modifying the quantitative relationships among that country's population, resources, and technology.

The article focuses on the commercial development of Ancona, Italy between 1479 and 1551. The description of the changes that occurred in the commerce of Ancona is divided into three main periods. A base period, 1479-84, is first described and is then compared with two periods of the first half of the sixteenth century, 1500-27 and 1541-51. The first of these two latter periods is one of fairly rapid development whilst the second is one of consolidation of the earlier changes. Although overall there was very considerable commercial development in the city, this development seems to have had remarkably little effect on the basic economy of the city. Commercial development did not lead as it did elsewhere to much industrial and agricultural change, but was rather superimposed on an existing framework which probably remained similar in its outlines throughout. Ancona's contribution to trade outside the Adriatic consisted almost entirely of the dispatch of two or three ships each year to the eastern Mediterranean principally to Constantinople or Alexandria.