This chapter examines the role of energy in the economic growth of twentieth-century Europe. It c... more This chapter examines the role of energy in the economic growth of twentieth-century Europe. It considers the interrelationships of factors of production in order to identify the general features of a shared experience of growth, rather than to illuminate the local differences. The chapter first explains how development blocks contributed to GDP growth before discussing seven long-run propositions, including the strong growth of capital stock and catch-up with the leader of capital–GDP ratios; machinery increased more than GDP, labor, and other capital; and falling and converging energy intensity in the twentieth century. The chapter concludes with an overview of the link between energy intensity and economic structure. It argues that it was the third industrial revolution that was behind most of the increasing economic efficiency of energy consumption after the 1970s.
This chapter examines the emergence of a modern energy regime in Europe. It begins with a discuss... more This chapter examines the emergence of a modern energy regime in Europe. It begins with a discussion of the increase in energy consumption and how a combination of coal, engine, and iron coalesced to form the “development block” that characterized and drove the first industrial revolution. It then considers the role of coal in the new geography of energy supply, divergence in energy regimes, and urbanization and pollution. It also describes the rise and relative decline of traditional energy sources such as calories from the soil, food demand, working animals, firewood, water power, and wind power. The chapter shows that the amount of renewable energy available to each inhabitant in Europe was falling in the case of every single carrier except food, as population growth outstripped supply.
Information on wages has never been exploited in the longlasting debate on North-South disparitie... more Information on wages has never been exploited in the longlasting debate on North-South disparities in Italy in the aftermath of the national Unification. The present article is based on a wide array of data on provincial wages in the building sector over the period 1862-1878. Nominal wages in the Centre-North and the South, including the Islands, were similar, because of the high wage levels in Sardinia and Sicily. In the peninsular South, nominal wages were about 10-15 percentage points lower than in the Centre-North. Yet, whenever the difference in prices is taken into account, any disparity between Centre-North and Mezzogiorno fades away.
In Modern societies, when per capita income is high, inequality is relatively low and vice versa.... more In Modern societies, when per capita income is high, inequality is relatively low and vice versa. In past societies as well –most scholars mean- the relationship between per capita GDP and inequality was inverse. As a consequence, since per capita GDP was then low, inequality was high. The case-study of the Kingdom of Naples in 1811 shows that the opposite is true in this pre-modern society. Inequality was low because per capita GDP was low. The relationship ine-quality-product was then direct. The results reached on the Kingdom of Naples allow to reconsider the trend of inequality in Italy during the 18th and 19th century. In this long period inequality exibits the ordinary Kuznets turned U trend: from the equality in poverty in pre-modern times, to a relatively high inequality in the first phase of the industrialization, to the equality in affluence later.
Tema. Journal of Land Use, Mobility and Environment, 2016
TeMA. Journal of Land Use, Mobility and Environment offers researches, applications and contribut... more TeMA. Journal of Land Use, Mobility and Environment offers researches, applications and contributions with a unified approach to planning and mobility and publishes original inter-disciplinary papers on the interaction of transport, land use and environment. Domains include: engineering, planning, modeling, behavior, economics, geography, regional science, sociology, architecture and design, network science and complex systems. The Italian National Agency for the Evaluation of Universities and Research Institutes (ANVUR) classified TeMA as scientific journal in the Area 08. TeMA has also received the Sparc Europe Seal for Open Access Journals released by Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC Europe) and the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). TeMA is published under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License and is blind peer reviewed at least by two referees selected among high-profile scientists. TeMA has been published since 2007 and is indexed in the main bibliographical databases and it is present in the catalogues of hundreds of academic and research libraries worldwide.
The article by Jack Goldstone, Dating the Great Divergence, has the merit of discussing both the ... more The article by Jack Goldstone, Dating the Great Divergence, has the merit of discussing both the wide panorama of recent global history and the conclusions stemming from specific northEuropean long-term series of GDP.1 The article’s main target is the deeply rooted idea that Modern Growth was the continuation of previous trends of GDP growth. Goldstone’s opinion is that the rise of the West, in the frame of global history, occurred only from the late-eighteenth century or the beginning of the Nineteenth, not earlier. At the time, a true divergence among World economies did not exist. Modern Growth is different from previous periods of expansion not merely in the degree but also in the nature. Pre-modern examples of growth were episodic and not sustained; they represented temporary ‘efflorescences’ rather than long upward rises.2 It is apparent that, in such an approach to growth, problems of definition are crucial. Since the modern rise is deemed to be different from past ‘efflorescences’ of sporadic growth, what is, according to Goldstone, the primary feature of “modern” in comparison with ‘pre-modern’? The definition of Modern Growth adopted by Goldstone is the classical one put forward in economics and historical research primarily by Simon Kuznets:3 it is characterised both by strong increases in population and production; growth in production is, however, higher than in population. The result is then a rise in per capita product or intensive4 growth. This rise is sustained for long periods of time and primarily derives from modern technological growth. This definition of Modern Growth, rapidly recalled by Goldstone in his present article, had been more widely discussed in his previous article on efflorescences and economic growth in World history.5 In the following, I will deal with the differences between modern and pre-modern growth and later with the concept of technological progress in relation to the rise of the West. I will focus primarily on Europe and the Mediterranean and will include extra-European macroareas at the end.
This book examines the varied but interconnected relationships between energy consumption and eco... more This book examines the varied but interconnected relationships between energy consumption and economic development in Europe over the last five centuries. It describes how the traditional energy economy of medieval and early modern Europe was marked by stable or falling per capita energy consumption, and how the First Industrial Revolution in the eighteenth century—fueled by coal and steam engines—redrew the economic, social, and geopolitical map of Europe and the world. The Second Industrial Revolution continued this energy expansion and social transformation through the use of oil and electricity, but after 1970 Europe entered a new stage in which energy consumption has stabilized. This book challenges the view that the outsourcing of heavy industry overseas is the cause, arguing that a Third Industrial Revolution driven by new information and communication technologies has played a major stabilizing role. It offers new perspectives on the challenges posed today by climate change and peak oil, demonstrating that although the path of modern economic development has vastly increased our energy use, it has not been a story of ever-rising and continuous consumption. The book sheds light on the often lengthy and complex changes needed for new energy systems to emerge, the role of energy resources in economic growth, and the importance of energy efficiency in promoting growth and reducing future energy demand.
Italy played a central role in the Euro-Mediterranean economy during Antiquity, the late Middle A... more Italy played a central role in the Euro-Mediterranean economy during Antiquity, the late Middle Ages, and the Renaissance. Until the end of the 16th century, the Italian economy was relatively advanced compared with those of the Western European and Mediterranean countries. From the 17th century until the end of the 19th, GDP rose as the population increased. Yet per capita income slowly diminished together with real wages, urbanization, and living standards. Italy lost its central position in the Euro-Mediterranean world and, until the end of the 19th century, was a relatively backward area on the periphery of the most dynamic countries in the north and center of Europe. The Italian premodern economy represents a classic example of extensive growth or GDP growth without improvement in per capita income and living standards.
ABSTRACT Our knowledge of energy consumption over the past two centuries is still superficial. Th... more ABSTRACT Our knowledge of energy consumption over the past two centuries is still superficial. The available energy databases cover, at best, the years from the 1960s. Furthermore, we know little on the consumption of traditional sources; still in use in developing countries. The consequence is that the modern “energy transition” and its impact on the economy is still poorly known. The purpose of the present contribution is twofold. It aims at: 1. filling this gap, through the analysis of the main transformations which have occurred since 1820 in global energy consumption; 2. focusing on the changes in the relative energy-GDP developments due to the exploitation of fossil energy sources on the one hand and energy-saving technology on the other.
Contact with other animals was the cause of the worst infectious illnesses that have affected the... more Contact with other animals was the cause of the worst infectious illnesses that have affected the human species in past agrarian societies. Various strains of influenza, smallpox, malaria, plague, measles, and cholera were provoked by infections which first affected domestic animals or those non-domestic species with which humans came into contact, such as mice, fleas or lice 1 and were then transmitted from animals to humans and from humans to other animals. In pre-modern agrarian societies, between two thirds and three quarters of deaths were caused by infectious diseases. Only in recent times has what is defined as an epidemic transition taken place. In 18 th-19 th century Europe there was a shift from illnesses transmittable from one person to another to degenerative non-infectious diseases. 2 The mortality rate has depended to a lesser degree on bacteria and viruses and on the inter-specific struggle among different animal species. Great epidemics mark the agricultural world of the past; from Neolithic times onwards. The formation of much denser societies with respect to those of hunters and gatherers, and daily contact with domestic animals are at the origins of serious epidemic infections which have accompanied humans for 10,000 years. Among these are infections of the digestive system-typhoid and paratyphoid fevers, dysentery, diarrhoea, cholera-; infections of the breathing apparatus, transmitted through the air-smallpox, diphtheria, measles, influenza: infections of the reproductive system-syphilis and venereal diseases in general-; diseases introduced into tissue and into the blood stream deriving from insect bites-plague, typhoid fever, yellow fever and malaria-. 3 Density and mobility of population, and poor diet have often been regarded as determinants of these epidemics. The relationship between population and resources plays an important role, but chance also plays a role in the spread of infections. The existence of the plague in Europe from the 14 th until the 18 th century has been discussed in recent years. Although some differences exist between the medieval disease and the one directly observed by modern epidemiologists, the prevailing opinion is still that the Black Death was actually caused by plague. 4
Italy - born as one nation on March 17, 1861 - was a poor and backward country in the most Southe... more Italy - born as one nation on March 17, 1861 - was a poor and backward country in the most Southern part of Europe. Most Italians lived a short and troubled life, with little prospect of giving their children a better future. That was how it had been for centuries in the Italian peninsula. In one and half centuries, the Italians astonished us by turning Italy into a country where living standards are among the highest in the world. The Dolce Vita found its home in Italy. How did such a transformation come about? The book provides an answer based on an impressive volume of newly-constructed historical statistics, and does so aided by an easilyt accessible and enjoyable narrative. In more than 20 years of research, Giovanni Vecchi has gathered tens of thousands of family accounts, so that the themes of economic inequality, poverty and vulnerability can at last be placed at the centre of the book. This history is written from the bottom up, starting with the elementary data, those coming from the lives of individuals and households. Measuring Wellbeing builds up the "macro" picture (the history) from the "micro" data (the stories). The concept of wellbeing is, by its very nature, multidimensional and must therefore include the non-monetary aspects of life: nutrition, health and education, but also less tangible elements such as freedom or the possibility to exercise one's political rights. The book deals with this polyhedral nature of wellbeing using a uniform method. Great effort has been taken not to exercise the reader with technical details, but tables and graphs have nevertheless been included because they are decisive tools for readers to gain insight and keep up their guard against the fallacy of what at first sight may seem to be incontrovertible.
This chapter examines the role of energy in the economic growth of twentieth-century Europe. It c... more This chapter examines the role of energy in the economic growth of twentieth-century Europe. It considers the interrelationships of factors of production in order to identify the general features of a shared experience of growth, rather than to illuminate the local differences. The chapter first explains how development blocks contributed to GDP growth before discussing seven long-run propositions, including the strong growth of capital stock and catch-up with the leader of capital–GDP ratios; machinery increased more than GDP, labor, and other capital; and falling and converging energy intensity in the twentieth century. The chapter concludes with an overview of the link between energy intensity and economic structure. It argues that it was the third industrial revolution that was behind most of the increasing economic efficiency of energy consumption after the 1970s.
This chapter examines the emergence of a modern energy regime in Europe. It begins with a discuss... more This chapter examines the emergence of a modern energy regime in Europe. It begins with a discussion of the increase in energy consumption and how a combination of coal, engine, and iron coalesced to form the “development block” that characterized and drove the first industrial revolution. It then considers the role of coal in the new geography of energy supply, divergence in energy regimes, and urbanization and pollution. It also describes the rise and relative decline of traditional energy sources such as calories from the soil, food demand, working animals, firewood, water power, and wind power. The chapter shows that the amount of renewable energy available to each inhabitant in Europe was falling in the case of every single carrier except food, as population growth outstripped supply.
Information on wages has never been exploited in the longlasting debate on North-South disparitie... more Information on wages has never been exploited in the longlasting debate on North-South disparities in Italy in the aftermath of the national Unification. The present article is based on a wide array of data on provincial wages in the building sector over the period 1862-1878. Nominal wages in the Centre-North and the South, including the Islands, were similar, because of the high wage levels in Sardinia and Sicily. In the peninsular South, nominal wages were about 10-15 percentage points lower than in the Centre-North. Yet, whenever the difference in prices is taken into account, any disparity between Centre-North and Mezzogiorno fades away.
In Modern societies, when per capita income is high, inequality is relatively low and vice versa.... more In Modern societies, when per capita income is high, inequality is relatively low and vice versa. In past societies as well –most scholars mean- the relationship between per capita GDP and inequality was inverse. As a consequence, since per capita GDP was then low, inequality was high. The case-study of the Kingdom of Naples in 1811 shows that the opposite is true in this pre-modern society. Inequality was low because per capita GDP was low. The relationship ine-quality-product was then direct. The results reached on the Kingdom of Naples allow to reconsider the trend of inequality in Italy during the 18th and 19th century. In this long period inequality exibits the ordinary Kuznets turned U trend: from the equality in poverty in pre-modern times, to a relatively high inequality in the first phase of the industrialization, to the equality in affluence later.
Tema. Journal of Land Use, Mobility and Environment, 2016
TeMA. Journal of Land Use, Mobility and Environment offers researches, applications and contribut... more TeMA. Journal of Land Use, Mobility and Environment offers researches, applications and contributions with a unified approach to planning and mobility and publishes original inter-disciplinary papers on the interaction of transport, land use and environment. Domains include: engineering, planning, modeling, behavior, economics, geography, regional science, sociology, architecture and design, network science and complex systems. The Italian National Agency for the Evaluation of Universities and Research Institutes (ANVUR) classified TeMA as scientific journal in the Area 08. TeMA has also received the Sparc Europe Seal for Open Access Journals released by Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC Europe) and the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). TeMA is published under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License and is blind peer reviewed at least by two referees selected among high-profile scientists. TeMA has been published since 2007 and is indexed in the main bibliographical databases and it is present in the catalogues of hundreds of academic and research libraries worldwide.
The article by Jack Goldstone, Dating the Great Divergence, has the merit of discussing both the ... more The article by Jack Goldstone, Dating the Great Divergence, has the merit of discussing both the wide panorama of recent global history and the conclusions stemming from specific northEuropean long-term series of GDP.1 The article’s main target is the deeply rooted idea that Modern Growth was the continuation of previous trends of GDP growth. Goldstone’s opinion is that the rise of the West, in the frame of global history, occurred only from the late-eighteenth century or the beginning of the Nineteenth, not earlier. At the time, a true divergence among World economies did not exist. Modern Growth is different from previous periods of expansion not merely in the degree but also in the nature. Pre-modern examples of growth were episodic and not sustained; they represented temporary ‘efflorescences’ rather than long upward rises.2 It is apparent that, in such an approach to growth, problems of definition are crucial. Since the modern rise is deemed to be different from past ‘efflorescences’ of sporadic growth, what is, according to Goldstone, the primary feature of “modern” in comparison with ‘pre-modern’? The definition of Modern Growth adopted by Goldstone is the classical one put forward in economics and historical research primarily by Simon Kuznets:3 it is characterised both by strong increases in population and production; growth in production is, however, higher than in population. The result is then a rise in per capita product or intensive4 growth. This rise is sustained for long periods of time and primarily derives from modern technological growth. This definition of Modern Growth, rapidly recalled by Goldstone in his present article, had been more widely discussed in his previous article on efflorescences and economic growth in World history.5 In the following, I will deal with the differences between modern and pre-modern growth and later with the concept of technological progress in relation to the rise of the West. I will focus primarily on Europe and the Mediterranean and will include extra-European macroareas at the end.
This book examines the varied but interconnected relationships between energy consumption and eco... more This book examines the varied but interconnected relationships between energy consumption and economic development in Europe over the last five centuries. It describes how the traditional energy economy of medieval and early modern Europe was marked by stable or falling per capita energy consumption, and how the First Industrial Revolution in the eighteenth century—fueled by coal and steam engines—redrew the economic, social, and geopolitical map of Europe and the world. The Second Industrial Revolution continued this energy expansion and social transformation through the use of oil and electricity, but after 1970 Europe entered a new stage in which energy consumption has stabilized. This book challenges the view that the outsourcing of heavy industry overseas is the cause, arguing that a Third Industrial Revolution driven by new information and communication technologies has played a major stabilizing role. It offers new perspectives on the challenges posed today by climate change and peak oil, demonstrating that although the path of modern economic development has vastly increased our energy use, it has not been a story of ever-rising and continuous consumption. The book sheds light on the often lengthy and complex changes needed for new energy systems to emerge, the role of energy resources in economic growth, and the importance of energy efficiency in promoting growth and reducing future energy demand.
Italy played a central role in the Euro-Mediterranean economy during Antiquity, the late Middle A... more Italy played a central role in the Euro-Mediterranean economy during Antiquity, the late Middle Ages, and the Renaissance. Until the end of the 16th century, the Italian economy was relatively advanced compared with those of the Western European and Mediterranean countries. From the 17th century until the end of the 19th, GDP rose as the population increased. Yet per capita income slowly diminished together with real wages, urbanization, and living standards. Italy lost its central position in the Euro-Mediterranean world and, until the end of the 19th century, was a relatively backward area on the periphery of the most dynamic countries in the north and center of Europe. The Italian premodern economy represents a classic example of extensive growth or GDP growth without improvement in per capita income and living standards.
ABSTRACT Our knowledge of energy consumption over the past two centuries is still superficial. Th... more ABSTRACT Our knowledge of energy consumption over the past two centuries is still superficial. The available energy databases cover, at best, the years from the 1960s. Furthermore, we know little on the consumption of traditional sources; still in use in developing countries. The consequence is that the modern “energy transition” and its impact on the economy is still poorly known. The purpose of the present contribution is twofold. It aims at: 1. filling this gap, through the analysis of the main transformations which have occurred since 1820 in global energy consumption; 2. focusing on the changes in the relative energy-GDP developments due to the exploitation of fossil energy sources on the one hand and energy-saving technology on the other.
Contact with other animals was the cause of the worst infectious illnesses that have affected the... more Contact with other animals was the cause of the worst infectious illnesses that have affected the human species in past agrarian societies. Various strains of influenza, smallpox, malaria, plague, measles, and cholera were provoked by infections which first affected domestic animals or those non-domestic species with which humans came into contact, such as mice, fleas or lice 1 and were then transmitted from animals to humans and from humans to other animals. In pre-modern agrarian societies, between two thirds and three quarters of deaths were caused by infectious diseases. Only in recent times has what is defined as an epidemic transition taken place. In 18 th-19 th century Europe there was a shift from illnesses transmittable from one person to another to degenerative non-infectious diseases. 2 The mortality rate has depended to a lesser degree on bacteria and viruses and on the inter-specific struggle among different animal species. Great epidemics mark the agricultural world of the past; from Neolithic times onwards. The formation of much denser societies with respect to those of hunters and gatherers, and daily contact with domestic animals are at the origins of serious epidemic infections which have accompanied humans for 10,000 years. Among these are infections of the digestive system-typhoid and paratyphoid fevers, dysentery, diarrhoea, cholera-; infections of the breathing apparatus, transmitted through the air-smallpox, diphtheria, measles, influenza: infections of the reproductive system-syphilis and venereal diseases in general-; diseases introduced into tissue and into the blood stream deriving from insect bites-plague, typhoid fever, yellow fever and malaria-. 3 Density and mobility of population, and poor diet have often been regarded as determinants of these epidemics. The relationship between population and resources plays an important role, but chance also plays a role in the spread of infections. The existence of the plague in Europe from the 14 th until the 18 th century has been discussed in recent years. Although some differences exist between the medieval disease and the one directly observed by modern epidemiologists, the prevailing opinion is still that the Black Death was actually caused by plague. 4
Italy - born as one nation on March 17, 1861 - was a poor and backward country in the most Southe... more Italy - born as one nation on March 17, 1861 - was a poor and backward country in the most Southern part of Europe. Most Italians lived a short and troubled life, with little prospect of giving their children a better future. That was how it had been for centuries in the Italian peninsula. In one and half centuries, the Italians astonished us by turning Italy into a country where living standards are among the highest in the world. The Dolce Vita found its home in Italy. How did such a transformation come about? The book provides an answer based on an impressive volume of newly-constructed historical statistics, and does so aided by an easilyt accessible and enjoyable narrative. In more than 20 years of research, Giovanni Vecchi has gathered tens of thousands of family accounts, so that the themes of economic inequality, poverty and vulnerability can at last be placed at the centre of the book. This history is written from the bottom up, starting with the elementary data, those coming from the lives of individuals and households. Measuring Wellbeing builds up the "macro" picture (the history) from the "micro" data (the stories). The concept of wellbeing is, by its very nature, multidimensional and must therefore include the non-monetary aspects of life: nutrition, health and education, but also less tangible elements such as freedom or the possibility to exercise one's political rights. The book deals with this polyhedral nature of wellbeing using a uniform method. Great effort has been taken not to exercise the reader with technical details, but tables and graphs have nevertheless been included because they are decisive tools for readers to gain insight and keep up their guard against the fallacy of what at first sight may seem to be incontrovertible.
The purpose of this work is to provide statistical series on
energy consumption in Italy in the l... more The purpose of this work is to provide statistical series on energy consumption in Italy in the last two centuries. Its main innovation is the inclusion of traditional sources along with modern ones. After some introductory remarks on the purpose of my research and the definitions used therein (Ch. 1), I examine each carrier individually and explain the statistical methods I have employed for traditional (Ch. 2) and modern (Ch. 3) energy carriers. I also review some characteristics of energy consumption trends in Italy (Ch. 4) to set the statistical data within a wider economic context. The statistical series are given in the Appendix.
Uploads
Papers by Paolo Malanima
energy consumption in Italy in the last two centuries. Its
main innovation is the inclusion of traditional sources along
with modern ones.
After some introductory remarks on the purpose of my research
and the definitions used therein (Ch. 1), I examine
each carrier individually and explain the statistical methods I
have employed for traditional (Ch. 2) and modern (Ch. 3) energy
carriers. I also review some characteristics of energy consumption
trends in Italy (Ch. 4) to set the statistical data
within a wider economic context.
The statistical series are given in the Appendix.