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Self-published
Data for Chasing the Perfida Albione: Anglo-Italian productivity gap in the late thirties (ICPSR 239240)
Released/updated on: 2025-10-27
Data and calculations for the paper "Chasing the Perfida Albione: Anglo-Italian productivity gap in the late thirties"Abstract: This paper presents new estimates of Anglo-Italian labour productivity levels in manufacturing in the late 1930s, derived using the standard single-deflation approach. The findings confirm a substantial productivity gap between Italy and the United Kingdom at the aggregate level, alongside pronounced intersectoral heterogeneity. Italy appears relatively competitive in textiles and, to a lesser extent, in iron and steel and in chemicals. Preliminary estimates using the more advanced double-deflation methodology, as well as tentative measures of productivity per hour worked, suggest that single-deflation figures may represent a lower-bound estimate. Nevertheless, the productivity gap re- mains large when benchmarked against other industrialized economies, lending support to a more pessimistic interpretation of the Fascist period in terms of labour productivity performance.