Evolving gaps: Occupational structure in southern and northern Italy, 1400–1861

During the Risorgimento (1800–61), southern Italy was less industrial than central-northern and initially agricultural provinces in north saw rapid structural transformation. Renaissance (1400–1600), transformation south led to a near halving of initial difference employment share between centre-north south, but convergence came halt with ‘seventeenth-century crisis’. These trends suggest that regional inequality evolving rather persistent.