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Italian Economic History

Italian economic history since World War II (WWII) has been a complex melding together of the public and private sectors. The phenomenal growth of the Italian economy post WWII is undisputable and was based on a variety of factors. Starting from the centralized economy inherited from the repressive regime of Benito Mussolini, two generations of Italians have shepherded their economy into the global market and the European Union (EU). The private sector has benefited greatly from the liberalization of the Italian economy, but the country continues to maintain a vigorous public employment sector. The duality of the Italian economy can be seen in the difference between the Southern and Northern regions of the country. The balance between public employment and private sector growth has increasingly tilted to the private sector, however, and the country's economy has seen an impressive resurgence as a result.

Before analyzing the particulars behind Italy's economic resurgence, we must first look at the overall economic trends within the country. There is no better gauge of a country's growth than the analysis of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita. GDP per capita measures the total market of all goods and services produced annually within a country, divided by the number of inhabitants within that country (McConnell, p. G-8). The following chart tracks the growth of the Italian GDP per capita over a hundred and twenty year span. It also compares the growth of the Italian economy post-WWII to an extrapolation of the average growth before 1914·in other words, pre World War I. As can be seen from this graph, Italian GDP per capita grew at more than double the pace post WWII that it did pre WWI.

The protracted period of growth that Italy has undergone since its precipitous decline during WWII has resulted in an average standard of living of roughly $16,500 (in 1990 U.S. Dollars); or roughly five times the average standa...

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Italian Economic History. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 06:52, March 19, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1695909.html