Regional differences in per capita income are exceptionally large in Italy. The north is as prosperous as central and northern Europe, but the south is much poorer. The American sociologist Robert Putnam [...] has written that "To travel from the north to the south in the 1970s was to return centuries into the past… many lived in one- and two-room hovels; farmers still threshed grain by hand… transportation was provided by donkeys that shared their rocky shelters, alongside a few scrawny chickens and cats".
Statistics showing the differences in living standards between the rich north and the poor south in Italy became available in the mid-nineteenth century and these differences persist to the present day [...]. It is estimated that in 1861 per capita incomes were about 15–20% higher in the north than in the south [...]. By 1911 "the north–south gap had widened appreciably: northern incomes were about 50 per cent higher" [...] and this difference persisted into the early 1960s [...] and into the twenty first century [...]. Numerous theories have been advanced to explain what has become known as Italian economic dualism. An Italian economist has written that "there is a huge literature dealing with theso-called questione meridionale" — the social, cultural and economic backwardness of southern Italy [...].
Another Italian economist has written that "works dedicated to the southern question would fill an entire library but many of the economists' questions as to the size and causes of Italian economic dualism remain unanswered" [...].
Despite the attention given to this question, no consensus has been reached on the answer. Some have raised the possibility that socio-cultural factors might be involved.
Putnam believes that "the historical record, both distant and recent, leads us (like others) to suspect that socio-cultural factors are an important part of the explanation" [...]. But what are these socio-cultural factors? Putnam favors the theory of low civic trust in the south as a crucial factor, but concedes that other socio-cultural factors are likely present. More recently, the Italian economist Guido Tabellini (2009) has proposed that "culture measured by indicators of individual values and beliefs, such as trust and respect for others, and confidence in individual self-determination" is a determinant of regional differences in economic development in Italy and western Europe.
