Code and data for Rails of Progress? Exploring the nexus between railroad access and innovation in Italy (19th-20th centuries)

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Marco Martinez, University of Pisa; Alessandro Nuvolari, Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies; Michelangelo Vasta, University of Siena

Version: View help for Version V1

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
REPLICATION_PACKAGE_final			09/02/2025 04:18:AM
README.docx	application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document	20.6 KB	09/01/2025 11:25:PM

Project Citation:

Martinez, Marco, Nuvolari, Alessandro, and Vasta, Michelangelo. Code and data for Rails of Progress? Exploring the nexus between railroad access and innovation in Italy (19th-20th centuries). Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2025-09-02. https://doi.org/10.3886/E237481V1

Project Description

Summary: Data and code for the paper "Rails of Progress? Exploring the nexus between railroad access and innovation in Italy (19th-20th centuries)".

Abstract: This paper provides new evidence on the nexus between railroads and inventive activities in Italy in the period 1861-1936. We develop two new georeferenced datasets on railroad stations and patents covering about 8,000 municipalities. By adopting a staggered difference in differences identification strategy, we show that the impact of railroad construction on innovation is noticeable for the first wave of construction of the period of the Destra storica (1861-1878), when the network was expanded following a state building strategy. However, these effects became noticeable after two decades and concern mostly independent inventors and low-quality patents. Finally, we show that railroad access fostered innovation, particularly in locations with more advanced pre-existing capabilities.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: Data on railway stations and patents in Italy in the period 1855-1936

Geographic Coverage: Italy

Time Period(s): 1855 – 1936

Collection Date(s): 2018 – 2025

Universe: Total sample of Italian rail stations and patents

Data Type(s): administrative records data; geographic information system (GIS) data

Collection Notes: Retrieval from archival and public sources

Methodology

Response Rate: full sample

Sampling: N/A

Data Source: Calamai, O. (1912). Annuario della Marina Mercantile e delle Industrie Navale in Italia. Genova, La Marina Mercantile Italiana.Direzione Generale delle Ferrovie dello Stato [DGFS] (1914). Orario Generale Ferrovie – Tramvie – Navigazione – Servizi Automobilistici e Postali Alpini Ufficiale per la parte riguardante le linee ferroviarie e marittime esercitate dallo Stato, pp. 92-253, Vol. I, Torino, Fratelli Pozzo.Direzione Generale delle Ferrovie dello Stato [DGFS] (1927). Sviluppo delle ferrovie italiane dal 1839 al 31 dicembre 1926. Roma, Tipografia ditta L. Cecchini.Ministero dei Lavori Pubblici (1881). Relazione statistica sulle costruzioni e sull'esercizio delle strade ferrate italiane per l'anno 1880. Roma, Tipografia dell’unione editrice.Ministero dei Lavori Pubblici (1898). Relazione statistica sulle costruzioni e sull'esercizio delle strade ferrate italiane per l'anno 1892. Roma, Tipografia dell’unione editrice.Ministero dei Lavori Pubblici (1903). Relazione statistica sulle costruzioni e sull'esercizio delle strade ferrate italiane per l'anno 1905. Roma, Tipografia dell’unione editrice.Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione (1865). Sulle condizioni della pubblica istruzione nel Regno d’Italia. Relazione generale presentata al Ministro dal Consiglio superiore di Torino, Milano.Ministero delle Comunicazioni, Bullettino postale (1861-1918). Supplementi ai bollettini n. 1-32. Roma, Tipografia Ditta Ludovico Cecchini. Retrieved from Istituto di Studi Storici Postali “Aldo Cecchi” Onlus.Ministero di Agricoltura, Industria e Commercio [MAIC] (1862). Catalogo degli attestati di privativa industriale rilasciati a partire dal maggio 1855 a tutto dicembre 1860, Torino.Ministero di Agricoltura, Industria e Commercio [MAIC] (1860–1863). Gazzetta Ufficiale del Regno d’Italia. Elenco degli attestati di privativa, Torino. Supplementi ai numeri 151, 157, 223, 144.Ministero di Agricoltura, Industria e Commercio [MAIC] (1864–1885). Bollettino delle privative industriali del Regno d’Italia, Torino.Ministero di Agricoltura, Industria e Commercio [MAIC] (1886–1893). Bollettino delle privative industriali del Regno d’Italia, Roma.Ministero di Agricoltura, Industria e Commercio [MAIC] (1894-1901). Elenco degli attestati di privativa industriale, di prolungamento, completivi, di importazione e di riduzione, Roma.Ministero di Agricoltura, Industria e Commercio [MAIC] (1902–1936), Bollettino della proprietà intellettuale, Roma.

Collection Mode(s): other

Scales: N/A

Weights: N/A

Unit(s) of Observation: pseudo-municipalities (Buscemi, T. and Insa-Sánchez, P. (2024) “A historical Italian local population dataset (ITPOP), 1861-1921”, forthcoming at Rivista di Storia Economica / Italian Review of Economic History, 2/2024, 129-152) and Years (1855-1936)

Geographic Unit: pseudo-municipalities

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Published Versions

V1 [2025-09-02]

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DDI 2.5

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