Abstract

We empirically investigate the role of civic capital (proxied by voter turnout) on Italy's economic development during the second half of the 20th century. By using a unique dataset at the city level, we show that over half a century voter turnout has been steadily correlated with economic development and that this reflects some causality going from the former to the latter. We also find that the impact of civic capital was higher in the period after the WWII, and decreased gradually in the following decades.