Gabriele Cappelli|Michelangelo Vasta
Can school centralization foster human capital accumulation? A quasi?experiment from early twentieth?century Italy
University of Siena|Universitat de Barcelona|University of Siena
abstract article shows shift towards centralized school system benefit countries characterized poor levels human capital large regional disparities education 1911 italy moved fully decentralized primary school system towards centralization daneocredaro reform design reform allows us compare treated municipalities retained school autonomy quasiexperiment based propensity score matching psm shows centralization substantially increased pace human capital accumulation treated municipalities characterized 043 percentagepoint premium average annual growth literacy 1911 1921 discuss channels new legislation affected primary schooling literacy important implications longterm economic growth