HUMAN CAPITAL ACCUMULATION AND INDUSTRIALISATION IN ITALY’S FIRST WAVE OF INDUSTRIALISATION

Abstract

World War I represented for Italy a great (albeit dramatic) chance for industrialisation and
catching-up with the "early birds" of industrial revolution. One of the main problem at stake was a
scarce availability of human capital, though. This problem is deeply entangled with the so called
technology/education race which has recently been at the centerstage in the economic theory debate. In
this paper I try and propose some relevant issues with respect to this problem.

Keywords: human capital, management of technological innovation.