Tariff history lessons from the European periphery. protection intensity and the infant industry argument in Spain and Italy 1870-1930.

Abstract

This paper endeavors to study Spanish protectionism on the Italian mirror. On the assumption that literature present both European peripheral countries at a similar stage of development that reacted with a similar protectionist reply to late 19th century economic globalization. Nevertheless, competitiveness and specialization of the respective industrial structures were quite different, as the manufacture export performance in the two countries shows since the turn of the century. This paper will emphasize the existence of significant different protection policies in Spain and Italy between 1860-1930 as an influential variable. The analysis of the quantitative evidence characterize the Italian and Spanish protectionist as low and fiscal versus high and manufacture respectively. The paper develop a new test on the infant industry argument for Spain and Italy which aims at measuring the dynamic effects produced by protection on both economies