The aim of this paper is to explain the economic causes and consequences of the sharp decline in Italy’s fertility rate, the most dramatic decline in the world together with that in Japan. The main cause is shown to originate in the mid-seventies: a sudden increase in the unemployment rate...

This article examines the reasons which moved local landlords to provide charity to their subjects, and focuses on the case of Borgo Fornari, an imperial fief in the Scrivia Valley, not far from Genoa, where in 1736 the marquis Carlo Spinola decided to build a hospital for the sick. Thanks to...