Could Southern Italians Cooperate? Banche Popolari in the Mezzogiorno
检验了罗伯特·帕特南关于意大利南部文化缺乏信任导致贫困的论点，通过计量分析19世纪末南部合作银行的策略与绩效，发现其与北部存在差异，且不能归因于环境因素，总体上支持帕特南假说。
Recent work by Robert Putnam has revived a contentious debate about the role of culture in Italian regional disparities. Southern Italy is argued to have been locked in an impoverishing, no-trust equilibrium. This article explores an apparent exception to Putnam's historical evidence: the South's late-nineteenth-century cooperative banks (banche popolari). Econometric investigation reveals important differences in the strategy and performance of these banks in North and South during the crucial decade of the 1890s, and shows that these differences cannot be attributed to differences in the local environment. In fact, the evidence is broadly consistent with Putnam's hypothesis.