Meeting-ID: 654 7065 0042 | Kenncode: 218011
Moderation: Annemarie Steidl
The presentation looks at the key factors affecting the connection between peasant family size and farm size in Italy in 1930-31. The association between farm size and family size was analyzed using a new dataset merging data drawn from both the Population Census of 1931 and the Census of Agriculture of 1930. I found a strict association between peasant family size, here considered as a production unit, the surface area of the farm, and, especially in the Alpine context, with the availability of livestock. The results seem to correspond to different causal relationships between family size and farm size according to access to land and form of tenure. In some contexts, where sharecropping was widespread, farm size defines the size of the family. In other words, where small land ownership prevailed, it seems that family size shapes the size of the farm. In this study, I propose a new explanation for peasant family size in the Fascist period. This is done by adopting a cross-sectional perspective, providing a geographical analysis based on the 786 agrarian areas that formed the national territory in that period.
Alessio Fornasin is a Research Associate in Demography at the University of Udine (Italy) and at the University of Trieste (Italy). His main research interests are historical demography and economic history.
