Malthus in preindustrial Northern Italy?

The Malthusian model, which implies a long-run interaction between demography and living standards, forms cornerstone of our understanding comparative economic development, as postulated by unified growth theory. Its empirical validity has been supported number studies, most examine England. In Northern Italy, however, there might have reversed “preventive check.” We employ cointegrated VAR model on Italian data from ca. 1650–1799 find some evidence for this, but also diminishing returns thus more “Malthusian” society than in, example, England at that time.