[Marriage, family, and agricultural structure in Italy in the 1880s]

"This article is a contribution to the discussion on theories about household formation and marriage in Italy in the 1880s. Based on data [from] the 1881 census, it aims at verifying some hypotheses on the interdependence between marriage behaviour and socio-economic and environmental factors, by using some multivariate statistical techniques. The authors propose a number of indicators and analyse their correlation matrix, before reducing the variables to a few relevant factors which summarize a major part of the available information. Such factors are employed to determine homogeneous areas for marriage behaviour. Finally, they propose and measure some causal relationships between variables within two of the previously identified areas." (SUMMARY IN ENG AND FRE)