Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Author-Name: Ruggero Paladini
Author-Email:
Author-Workplace-Name: Università di Roma I “LA SAPIENZA” - ISTITUTO DI ECONOMIA E FINANZA
Author-Name: Giorgio Rodano
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Author-Workplace-Name: Università di Roma I “LA SAPIENZA” - Dipartimento di Teoria Economica e Metodi Quantitativi per le Scelte Politiche
Title: Italian Public Economists and Keynes
Abstract: The spread of Keynesian approach concerning the use of fiscal policies as a tool of stabilisation
policy – throught the aggregate demand management – was delayed in Italy with respect to
what happened in Europe and in u s a. In those countries Keynesian ideas made themselves
Known from the forties, while in Italy we had to wait until the sixties – apart from some exceptions
like Marrama and Napoleoni among the scholars of political economy, and Cosciani and
Steve among the scholars of public finance.
The paper analyses the main reasons of this delay, both among scholars of political economy
and those of public finance (but remember that at that time the academic specialisation was less
marked than today).
Two elements seem to be prominent: the first one is the reltive isolation in which, between
the two world wars, the Italian economists slipped, also as a consquence of the prevailing of
fascist regime. A second complementary reason is represented by the Neoclassic theoretical
background, with consequent free market attitude in economic policy of Einaudi and Bresciani
Turroni, the unquestioned leaders of the generation of economists who were active during the
forties and fifties.
The paper stresses that a non secondary role was related to the difficult understanding of the
novelty of the Keynesian approach, as it appears from the approximate and inaccurate way in
which Keynesian ideas are presented in Italian papers of that period. The spread of Keynesian
approach in Italy waited for a new generation of economists who studied after the war, when
contacts with foreign theoretical streams are connected again and step by step strengthened.
Classification-JEL: E12, E62
Keywords: Keynesian economics; fiscal policies
Journal: Il Pensiero Economico Italiano
Pages: 243-270
Volume: 11
Issue: 1
Year: 2003
File-URL: http://www.libraweb.net/articoli.php?chiave=200306301&rivista=63
Handle: RePEc:pei:journl:v:11:y:2003:1:11:p:243-270