Italian Economists Research Articles

Merit-based scholarships for university graduates: A generation of Italian economists

We examine the role of financial aid in shaping the formation of human capital. We study the impact of a large merit-based scholarship for graduate studies in affecting individuals’ occupational choices, career trajectories, and labor market outcomes of a generation of Italian economists, with special focus on gender gaps and the role of social mobility. We construct a unique dataset that combines archival sources and includes microdata for the universe of applicants to the scholarship program and follow these individuals over their professional life. We discuss five main results: (i) it is easier to become a high achiever for individuals from households with a lower socio-economic status if they reside in high social mobility provinces; (ii) women are less likely to be shortlisted for a scholarship as they tend to receive lower scores in the most subjective criteria used in the initial screening of candidates; (iii) scholarship winners are much more likely to choose a research career and this effect is larger for women; (iv) women who work in Italian universities tend to have less citations than men who work in Italy. However, the citation gender gap is smaller for candidates who received a scholarship and (iv) women take longer to be promoted to the rank of full professor, even after controlling for academic productivity.

Book Review of Mariana Mazzucato's (2014). The entrepreneurial state: debunking the myth of the public sector vs. the private sector

The Italian economist Mariana Mazzucato aims to dispel the commonly associated image of the state in theoretical and political discourse, which tends to portray it as a bureaucratic, inefficient entity, expensive for society. Her book is a necessary contribution to the debate on the role of the state and the limitations of the market as an agent capable of solving socioeconomic problems and challenges on its own. The last four decades have marked the rise of neoliberalism as the obligatory economic framework worldwide, leading to an increasing questioning of the state’s role in the economy and perception of it as unnecessary. Mazzucato’s meticulous argumentation contributes to retrieving evidence to clarify this debate and to understand the fundamental role that the state and public funding have been playing in the innovation process of major corporations.

ПРИМЕНЕНИЕ ЗАКОНА 80 НА 20 ДЛЯ ПОВЫШЕНИЯ ЭФФЕКТИВНОСТИ ВЫПОЛНЕНИЯ ЗАДАЧ

The Pareto principle, also known as the 80 by 20 principle, states that 80% of the results come from 20% of the effort. This principle was named after the Italian economist Wilfredo Pareto, who first formulated it at the end of the 19th century. In this scientific work, the ways of applying the law in various fields of activity are considered. The principle helps to focus your attention and resources on key tasks and actions that contribute to maximum impact. And it allows you to effectively allocate time and effort to achieve the desired results. The advantages of using the Pareto Principle are described, as well as its disadvantages are considered. Examples of using the Pareto Principle at the professional and household levels are given.

Scientific School of Kuban State university

The history of the scientific school of Kuban State University (KubSU) is inextricably linked to the name of its founder and permanent head — Doctor of Economics, Professor M.I. Kuter. The Department of Accounting, Audit and Automated Data Processing headed by him has been successfully operating since 1991. The scientist and his followers chose as a priority one of the key areas of scientific research in the field of accounting — the study of its conceptual foundations, theory, methodology, organisation, and history of evolution and development. With the help of foreign colleagues, a unique library containing rare editions on the history of accounting was collected. Thanks to the patronage of M.I. Kuter’s colleague and friend, the famous Italian economist G. Galassi, it became possible for Kuban scientists to have the opportunity for many years to visit the archives storing and preserving documents of medieval companies, to explore them and obtain unique data for research. They are studied using logical-analytical flow-chart and block diagram modelling — a scientific method developed by M.I. Kuter and modern digital technologies. At present, the Kuban Scientific School and its head occupy a leading place in Russia among the researchers of medieval accounting practices.

“Non-competing social groups”? The long debate on social mobility in Italy (c. 1890–1960)

In the light of the recent literature on the intellectual history of inequality, this paper offers the first survey and a tentative classification of the Italian literature addressing issues related to social mobility, from the late 19th century to the “Economic Miracle” of the 1950s. During these decades, the foremost Italian economists and statisticians (among others, Pareto, Gini, Einaudi and Pantaleoni) worked on issues highly related to the modern understanding of social mobility, from the role of inheritance to the intergenerational transmission of status. While reflecting the evolution and debates in Italian society, these authors also participated in a broader international debate, which should lead us to reconsider the supposed lack of interest in inequality among the economists of this period.

BEFORE BRAIN DRAIN: ITALIAN ECONOMISTS ON THE CALCULUS OF THE VALUE OF MEN

This study deals with the debate that took place among Italian economists and statisticians at the turn of the twentieth century on the economic effects of mass emigration. In particular, it is focused on a controversy between Vilfredo Pareto and Alberto Beneduce on the one side, and Francesco Coletti on the other. It analyzes the way these scholars struggled with: (i) the problem of properly elaborating a specific cost-benefit analysis regarding emigration; and (ii), as a consequence, the problem of recognizing a clear set of economic policies designed to manage the complex economic and social processes connected to emigration. The paper demonstrates the enduring character of the problems encountered in the early Italian debates by showing that these questions are similar to those debated in the vast literature developed from the 1950s on the subject of brain drain, and suggests an explanation for the lack of conclusive results in this literature. We think that it is possible to understand this impasse by highlighting that in the analyzed literature, a problem of “fallacy of composition” emerges between the microeconomics and macroeconomics of emigration.

Luigi Ludovico Pasinetti 12 September 1930–31 January 2023

AbstractThe life and work of Pasinetti is overviewed by the founding scholar of computable economics, who observed this Italian economist’s formative years at Cambridge University. Folding in tributes from three further scholars, the obituary identifies Pasinetti’s contribution to capital theory, his view of the macro foundations of microeconomics, his focus on production rather than exchange, and his separation of theoretical and institutional economic analysis.

THE ECONOMISTS AND THE PRESS IN ITALY FROM THE END OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY UNTIL FASCISM: THE CASE OF LUIGI EINAUDI

Luigi Einaudi was an authoritative Italian economist and a leading representative of economic and political liberalism in Europe. After the Second World War, he became governor of the Bank of Italy and president of the Italian Republic. This paper analyzes his role as opinion maker from the end of the nineteenth century until the 1920s, when he was a leading columnist atLa Stampaand theCorriere della Sera, the most influential newspapers in Italy at that time. It focuses on the scope and limits of Einaudi’s efforts to broaden consensus in Italian public opinion on the principles of economic liberalism and free competition. To this end, it investigates Einaudi’s journalistic style, his views on the role of the newspapers, and his large following among the public. Further sections analyze the main issues tackled by Einaudi in his articles in theCorriereand the systematic work of propaganda he enacted during World War I to convince the Italian households to reduce consumption and to finance the military expenditure. A final section deals with the “reconstruction program” devised by Einaudi in the early 1920s with the aim of restoring price stability and fiscal restraint, his efforts in theCorriereto propagate this program, and his forced retreat from journalism after the beginning of the fascist regime in 1924–25.

The Early Invention of the so-called Laffer Curve and the Mathematics of the Progressive Tax in the Italian Tradition

The theories of progressive income taxation developed in the Italian debate of the last century have been discussed in depth in a review article by Domenican-tonio Fausto (2008). Italian economists have taken an active part in the debate on the progressive taxation of income and wealth. In general, despite a few oppo-nents, the idea of progressive taxation is agreed upon for political and social rea-sons. In this broad debate on progressivity developed in Italy, there is also an ana-lytical path that Fausto's article does not consider. The first mathematical contri-bution on this topic was put forward by Tullio Martello in his polemic book against the progressive tax, La progressività in teoria e in pratica (1895). The debate was concluded in the 1950s by a mathematical economist and follower of Pareto, Raf-faele D'Addario. D'Addario is worth considering because he explicitly introduced the revenue curve. The decreasing part is well known today as the Laffer curve.

THE ROLE OF VILFREDO PARETO IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE THEORY OF SOCIAL WELFARE

The article is devoted to the contribution of the prominent Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto to the theory of public welfare. The main theoretical achievements of the economist regarding the definition and measurement of public welfare are highlighted. Vilfredo Pareto rejected the principle of quantitative utility and developed his own concept of welfare maximization through the theory of such an optimal distribution of resources, including goods, in which any redistribution of them will not lead to an increase in the utility of an individual without a decrease in utility for other individuals. Giving decisive importance to the effective distribution of resources as opposed to their endless maximization, V. Pareto noted for the first time in the many years of development of economic thought that the sources of social well-being cannot be considered solely enrichment with material goods, since the possibility of their effective redistribution on the basis of humanity and high moral and ethical values. That is, for the first time in the theory of well-being, the level of human development of society, its moral values, and the weight of ethical and humanistic principles become important. These approaches make it possible to determine a relative criterion for the efficiency (optimality) of the functioning of the economic system, which specifies the state of optimality according to the following principle: it is the achievement of such a state when no one can improve their situation without getting worse. The importance of determining the optimum from the point of view of production is indicated. At the same time, we are talking about the structure of production with a certain amount of resources and technical support, which, according to his approach, becomes optimal when it is impossible to increase the production of one product without simultaneously reducing production. Such an optimal situation occurs when the marginal productivity of production factors is the same in all variants of their application. An analysis was made of provisions where the growth of social welfare does not concern the volume of production or resources, but the consumption of materials and the creation of aggregate social demand. Since, according to the terminology, gross output and gross income of the country are one and the same (the estimate of production volumes is equal to the sum of payments to the owners of input resources), the "Pareto Optimum" is the maximum production (or income) of the economy and is the most effective operational indicator. From the perspective of political decision-making, the idea of the "Pareto optimum" leads to the following Pareto criterion for the formulation of political goals: a change in social policy is justified if, as a result of such a change, all members of society will be better off, or if the improvement will affect some of its members and the condition of all others will not deteriorate. This distribution of goods in an economy is otherwise efficient when they cannot be redistributed to improve the position of one member of society without simultaneously worsening the position of another member of society. Based on this, the quality of life should become a consolidating idea in Ukraine, which will enable the nation to build its own path of development, in which ensuring the conditions for the successful realization of the individual will become the main way for evaluating the effectiveness of economic reforms

РОЗВИТОК МІКРОЕКОНОМІЧНОЇ ТЕОРІЇ У ПРАЦЯХ ЛАУРЕАТІВ НОБЕЛІВСЬКОЇ ПРЕМІЇ З ЕКОНОМІКИ

The aim of the article is to assess the contribution of Nobel Prize winners in economics to the development of modern micro-economic theory. To do this, we analyze the scientific achievements of leading modern economists, highly praised by the Nobel Committee in various periods since 1972. It is emphasized that microeconomics, which has long been considered an abstract science, thanks to the scientific achievements of Nobel Prize winners, is increasingly focused on solving problems of economic practice. It is noted that the Nobel laureates made the greatest contribution to market research. This applies, in particular, to the analysis of markets with asymmetric information (G. Akerlof, M. Spence, J. Stiglitz) and the analysis of market positions and regulation (J. Tirole). The importance of the "Ideal Demand System" (A. Deaton, J. Muehlbauer), which is a widely accepted method of studying the effects of economic policy, inflation indices, as well as comparing the state and dynamics of purchasing power in different countries. The contribution of V. Smith to the formation of experimental research in microeconomic theory is analyzed. It is concluded that the use of natural experiments to solve macroeconomic and socio-economic problems, for example, to combat unemployment or to identify the impact of the minimum wage on labor market conditions. The model of economic efficiency proposed by the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto is described, it is specified that the marginal theory of welfare is built on the solution of the problem of the ratio of the efficient state of the economy and justice in the distribution of goods. The central positions of the theory of well-being and the significance of the works of J. Hicks, K. Arrow, M. Allais and A. Sen in its creation are studied. The evolution of views on the theory of consumer choice is traced and the contribution of Nobel laureates in the emergence and formation of behavioral economics, the founders of which are considered to be H. Simon and D. Kahneman. It is concluded that the developed theoretical concepts have a significant impact on practical economic life and the need to form sound objective conclusions based on the results of the Nobel Prize winners in microeconomic theory.

Neue Perspektiven auf die questione meridionale

Abstract Starting from the determination that the questione meridionale – the southern Italian question – has lost its former centrality in the Italian debate, this article suggests new avenues of research and gives an example of the results that such perspectives can provide. The first section of the article outlines some key positions in the political and historiographical debate on the questione meridionale and identifies the reasons underlying the decline of interest in the history of Italy’s North-South divide in recent years. Based on this analysis, the second part presents new potential prospects for research on the history of Southern Italy, principally by connecting it to recent scholarship in global and international history. The final section of the article applies the proposed research methodology to the specific instance of the Centro studi sullo sviluppo economico, a research centre founded in the mid-1950s to disseminate the Southern Italian economic development model in the Mediterranean and Latin America. The analysis of the history of the Centro studi, born out of a collaboration between the Italian Svimez and the American Ford Foundation, illustrates the ambiguity of the relationship between Italian and American development economists and the way in which the knowledge acquired through economic intervention in Southern Italy became a tool to foster contacts between Italy and other ‚southern‘ countries.

Pharmaceutical Management and Models for Modernizing a Pharmacy in Romania

Abstract In order to increase the profits of companies, and their efficiency, a modern and valuable management method called Pareto analysis was used. This model was discovered by Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist in 1897, hence the name of this analysis. It is also called the 80/20 analysis, which can show us that few causes generate many results in most cases. Pareto analysis was used to determine the most vital drugs dispensed from the pharmacy, from the point of view of the sales made and the supply process of the community pharmacies. In this study, the importance of the Pareto method was highlighted in the selection of the most valuable preparations in 10 community pharmacies in the city of Constanța over a period of 12 months, 01.05.2021-01.05.2022. The results obtained validate the Pareto method, 5 of the 10 formulations taken into the study gave approximately 80% of the total value of the pharmaceutical formulations. The obtained results indicate that the Pareto analysis is an important tool that can be successfully used by the pharmacy manager

The modern Italian debate on the Walrasian theory of capitalization (1960-1971)

Historians have studied the intellectual relationships between Walrasian eco-nomic thought and the Italian tradition with a primary focus on nineteenth-century economic thought. Nevertheless, in the 1960s heated controversy over Walras's capitalization theory, prompted by Sraffa (1960) and, even more, by Garegnani (1960), developed in Italy. This paper aims to reconstruct that debate to illustrate that, even during such a period of critical reappraisal, a number of Ital-ian economists held a fundamentally sceptical attitude towards a criticism of Walras's scheme.

The economic thought of Federico Caffè and Paolo Sylos Labini on privileges and merit: a common ground with civil economy

Fights against privileges and inequalities were one of the main areas of analysis of the Italian economists of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The aim of this paper is to show that Federico Caffe and Paolo Sylos Labini retrieve the Civil Economy tradition, discussing their economic thought focusing on those aspects of their works where we can retrace a critical approach similar to their predecessors on topics like rent, privileges and merit.

МЕТОДОЛОГІЯ ДОСЛІДЖЕННЯ СОЦІАЛЬНО-ЕКОНОМІЧНИХ ПРОЦЕСІВ: ІСТОРИЧНИЙ АСПЕКТ

The paper highlights the approaches of scientists, whose works are now considered classic, to the study of socio-economic processes in society, their functioning, and regulation. To solve modern problems of socio-economic development, bypass them, or form a mechanism for managing them, it is necessary to know the history of economic thought in this regard. It is necessary to refer to the experience preserved mainly in the research and conclusions of scientists, scientific schools, and their followers. Modern scientists analyze the effects of socio-economic processes and their role in society's development but ignore the directions and methods of their knowledge. The study made it possible to compare the methodology of studying socio-economic processes by representatives of many fields and schools, including the ancient Greek writer and historian Xenophon, the ancient Greek scientist-encyclopedist, philosopher and founder of classical logic Aristotle, mercantilists, economists, political scientists, and physiocrats. D. Ricardo, the representative of the neoclassical trend A. Marshall, the founder of institutionalism T. Veblen, American economist, representative of the old institutional and Keynesian currents J. K. Galbraith, American economist, representative of neo-institutionalism. O. Williamson, American economists D. North, M. Friedman, English economist J. M. Keynes, German economist-theorist L.V. Erhard, Italian economist F. Modigliani. The analysis provided more information on the scientific tools used to indicate that all areas and schools study the relationships of people and groups in the production, distribution, exchange, and consumption of goods with constantly limited resources. As a result, it can be concluded that economic processes are closely related to social at all stages of society. The level of economic development affects the social processes that take place in the state and vice versa. Modern models of research of socio-economic processes were formed under the influence of relevant factors of social development and take into account the historical systemic vision of socio-economic processes and phenomena.

A Generation of Italian Economists

A Generation of Italian Economists

RESENHA. BARANZINI, Mauro; MIRANTE, Amalia. A Compendium of Italian Economists at Oxbridge: Contributions to the Evolution of Economic Thinking

Resenha de livro

Manuela Mosca, Monopoly Power and Competition: The Italian Marginalist Perspective

Manuela Mosca has produced a fascinating study of four leading Italian economists: Pareto, Pantaleoni, Barone, and De Viti de Marco. Among those four names, only Pareto is familiar to all economics students, but Mosca’s book does a fantastic job at remedying that oversight. The Italian marginalists were brilliant theorists and astute observers of the public sector and private sector and the entangled political economy between the public and private sectors in a democratic society. Schumpeter ...

Re-Evaluating the Bourgeoisie: A Parallel between Deirdre McCloskey and Sergio Ricossa

This paper compares Deirdre McCloskey’s reading of the “bourgeois reevaluation” with Sergio Ricossa’s. Italian economist Sergio Ricossa was – like McCloskey – schooled in the neoclassical, formalistic tradition, but in time drifted toward a more “Austrian” approach, as he was influenced by the work of F.A. Hayek. Like McCloskey, in a number of works Ricossa aimed to vindicate the bourgeoisie, placing what McCloskey would later call “the bourgeois deal” at the source of modern economic growth. Ricossa and McCloskey were not connected, nor friends. Yet they both arrived at re-evaluating the bourgeoisie, explicitly linking their liberalism to the historical role played by a specific class. This paper will look at their respective paths, which in some respects are parallel, and will show how their common appreciation of the Bourgeois Era went hand-in-hand with libertarianism as a political philosophy and with a strong appreciation of the Bourgeois Era in history.