The author, following the teachings and example of Paolo Sylos Labini, explores the social role of economists, underling how a useful economist is an ethically committed economist, who pursues the common good. Text of the speech given at the conference "Paolo Sylos Labini e la politica delle riforme", held at Sapienza University of Rome on 04 December 2015, organized by the Accademia dei Lincei with Economia Civile.
This work aims to shed lights on a writer and politician of 18th century judged as a fool, a gambler and a swindler by his contemporaries but who nowadays may be considered instead one of the first monetary economists in the history of economic thought: John Law. Using the current stream of literature on this topic, as well as several other chronicles, this work will present the historical facts that brought John Law to become the financial minister of France in 1720 and to put in place a system, the Missisipi System, where he had the rare chance to translate his theories into economic policies, threatening the very foundations of the ancien régime. After elucidating the reasons of the collapse of the System, we will focus on the economic explanations of this failure, showing under which conditions Law's scheme could have been sustainable. A deep analysis of his early writings and of his later memoires will be carried on in order to assess the discrepancies between Law-"the economist" and Law-"the policy-maker". A further study will be conducted to inspect the reasons of Law's uncelebrated role in the subsequent history of economic thought and to present the modernity of his ideas regarding the nature and the role of money, with a particular attention to financial securities and paper and fiat money. The final part will build a singular parallel between Law's revolutionary experiment and Bitcoin, the most recent and influential attempt to reshape the current payment system, explaining both the similarities and the underlying economic differences.
The thesis aims to analyze the relationship between military spending and economic development on the basis of several approaches either theoretical or empirical. This research was proposed to achieve two objectives : the first is the classification of research on the topic of military spending reported to economic development and / or growth for the period from the 1960s and 1970 among the major schools of economic thought, the second, on the contrary, born of the desire to investigate the responses that the literature provided the theoretical modeling and empirical application of military expenditures reported to the growth consisted to conduct critical analysis of the mainstream literature and trying to find answers to unresolved issues and weaknesses identified in the approaches so-called heterodox also providing trails of research for future and further developments. For what concerns the first two objectives, that of classification among the major schools of economic thought, the relevant literature has been divided into two main sections : first, there are works that fall under the neo-classical, secondly, there are the heterodox works. The split between the two sections has been made on the basis of two dimensions : according to the methods used to perform the analysis and depending on the time scale. One of the most important conclusions of the thesis aims at a revaluation of the use of the methodology of input-ouput. ; La thèse vise à analyser les relations entre dépenses militaires et développement économique sur la base de plusieurs approches soit théoriques soit empiriques. Ce travail de recherche s'est proposé d'atteindre deux objectifs : le premier est constitué par la classification des recherches effectuées sur la thématique des dépenses militaires rapportées au développement économique et/ou à la croissance, pour la période qui part des années 1960 et 1970 parmi les principales écoles de la pensée économique ; le deuxième, au contraire, né de la volonté d'enquêter sur les réponses que la littérature fournissait à la modélisation théorique et à l'application empirique des dépenses militaires rapportées à la croissance, a consisté à mener l'analyse critique de la littérature mainstream et à tenter de trouver des réponses aux questions non résolues et aux faiblesses repérées dans les approches soi-disant hétérodoxes, en fournissant aussi des pistes de recherche pour des développements futurs et supplémentaires. Pour ce qui concerne le premier des deux objectifs, celui de la classification parmi les principales écoles de la pensée économique, la littérature pertinente a été répartie en deux grandes sections : dans la première, il y a les travaux qui relèvent de l'approche néo-classique, tandis que dans la deuxième, on trouve les travaux hétérodoxes. La répartition entre les deux sections a été effectuée sur la base de deux dimensions : en fonction des méthodologies utilisées pour réaliser les analyses et en fonction de l'échelle temporelle. L'une des conclusions les plus importantes de la thèse vise à une réévaluation de l'utilisation de la méthodologie d'input-output
The thesis aims to analyze the relationship between military spending and economic development on the basis of several approaches either theoretical or empirical. This research was proposed to achieve two objectives : the first is the classification of research on the topic of military spending reported to economic development and / or growth for the period from the 1960s and 1970 among the major schools of economic thought, the second, on the contrary, born of the desire to investigate the responses that the literature provided the theoretical modeling and empirical application of military expenditures reported to the growth consisted to conduct critical analysis of the mainstream literature and trying to find answers to unresolved issues and weaknesses identified in the approaches so-called heterodox also providing trails of research for future and further developments. For what concerns the first two objectives, that of classification among the major schools of economic thought, the relevant literature has been divided into two main sections : first, there are works that fall under the neo-classical, secondly, there are the heterodox works. The split between the two sections has been made on the basis of two dimensions : according to the methods used to perform the analysis and depending on the time scale. One of the most important conclusions of the thesis aims at a revaluation of the use of the methodology of input-ouput. ; La thèse vise à analyser les relations entre dépenses militaires et développement économique sur la base de plusieurs approches soit théoriques soit empiriques. Ce travail de recherche s'est proposé d'atteindre deux objectifs : le premier est constitué par la classification des recherches effectuées sur la thématique des dépenses militaires rapportées au développement économique et/ou à la croissance, pour la période qui part des années 1960 et 1970 parmi les principales écoles de la pensée économique ; le deuxième, au contraire, né de la volonté d'enquêter sur les réponses que la ...
The aim of this presentation proposes a first reasoned overview of the results of a new study of documents archive of the National Purge Commission of Universities Professors (in Italian: Commissione Nazionale di Epurazione del Personale Universitario) deposited at the Central State Archive in Rome. It is focused on the whole segment of economists which, up til now, has been considered only for some aspects linked to personal stories of the single scientists.This new research serves to demonstrate that in the personal files of the thirty-eight economists analysed, beyond the individual trial pathways, there is a common thread in their strategy of defence that makes them indistinguishable from their colleagues of the other subjects.In concrete terms, inside the purge of economists exist several situations, similar to those of the branches of knowledge under trial; they repeat acts of defence that are apart from their expert knowledge and their proper and specialized terms well fit together with the conceptual framework delineating purge as a rite-of-passage to the new Republic, but without hangover for their careers. ; Questo contributo propone una prima delucidazione ragionata degli esiti di una nuova esplorazione del fondo della Commissione Nazionale di Epurazione del Personale Universitario dell'Archivio Centrale dello Stato, focalizzata sull'intero segmento degli economisti che, finora, era stato valutato soltanto in alcuni lavori centrati sulle vicende personali di singoli scienziati. La nuova ricerca è tesa a dimostrare che nei fascicoli personali dei trentotto economisti esaminati, al di là dei singoli percorsi processuali, esiste una trama comune nella loro strategia di difesa che li rende indistinguibili dai colleghi delle altre materie. In pratica, dentro l'epurazione gli economisti vivono situazioni affini a quelle di tutte le classi disciplinari processate, ripetono gesti di difesa che prescindono dal loro sapere specialistico e i loro vocaboli di elezione si incastrano perfettamente in un quadro ...
The article deals with Jenny Griziotti Kretschmann, born in Wishni-Wolostchok (Russia) on 22 June 1884 in a middleclass family of German origin & died on 4 December 1980 in Pavia (Italy). In October 1905 she moved from Moscow to Lausanne in order to enroll at the Faculty of Social Sciences where she attended Vilfredo Pareto's courses in Economics. Here she met Benvenuto Griziotti, also in Lausanne for a postgraduate specializing course; in Pavia he would become one of the major Italian scholars in Finance. In 1908 she followed him to Rome where she enrolled at the Faculty of Law, & attended courses held by Antonio De Viti De Marco, Rodolfo Benini & Maffeo Pantaloni, who was carrying out innovative analysis on system dynamics factors. Under Pantaleoni's supervision, she got her full degree in December 1912. From 1930 until her retirement in 1954 she taught as a Lecturer in Economics at the University of Pavia (1930-1933), was assigned the course of Financial Law & Finance at the University of Parma (1935-1940) & of History of Economic Doctrines at the University of Pavia (1940-1954); since 1948 she was also assigned the course of Finance & Economic Policy. She never had the possibility to hold any academic chair; those who knew her acknowledged that her political creed & her status as an academic's wife did not favor her career at all. Some prevailing paths of interest can be discerned in her numerous articles, essays & monographs on issues in Economy & Economic Theory. Initially (1915-1929) she carried out pioneer systematic analysis of the peculiar features of Russian economy. Another area of interest of hers was the analysis of long-term price movements. A third research area she addressed included issues in economic & financial policies, & a fourth area of interest was the history of economic thought, in which regard her handbook is of primary importance; it is based on an interdisciplinary approach, as systems can be fully understood only if analyzed in the context of the social & ideological milieus in which they constitute & evolve in time. Part of her fecund activity is reflected in textbooks on economic policy & finance (1950-1954) & her commitment, also to the diffusion of economic thought, is testified by her transla-tions into Italian of works by Wagemann (1932), Wicks ell, von Mises & Hayek (1935) & the fifth Italian edition of Economics by P. Samuelson (1964). Partly inventoried biographical material & the collection of her writings are available in the Griziotti Family Archive in Pavia (Italy). The most significant recognition of her status has only recently been awarded by those few -- not Italian -- authors who came in contact with her scientific work. References. Adapted from the source document.
"Della vita e delle opere di Salvatore Majorana Calatabiano": vol. 1, p. [vii]-cclxxxv. ; Vol. 2-3 have imprint: Roma, E. Loesher. ; Includes bibliographical references. ; Mode of access: Internet.
