RISULTATI RICERCA

The aim of this note is to attempt to reconsider the more traditional literature on economic policy, concerning the field of the main mechanisms related to macroeconomic policies. This reading, over time, has undergone various critical observations, as well as evolutionary processes derived from political-cultural and institutional dynamics. Thus the debate is not oriented between the choice of liberalism or interventionism, but rather on the economic-political-social objectives of intervention strategies. The correlations between economic content and the principles of modern democracies are questioned, and the issue of economic and social ethics is raised again. Economic policy prescriptions will be reconsidered in the light of their socio-economic complexity, and the result of the reflection will be interpreted by a significant evolution of the dimension of economic policy, considering the dynamics of the solidarity economy.

The interview with Michel Camdessus, former Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, explores a few episodes concerning the failed attempts to issue Special Drawing Rights to support development, transition to a market economy and the need to finance global public goods. It also touches upon a few theoretical knots concerning the potential inflationary pressure of such issues and the establishment of a multi-layered framework of economic and monetary governance.

Within the liberal tradition, the principle of equality of opportunity stands among the most deeply rooted. Emerging in the wake of the French Revolution, it marked the shift from the ascriptive logic that dominated ancient régime societies to the acquisitive logic of the market based on merit and individual abilities. As an egalitarian model, it confines its application exclusively to the realm of ex-ante conditions, thereby accepting inequality in ex-post outcomes and endorsing the market as a mechanism of social regulation. However, the universality of this principle is merely apparent. It represents one of the most contentious antinomies within liberal thought. The case discussed here is undoubtedly among the most significant. In numerous writings, particularly his 1901 essay, Maffeo Pantaleoni explicitly addressed the interplay between “equality of opportunity”, “initial conditions”, and the inherited wealth of economic agents, engaging in a discourse that intertwines ethical, political, and theoretical dimensions. This paper elucidates why Pantaleoni regarded any demand for greater equality of opportunity as inconsistent with the liberal and market-oriented framework.

This paper explores the historical evolution of key scientific and economic paradigms, emphasizing the interconnectedness of physics and economics. Beginning with Newtonian mechanics in the 17th century, it highlights the mechanistic determinism introduced by Newton’s Principia Mathematica (1687), which established a universal framework for understanding natural phenomena. The discussion then shifts to the 19th century, focusing on energetic physics and thermodynamics, with foundational contributions from Carnot, Joule and Clausius. This period marked a shift from purely mechanistic views to the study of energy transformations and the principles of conservation and entropy. Building on these scientific developments, the article examines the rise of neoclassical economics in the late 19th century, as economists like Jevons, Walras and Pareto adapted physical concepts to economic theory, employing analogies such as equilibrium and optimization. Finally, this paper delves into econophysics and socio-physics, highlighting the application of gravity models in economic and social sciences as an example of interdisciplinary integration. Following this historical path, the article underscores the profound influence of physical sciences on the methodological and conceptual foundations of economics.

Efforts to reorganize the railways in Italy in the second half of the eighteenth century led to the promulgation of Law n. 137/1905, which ratified the nationalization of the lines. Hence, an autonomous institution under the control of the Ministry of Public Works, aspiring to operate as an industrial company, subjected to limited political influences and accounting controls, administrated the railways. This paper reconstructs the debate that arose shortly before and in the immediate aftermath of the promulgation of the law. As will be discussed, Nofri, Trevisonno, Pantaleoni, Einaudi, Pareto, and Borgatta not only addressed the possibility to entrust the administration of the railways to a workers’ cooperative, as the public operation had displayed critical issues, but they also seized the opportunity to foster the establishment of a socialist system based on trade union ownership.

The term, and the concept of, crony capitalism gained some momentum in the political and economic debate on the Southeast Asian financial crisis of the second half of the 1990s. Luigi Zingales has been arguably one of the economists who not only brought the most relevant contribution to its study but also contributed to popularize it, mainly with the book “Saving Capitalism from the Capitalists”, written with Raghuram G. Rajan in 2003. We review the role of the scientific production of Zingales on this concept, considering its uniqueness as regards its application to the analysis of the financial markets and exploiting its consistency in the works written before and after the 2008 financial crisis. We argue that the concept of crony capitalism in the works of Zingales can be isolated as proposing a self-standing model of the relation between economic and political institutions.

The study aims to analyze the impact of the global economic crisis in 2008 and the COVID-19 crisis in 2020 on the consumption of organic food in Denmark, one of the largest markets for organic food in Europe. The Error Correction Model (ECM) has been implemented, with modifications applying the Markov Regime Switching (MRS) methodology o integrate breakpoint analysis. It has been confirmed a statistically significant dependency of organic food consumption on disposable income during both crisis and non-crisis periods. As the identified effect is positive during non-crisis periods and negative during crises, it has been confirmed that organic food consumption significantly increases when disposable income decreases during a crisis. The use of the Error Correction Model (ECM) with modifications incorporating the Markov Regime Switching (MRS) methodology allows the integration of breakpoint analysis and provides a more realistic description of the evolution of the variables under study. The study is designed to explore overall attitudes towards consumption and aims to measure the influence of disposable income on organic food consumption. It also seeks to analyze how this impact evolved over time and during the aforementioned crises.