Facing Stagflation in the Seventies in Italy: Fausto Vicarelli’s Economic Policy Proposals

Journal title HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT AND POLICY
Author/s Giovanni Michelagnoli
Publishing Year 2023 Issue 2023/1
Language English Pages 23 P. 45-67 File size 164 KB
DOI 10.3280/SPE2023-001002
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

This paper surveys Vicarelli’s economic policy proposals. We begin by offering brief contextual sketches and later examine the flaws in the "neoclassical synthesis" approach in accounting for stagflation. By first recognizing the inadequacy of the traditional approach at the heuristic-interpretative level, we then recall the policy proposals suggested by Vicarelli in order to foster the accumulation process. As will be pointed out, these were useful tools in restoring and enhancing the state of confi- dence as well as the marginal efficiency of capital. We conclude that Vicarelli leans towards a sort of "return to Keynes" in considering institutional engineering solu- tions in the context of a monetary production economy, whose functioning is af- fected by complex interaction mechanisms and systemic uncertainty.

Keywords: Vicarelli, accumulation, marginal efficiency of capital, IS-LM model

Jel codes: B22, B31, E12

  1. Bianchi C. (1977). Teoria neoclassica, teoria di Keynes ed interpretazioni keyne- siane: alcune considerazioni. In La teoria keynesiana quarant’anni dopo. Milano, Giuffrè, 207-214.
  2. Borna S., Lowry J. (1987). Gambling and speculation, Journal of Business Ethics, 6: 219-224.
  3. Brockway G. (1983). On speculation: a footnote to Keynes, Journal of Post Keynes- ian Economics, 5(4): 515-522.
  4. Caffè F. (1975). L’economia keynesiana e la politica economica, Rassegna econo- mica, 39(4): 839-853.
  5. Carabelli A. (2002). Speculation and reasonableness: a non-Bayesian theory of ra- tionality. In S. Dow, J. Hillard (eds.) (2002). Keynes, uncertainty and the global economy: beyond Keynes. Aldershot, Elgar, 165-185.
  6. Casarosa C. (1981). Il fondo di solidarietà dei lavoratori: un «post mortem»?, Rivista internazionale di scienze sociali, 4: 671-691.
  7. Castronovo V. (2006). Una storia economica d’Italia. Torino, Einaudi.
  8. Cesos (1981). Un anno di dibattito sul fondo di solidarietà. Roma, Edizioni Lavoro. Ciocca P.L. (2021). Ricchi per sempre. Una storia economica d’Italia (1796-2020). Torino, Bollati Boringhieri.
  9. Clower R.W. (1965). The Keynesian counter devolution: a theoretical appraisal. In
  10. F.H. Hahn Brechling (eds.) (1965). The theory of interest rates. London, Mac- millan, 103-125.
  11. Colajanni N., Vicarelli F. (1983). Le vie dello sviluppo, Il progetto, 15(3): 99-103.
  12. Garofalo G., Gnesutta C. (2010). A return to fundamentals: Fausto Vicarelli’s thought on finance vs. growth and efficiency vs. stability, Rivista italiana degli economisti, 15(1): 105-142.
  13. Gnesutta C. (1996). Presentation to, Gnesutta C. (ed.) (1996). Incertezza, moneta, aspettative, equilibrio. Bologna, il Mulino, 7-81.
  14. Gnesutta C. (2001). L’attualità della riflessione scientifica di Fausto Vicarelli, Rivista italiana degli economisti, 6(3): 431-457.
  15. Gnesutta C. (2020) (ed.). Fausto Vicarelli. Tornare a Keynes. Scritti scientifici, vol. 1-3. Roma, Banca d’Italia.
  16. Graziani A. (1980). Tendenze del pensiero economico italiano negli anni settanta, Note economiche, 5-6: 9-29.
  17. Hicks J.R. (1937). Mr. Keynes and the “Classics”; a suggested interpretation, Econ- ometrica, 5(2): 147-159.
  18. Hilferding (1910). Das Finanzkapital: eine Studie über die jüngste Entwicklung des Kapitalismus. Vienna, Brand.
  19. Klein L. (1949). The Keynesian revolution. New York, Macmillan.
  20. Leijonhufvud A. (1967). Keynes and the Keynesians: a suggested interpretation, American Economic Review, 57(2): 401-410.
  21. Leijonhufvud A. (1968). On Keynesian economics and the economics of Keynes: a study in monetary theory. New York-London, Oxford University Press.
  22. Malinvaud E. (1977). The theory of unemployment reconsidered. Oxford, Blackwell. Modigliani F. (1944). Liquidity preference and the theory of interest and money, Econometrica, 12(1): 45-88.
  23. Morishima M. (1975). Leon Walras and the money. In Parkin M., Nobay A.R. (eds) (1975). Current economic problems. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 153-185.
  24. Musu I. (1977). Disequilibrio, rigidità e teoria keynesiana. In La teoria keynesiana quarant’anni dopo. Milano, Giuffrè, 41-79.
  25. Paesani P. (2018). Vicarelli, Keynes and the unstable nexus between investment, liquidity and finance, Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, 40(1): 16-35.
  26. Patinkin D. (1965). Money, interest and prices, New York, Harper & Row.
  27. Silva F. (1990), in Becattini G., Lunghini G. (eds.) (1990). Paradigmi teorici e ricerca empirica. Il caso dell’economia industriale. Milano, FrancoAngeli, 117- 124.
  28. Solidarity Fund (1983). Conquiste del lavoro, 22, 30thMay, suppl. 9: 3-23.
  29. Vicarelli F. (1966). Interazioni tra fenomeni reali e fenomeni finanziari nel mecca- nismo ciclico, Metroeconomica, 18(3): 239-261.
  30. Vicarelli F. (1974a). Disoccupazione e prezzi relativi: un tentativo di reinterpretazione di Keynes. In Vicarelli F. (ed.) (1974). La controversia Keynesiana. Bolo- gna, il Mulino, 207-32.
  31. Vicarelli F. (1974b). Introduction to Vicarelli F. (ed.) (1974). La controversia Key- nesiana. Bologna, il Mulino, 9-46.
  32. Vicarelli F. (1975). Struttura degli scambi internazionali e inflazione mondiale. In Sviluppo economico, scambi internazionali e crisi monetaria. Proceedings of the Fifteenth Meeting of the Italian Economists Society. Milano, Giuffrè, 9-33.
  33. Vicarelli F. (1977). Moneta e valore nella “Teoria generale”: verso una nuova inter- pretazione di Keynes. In Faucci R. (ed.) (1977). John Maynard Keynes nel pen- siero e nella politica economica. Milano, Feltrinelli, 96-117.
  34. Vicarelli F. (1981). La crisi dell’accumulazione. In Merlo V. (ed.) (1981). Controllare l’accumulazione. Roma, Edizioni Lavoro, 20-24.
  35. Vicarelli F. (1984 [1977]). Keynes. The Instability of Capitalism. London, Macmillan.
  36. Vicarelli F. (1984). Stagflation in the Seventies: A Relative Prices Theoretical Ap- proach, Metroeconomica, 36(2-3): 127-141.
  37. Vicarelli F. (1985-1986). Natural laws and economic policy: some considerations on the theoretical foundations of the new classical macroeconomics. Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, 8(2): 298-314.
  38. Vicarelli F. (1987 [1979a]). Capitale industriale e capitale finanziario. In Vicarelli F. (1987), 271-293.
  39. Vicarelli F. (1987 [1979b]). Il problema di una vigilanza credibile. In Vicarelli F. (1987), 319-321.
  40. Vicarelli F. (1987 [1981]). Accumulazione, risparmio, sviluppo. In Vicarelli F. (1987), 217-237.
  41. Vicarelli F. (1987 [1983a]). Credito. In Vicarelli F. (1987), 255-270.
  42. Vicarelli F. (1987 [1983b]). Come la banca risponde alla sfida di proporre nuovi strumenti per canalizzare il risparmio. In Vicarelli F. (1987), 307-310.
  43. Vicarelli F. (1987). La questione economica nella società italiana. Analisi e propo- ste. il Mulino, Bologna.
  44. Vicarelli F. (2020 [1983]). Incomes policy and International money. Comment on Davidson. In Gnesutta C. (2020), vol. 3, 176-178.
  45. Vicarelli F. (2020 [1984]). Review of Rodano G., Il credito all’economia. R. Mattioli alla Banca Commerciale italiana. In Gnesutta C. (2020), vol. 3, 130-134.
  46. Visco I. (2022). Inflation and monetary policy, prima lezione “Ugo La Malfa”, Camera dei Deputati, Aula dei gruppi parlamentari, 16th November 2022, Roma, Banca d’Italia.
  47. Zenezini M. (1995). Macroeconomia. In Cozzi T., Lombardini S., Salvati M. (eds.) (1995). Economia 1970-1990, Torino, Edizioni della Fondazione Agnelli, 95-158.

Giovanni Michelagnoli, Facing Stagflation in the Seventies in Italy: Fausto Vicarelli’s Economic Policy Proposals in "HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT AND POLICY" 1/2023, pp 45-67, DOI: 10.3280/SPE2023-001002