Ferdinando Di Fenizio Interprete Di Keynes

Abstract

The article analyses the contribution by Ferdinando di Fenizio to the introduction of Keynesian thought into Italy; di Fenizio’s work is discussed within the historical context of the economic doctrines prevalent at that time. The comparison shows how the adaptation of Keynes’s thought to the Italian environment was a long and laborious process. The article covers the academic and life experience of di Fenizio (1906-1974) during the 1930s and 1940s. It is emphasized that his entry into the Milanese environment, in particular in the Montedison’ research department and the editorship of “L’industria”, contributed to bringing about what was to be a constant feature of his research activities: close attention to facts, empirical verification, relevance of theory for the analysis and economic policies. His editorship of “L’industria” was central to the diffusion of Keynes’s thought from the beginning of the post World War II period, and significantly contributed to the progress of economic studies in Italy, both in terms of research and teaching of economics. In the early post-war years, di Fenizio published many essays which analyzed various aspects of the Keynesian system: overall supply and demand, effective demand, income and employment. Di Fenizio systematically highlighted – in Keynes’s work – the elements of continuity up to The General Theory. The paper emphasizes, in particular, that Fenizio identified three eighteenth-century authors as precursors of the Keynesian system as an aggregate and real-monetary integrated system, all significant from the point of view of monetary analysis albeit very heterogeneous: John Law, “the true ancestor of the concept of manipulated money” according to Schumpeter, the mercantilist banker Richard Cantillon, and the physician, physiocratic and “economist” François Quesnay.