Journal of European Economic History - 2019 issue 1


Volume XLVIII

Editore
Bancaria Editrice
Anno
2019
Disponibilità
Disponibile
Prezzo Copertina € 50,00
IVA assolta dall'editore

ARTICLES
Irish Economic Policy in the 1930s and the Authority of Eamon de Valera
The 1930s proved to be particularly difficult years in Irish history. The electoral victory of Eamon de Valera s Fianna Fáil party in February 1932 brought a change of government and of economic policy. It also signaled the reopening of unresolved financial and constitutional issues with Great Britain, eventually resulting in the so-called Economic War. De Valera led his party and his country towards independence and self-sufficiency under the banner of protectionism. This article assesses the authority and influence of de Valera in making Irish economic policy in the 1930s, in view of its long-term consequences. After a brief introduction, the article is organized into two main sections, the first describing the crucial disputes with Britain and the British positions, the second examining the economic performance of Ireland in 1930s. A concluding section summarizes.
Pensions and the Dynamics of Inequality in Italy: Initial Evidence, 1987-2014
As certified by Eurostat, in 2015 Italy was among the European countries with the most pronounced income inequality, with a “20:20 ratio” of 5.8. That is, the income share of the richest 20% of households is 5.8 times that of the poorest 20%. Only Serbia, Romania, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Spain, Greece, Latvia, Estonia and Portugal displayed a higher inequality ratio that year. Even in the broader group of all OECD countries, including the US and the UK, Italy is among the most unequal. The main difference between Italy and the US or Britain is that in Italy inequality had gradually decreased through the 1980s, scoring a minimum in 1991, before then rising dramatically (Fiorio, 2011; Brandolini and Smeeding, 2008). In the US and the UK, by contrast, inequality has increased steadily. The social costs of income inequality can be substantially aggravated or mitigated by a country’s welfare system, so it is important to analyze the structures that the various nations have adopted. The main differences concern both amount of expenditure and the form in which benefits are delivered. For Italy, between 2000 and 2008 the bulk of social expenditure went for old age pensions (59.1% compared with an average of 43.7% in Europe). The article examines trends in inequality in Italy from 1987 to 2014 and analyzes the changing distribution of individual incomes by source (payroll employment, self-employment, pension) and by geographical area.
PROBLEMS
Are We Sentenced to Financial Globalization?
Whether financial globalization is both uncontainable and irreversible is a question that warrants serious consideration in this era of international financial crises. While Calomiris and Neal (2013) contend that the phenomenon dates back to the dawn of history and is the “natural order of things,” Bastidon-Gilles et al. (2010) consider it an institutional alternative to the Bretton Woods system. In this paper, we propose a different reading of the emergence of financial globalization. We marshal historical evidence to demonstrate that financial globalization took its first steps starting from the First Industrial Revolution, was stemmed between the two world wars and during the post-war decades of economic growth known in France as the Trente Glorieuses, and then rose to become a global paradigm in the 1970s following neoliberalism’s return-match victory over state interventionism. It is therefore a political construction and not inevitable.
REVIEW ESSAY
Ad impossibilia nemo tenetur. Notes on Giulio Andreotti and Europe
The authors of the book considered here1 have drawn, in part, on the 120 file binders on Europe in the Giulio Andreotti Papers deposited with Istituto Luigi Sturzo in Rome. Although there is considerable fascination in the variety and importance of the topics treated in this collection, in these notes I focus on the theme closest to my own professional training and experience: namely the successive steps taken by Italy in monetary affairs up to the 1992 decision to create the single European currency, the adoption of the euro six years later, and the subsequent two decades of experience with it. I will concentrate in particular on the essays by Daniela Preda and Francesco Lefebvre D’Ovidio but will also draw on my own personal knowledge of events...
BOOK REVIEWS
Giampaolo Conte
Il Tesoro del Sultano. L’Italia, le grandi potenze e le finanze ottomane. 1881-1914
Gaetano Sabatini

Marco Dotti
Per una Storia della Congrega della Carità Apostolica di Brescia.
Vol. I. Il mercato dell’incertezza. Pratiche sociali e finanziarie viste attraverso la lente di una grande confraternita urbana
Giovanni Gregorini
Per una Storia della Congrega della Carità Apostolica di Brescia.
Vol. II. Il merito della povertà. La Congrega della Carità Apostolica di Brescia in età contemporanea fra spazi sussidiari, nuove marginalita e culture sociali
Luciano Maffi
Per una Storia della Congrega della Carità Apostolica di Brescia.
Vol. III. «Heredità». Benefattori, origine e sviluppo del patrimonio della Congrega: un’efficiente rete di supporto sociale in età moderna e contemporanea
Gaetano Sabatini

Renata Sabene
Lavoro e privilegio nella Città Eterna. Condizioni di vita e potere d’acquisto a Roma nel Settecento
Gaetano Sabatini
BOOKS RECEIVED



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