business history (advanced) (2007/2008)

Learning outcomes

The course aims to provide the fundamental knowledge required to understand the system of enterprise in Italy, including state capitalism, large private companies, and small and medium sized Italian enterprises. This objective will be achieved by highlighting the extensive connections between the numerous aspects which contributed to form the structure of the Italian production system from 1945 to the present day. A general understanding not only of the economic facts, but also of the reflections of Italian economists and their role in the formulation of economic policies are central aims of the course. The global historical knowledge acquired will ensure that the objective of developing a critical interpretation of entrepreneurial choices and economic policy decisions is achieved.

The IRI legacy: continuity and discontinuity. The problem of an erroneous periodization of Italian economic history. The immediate post-war situation and the Marshall Plan. International policy and monetary policy in Republican Italy. State investments. The rebirth of large industry. The “economic miracle”: merits and limits. Industrial sectors and exports. The new electro-mechanical industry.

The 1963 watershed. Planning, investments, nationalisation. Political interests and industrial decline. The new role of trade unions. Pay rises and loss of competitivity. The numerous international events. Unsuccessful restructuring and the “autunno caldo”. Flight of capital and the winding-up of enterprises. Fiat from the death of Giovanni Agnelli senior to “bankruptcy”. The role of Mediobanca in Italy. Episodes on the shady side of the Italian economy. The mingling of politics, information and enterprise. The explosion of the Stock Exchange and the surreptitious use of financial instruments. The collapse of the lira and the great inflation. The explosion of the public debt. The birth and development of a European monetary organisation.

The 1980s and the development of small and medium sized enterprises. Industrial clusters. The absence of an Italian economic policy. The role of the Bank of Italy in the depreciation of the lira. Italian monetary dumping. Fiscal pressure. Support to large industry. Consensus and political funding. The ruling classes and investments in innovation. Italian expenditure on education.

Clues to economic development in China from the Great Leap to the present day.

oral examination