MONETA, PRODUZIONE, SCELTE DI POLITICA ECONOMICA: IL CONTRIBUTO DI FERDINANDO DI FENIZIO DAGLI ANNI TRENTA AL SECONDO CONFLITTO MONDIALE

This essay analyzes the scholarly contribution of the young Ferdinando di Fenizio in the decade between the early 1930s and World War II. Until 1935, di Fenizio’s publications refer, almost exclusively, to monetary and credit issues. Prominent among these are articles and essays, characterized by considerable acumen and originality, on the role of the gold standard, the emergence of distinct and partly opposing monetary areas, the actions of the Federal Reserve in the years of the Great Depression, and the Roosevelt administration’s policies in the currency field. A few essays of di Fenizio refer to theoretical and applied analysis in the field of banking. In the second half of the 1930s, di Fenizio directs his research toward industrial economics, microeconomics and various forms of programmed economies. With reference to industrial economics, he focuses on chemistry as an area capable of bringing about a ‘third’ industrial revolution. His microeconomic analyses are also based on a solid theoretical and methodological foundation. The analysis carried out in this essay confirms the breadth of Fenizio’s interests and illustrates, on the one hand, his direct knowledge of the international economic literature contemporary to him (including the works Irving Fisher, J. M. Keynes, Friedrich Hayek and Erich Schneider) and, on the other, his ability to a confront, sometimes critically, with the same on relevant technical or analytical issues.