his paper discusses the origin of the first Bank of Italy’s macroeconometric model for the Italian economy, the so-called M1BI (1964-1970) and its role both in the introduction of econometrics in Italy, where the prevailing approach to economics was still theoretical, and the dissemination of Keynesian ideas, in the Neoclassical Synthesis version, thanks to Franco Modigliani’s collaboration. Following Marcel Boumans’ (2005, 2-3) definition of model-building as backing a cake, which ingredients are theoretical ideas, policy views, mathematical concepts and techniques, empirical data and so on, I suggest a comparison between the Bank of Italy’s and the MIT-Penn-SSRC (MPS) models to discuss to what extent the M1BI model was influenced by the Italian different economic, political and intellectual context with respect the US, and by the different purposes the two models pursued. The Italian economy was in that period experiencing rapid changes. Moreover, differently from postwar American neoclassicism (see Morgan, Rutherdof, 1998), the Italian economics debate was still pluralistic thanks to the widespread over the Sixties and early Seventies of Post Keynesian ideas and the influence of Sraffa’s critics to marginalism.
Modigliani and the Bank of Italy first econometric model (http://ssrn.com/abstract=2684081)
RANCAN, Antonella
2015-01-01
Abstract
his paper discusses the origin of the first Bank of Italy’s macroeconometric model for the Italian economy, the so-called M1BI (1964-1970) and its role both in the introduction of econometrics in Italy, where the prevailing approach to economics was still theoretical, and the dissemination of Keynesian ideas, in the Neoclassical Synthesis version, thanks to Franco Modigliani’s collaboration. Following Marcel Boumans’ (2005, 2-3) definition of model-building as backing a cake, which ingredients are theoretical ideas, policy views, mathematical concepts and techniques, empirical data and so on, I suggest a comparison between the Bank of Italy’s and the MIT-Penn-SSRC (MPS) models to discuss to what extent the M1BI model was influenced by the Italian different economic, political and intellectual context with respect the US, and by the different purposes the two models pursued. The Italian economy was in that period experiencing rapid changes. Moreover, differently from postwar American neoclassicism (see Morgan, Rutherdof, 1998), the Italian economics debate was still pluralistic thanks to the widespread over the Sixties and early Seventies of Post Keynesian ideas and the influence of Sraffa’s critics to marginalism.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
