Inflation then and now: some Italian perspectives
The contemporary debate on inflation largely revolves around the steepness or the supposed death or return of the Phillips curve. This need not, and has not always been the case. In this presentation I will focus on the contributions of some Italian economists over the 1970s and 1980s. I will focus specifically on: Riccardo Parboni, who stressed the role of the US dollar cycles and the “ratchet effect” of imported inflation; Salvatore Biasco, who stressed the need for compatibility between the main blocs’ macroeconomic positions and the creation of international liquidity to finance international disequilibria; and on Alessandro Roncaglia, who analysed the global energy markets stressing the pervasiveness of non-competitive conditions and a dominating role for international speculation on commodity-based derivates. On the whole, without denying the usefulness of domestic explanations of inflation (such as “conflict inflation” or sometimes even monetarist approaches) these analyses suggest that there is an international dimension of inflation still overlooked today.
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Keywords: inflation, US dollar, international imbalances, speculation
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