A turning point in the history of Econometrics in Italy around 1950. Luigi Pasinetti and Siro Lombardini, his mentor, at the Catholic University of Milan

This paper deals with Luigi L. Pasinetti’s contributions, in the complex path of the definition of the specific area and methodologies of the new discipline of Econometrics. It is divided into three sections, an Introduction, and a Conclusion. The Introduction opens with some notes on the need to define and measure each dimension of the manifold notion of well-being, a need felt by the economists in the first decades of the twentieth century which still is a controversial issue. Considering the convinced supporters of the methodological stance on tools devised by economics + statistics, in a previous paper the author dealt with Corrado Gini (1884-1965), the first Italian member of the Econometric Society, and also with some other Italian statisticians and economists who were among the 33 Italian members – out of 317 – of the Econometric Society in 1934, due to the fact that they contributed to formulating new instruments and methodologies heading towards the new discipline of Econometrics (sect. 2). This paper is mainly devoted to the following chapter in the story, namely the one concerning tools devised by Economics + Statistics + Mathematics in relation to the new Faculty of Economics founded at the Università Cattolica in Milan (Italy) in 1948. The third section also touches upon the economists who were in charge of the chair of Economics, Statistics, and Mathematics, i.e., Marcello Boldrini (1890-1969), Albino Uggè (1899-1971), and Siro Lombardini (b. 1924), who was the first mentor of Luigi Pasinetti. Finally, Luigi Pasinetti, the Italo-Cantabrigian economist and econometrician who in 1965 became the first Professor of Econometrics in Italy, teaching from the chair of the Faculty of Economics at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore of Milan.