Creating an Epistemic Community: The Experience of the Villa Mondragone International Economic Seminar

In the past 32 years, the Villa Mondragone conference has been a highly successful forum for elaboration and debate on a range of important economic policy issues. In addition to the direct impact of the event, which has established itself as one of the major economic conferences in Europe, and as a source of numerous and influential publications, a group of international scholars has gradually grown around the conference and its main themes. This group, organized in the Villa Mondragone Development Association (VIMDA), carries the legacy of the conference and the creation of the network of scholars and policy makers that support its continuing development. While during these years the conference has successfully contributed to important issues of economic policy, the association has also grown in strength and purpose through many activities. These have included the publication of books, articles, as well as the organization of seminars, workshops and extended training programs, where scholars and practitioners have shared practices and new developments. Many of these activities have followed closely the conference, while other have developed separately, especially in line with the interest of the participants in key themes of economic development and European economic policies. The core members of the association have contributed to an ongoing constructive policy dialogue which has more recently intensified, because of the many challenges to economic policy, from globalization to the more recent crisis caused by the pandemics. At present, VIMDA faces a critical juncture with both organizational and substantive challenges. On the organization side, the growing interaction amongst the participating group of international scholars suggests further developments of the conference and the related activities. These include the expansion of the conference themes to various seminars and publications and, most recently, a very successful series of webinars (the so called “Group of 20”) with broad reach and incisive influence on policy makers. They also include strategic alliances with other economic associations and networks, as well as with longstanding national and international partners. On the content side, VIMDA is called to contribute to the post-Covid debate on the important issues of recovery and the renewed normalcy, taking into account the important lessons of the pandemic, but also by proposing new ideas for sustainable development, endogenous dynamism and inclusive growth. On crucial elements of the background of these topics of great importance for economics and policy making, the Villa Mondragone conference has already contributed in the past. However, by addressing the issue of development today, we face both the challenge and the opportunity to delineate a new framework for the future.