Preparare una «sana e vigile» opinione pubblica: la collaborazione di Luigi Einaudi al «Corriere della Sera» (Creating a «sound and alert» public opinion: Luigi Einaudi as a columnist of the «Corriere della Sera»)

Luigi Einaudi (1874-1961), one of the leading Italian economist of the first half of the twentieth century, acted also as an influential and prolific columnist for the «Corriere della Sera», the authoritative newspaper edited in Milan by Luigi Albertini: from 1903 till 1925, when was forced to quit by the fascist regime, Einaudi wrote about 1,700 articles dealing with most relevant issues of the Italian economic, political and social system of his time. This paper aims at analysing the role played by Einaudi’s articles in interpreting and influencing Italian public opinion, in transmitting ideas and programmes, in advocating economic and social policy measures and in explaining and criticizing those adopted by the central government and by local administrators. To this aim the first section provides an overview of the role played by newspapers in transmitting economic ideas, of the influence exerted by Einaudi’s articles on the public opinion and of his style of writing. A further section examines Einaudi’s pre- World War i newspaper writings on the financial crises (particularly on 1907 crisis), on the working of the financial markets and on price stabilization. Part 3 of the paper deals with his articles on public finance and the war economy. A final section focuses on the articles he published in the years 1919-1925: during this period Einaudi strongly advocated policies aimed at strenghtening free market competition and fiscal and monetary stability