IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ris/ecoint/0956.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Jean-François Melon Contribution to the Theory of Public Debt: A Fil Rouge Connecting the Economic Debate from the 18th Century until this Day

Author

Listed:
  • Mieli, Stefano

    (Former Managing Director for Banking Supervision and Regulation, Banca d’Italia, Rome - Italy)

Abstract

Jean-François Melon, a John Law follower writing in a period which is considered the last phase of Mercantilism, depicted in his Essai politique sur le commerce (1734) public debt as debts from the right hand to the left one. Melon’s work is today known only by a few specialists and is often considered a curiosity of the early stages of the economic discipline. The aim of this paper is to examine briefly the debate on public debt over the centuries, outlining the impact and the today’s relevance of the French economist contribution. The analysis of his Essay makes possible to see him as a forerunner in the field of economic theory: in particular, he anticipated to a certain extent the Keynesian belief of the possibility of sustaining the level of economic activity via deficit financing. However, he should be considered at least as the man who gave vent to intense debates on public debt from the 18th century until this day. Il contributo di Jean-François Melon alla teoria del debito pubblico e la sua influenza nel dibattito economico dal diciottesimo secolo fino ai giorni nostri Jean-François Melon, un seguace di John Law che ha vissuto e scritto in un periodo considerato l’ultima fase del Mercantilismo, ha rappresentato nel suo Essai politique sur le commerce (1734) il debito pubblico come un debito della mano destra alla sinistra. Il lavoro di Melon è oggi conosciuto da pochi specialisti ed è spesso considerato una curiosità degli albori della disciplina economica. Questa nota si pone l’obiettivo di ripercorrere sinteticamente il dibattito sul debito pubblico svoltosi negli ultimi secoli ponendo in luce l’importanza del contributo dell’economista francese. L’analisi del suo Essai consente in particolare di attribuire a Melon un ruolo di precursore nell’evoluzione della teoria economica, ad esempio, anticipando in qualche modo il tema keynesiano della possibilità di sostenere l’attività economica attraverso la spesa pubblica finanziata in deficit. In ogni caso, egli dovrebbe almeno essere considerato come un pensatore che ha notevolmente stimolato l’acceso dibattito sul tema del debito pubblico svoltosi dal diciottesimo secolo ai giorni nostri.

Suggested Citation

  • Mieli, Stefano, 2023. "Jean-François Melon Contribution to the Theory of Public Debt: A Fil Rouge Connecting the Economic Debate from the 18th Century until this Day," Economia Internazionale / International Economics, Camera di Commercio Industria Artigianato Agricoltura di Genova, vol. 76(4), pages 529-546.
    • Handle: RePEc:ris:ecoint:0956
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.iei1946.it/article/pdf/download/869/jean-francois-melon-contribution-to-the-theory-of-public-debt-a-fil-rouge-connecting-the-economic-debate-from-the-18th-century-until-this-day
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Blaug,Mark, 1997. "Economic Theory in Retrospect," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521577014.
    2. Barro, Robert J, 1974. "Are Government Bonds Net Wealth?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(6), pages 1095-1117, Nov.-Dec..
    3. Musgrave, R.A., 1985. "A brief history of fiscal doctrine," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 1, pages 1-59, Elsevier.
    4. Gauti B. Eggertsson & Paul Krugman, 2012. "Debt, Deleveraging, and the Liquidity Trap: A Fisher-Minsky-Koo Approach," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 127(3), pages 1469-1513.
    5. Cosimo Perrotta, 1997. "The Preclassical Theory of Development: Increased Consumption Raises Productivity," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 29(2), pages 295-326, Summer.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hayo, Bernd & Neumeier, Florian, 2017. "The (In)validity of the Ricardian equivalence theorem–findings from a representative German population survey," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 162-174.
    2. Meissner, Thomas & Rostam-Afschar, Davud, 2017. "Learning Ricardian Equivalence," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 273-288.
    3. Guerini, Mattia & Moneta, Alessio & Napoletano, Mauro & Roventini, Andrea, 2020. "The Janus-Faced Nature Of Debt: Results From A Data-Driven Cointegrated Svar Approach," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 24(1), pages 24-54, January.
    4. Julia, Knolle, 2014. "An Empirical Comparison of Interest and Growth Rates," MPRA Paper 59520, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Jeffrey R. Campbell, 2014. "Quantitative Easing in Joseph's Egypt with Keynesian Producers," Working Paper Series WP-2014-15, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
    6. Ianc, Nicolae-Bogdan & Turcu, Camelia, 2020. "So alike, yet so different: Comparing fiscal multipliers across EU members and candidates," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 278-298.
    7. Pascal Michaillat & Emmanuel Saez, 2022. "An economical business-cycle model [Breaking through the zero lower bound]," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 74(2), pages 382-411.
    8. Eugenio Caverzasi & Alberto Russo, 2018. "Toward a new microfounded macroeconomics in the wake of the crisis," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 27(6), pages 999-1014.
    9. André Teixeira & Zoë Venter, 2021. "Macroprudential Policy and Aggregate Demand," Working Papers REM 2021/0181, ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics and Management, REM, Universidade de Lisboa.
    10. Nicolas Caramp & Dejanir Silva, 2023. "Fiscal Policy and the Monetary Transmission Mechanism," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 51, pages 716-746, December.
    11. Hager, Sandy Brian, 2013. "Public Debt, Ownership and Power: The Political Economy of Distribution and Redistribution," EconStor Theses, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, number 157991, July.
    12. Homburg, Stefan, 2017. "A Study in Monetary Macroeconomics," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198807537.
    13. Jean-Luc Gaffard, 2018. "Monetary theory and policy : the debate revisited," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-03475425, HAL.
    14. Bruno Martorano, 2015. "Lessons from the recent economic crisis: the Australian household stimulus package," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(3), pages 309-327, May.
    15. Manel Antelo & David Peón, 2014. "Fiscal consolidation and the sustainability of public debt in the GIPSI countries," Cuadernos de Economía - Spanish Journal of Economics and Finance, Asociación Cuadernos de Economía, vol. 37(103), pages 52-71, Abril.
    16. Ichiro Takahashi, 2021. "An Artificial Wicksell—Keynes Macroeconomy," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-981-16-6839-5, December.
    17. Menzie Chinn, 2013. "fiscal multipliers," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics,, Palgrave Macmillan.
    18. Jean-Luc Gaffard, 2018. "Monetary Theory and Policy: The Debate Revisited," GREDEG Working Papers 2018-33, Groupe de REcherche en Droit, Economie, Gestion (GREDEG CNRS), Université Côte d'Azur, France.
    19. Guerini, Mattia & Moneta, Alessio & Napoletano, Mauro & Roventini, Andrea, 2020. "The Janus-Faced Nature Of Debt: Results From A Data-Driven Cointegrated Svar Approach," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 24(1), pages 24-54, January.
    20. Röhrs, Sigrid & Winter, Christoph, 2015. "Public versus private provision of liquidity: Is there a trade-off?," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 314-339.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Public Debt; History of Economic Thought;

    JEL classification:

    • B11 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Preclassical (Ancient, Medieval, Mercantilist, Physiocratic)
    • B12 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Classical (includes Adam Smith)
    • B13 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Neoclassical through 1925 (Austrian, Marshallian, Walrasian, Wicksellian)
    • B21 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - Microeconomics
    • B22 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - Macroeconomics
    • H60 - Public Economics - - National Budget, Deficit, and Debt - - - General
    • H63 - Public Economics - - National Budget, Deficit, and Debt - - - Debt; Debt Management; Sovereign Debt

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ris:ecoint:0956. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Angela Procopio (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cacogit.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.