IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/bdi/workqs/qse_58_eng.html

Luigi Einaudi as Governor (1945-1948). Postwar, reconstruction and stabilization

Author

Listed:
  • Pier Francesco Asso

    (University of Palermo)

  • Marcello Messori

    (European University Institute in Florence)

Abstract

This paper analyzes the evolution of Banca d'Italia during Luigi Einaudi's governorship. Einaudi was appointed in January 1945, and pursued a very broad mandate: to restore the Bank's autonomy across monetary policy, exchange-rate policy and supervision policy; to contribute to the reintegration of the Italian economy into the new international economic order; to reaffirm the Bank's role as the "bank of banks" while reducing its role as the "bank of the Treasury"; and to strengthen its technical reputation in order to help shape the key economic policy decisions in Italy. Before long, bringing excessive inflationary pressures under control became the primary objective. Einaudi chose to postpone the launch of the stabilization intervention until 1947, considering support for economic recovery through an expansion of bank credit to be a national priority. Once implemented, monetary policy proved to be effective in achieving stabilization. Our reconstruction shows how Einaudi's governorship prepared the Bank to play a crucial role in the evolution of the Italian economy in the subsequent decades.

Suggested Citation

  • Pier Francesco Asso & Marcello Messori, 2026. "Luigi Einaudi as Governor (1945-1948). Postwar, reconstruction and stabilization," Quaderni di storia economica (Economic History Working Papers) 58 ENG, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    • Handle: RePEc:bdi:workqs:qse_58_eng
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.bancaditalia.it/pubblicazioni/quaderni-storia/2026-0058/index.html?com.dotmarketing.htmlpage.language=1
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • B31 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought: Individuals - - - Individuals
    • E58 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Central Banks and Their Policies
    • N14 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - Europe: 1913-
    • N24 - Economic History - - Financial Markets and Institutions - - - Europe: 1913-

    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:bdi:workqs:qse_58_eng. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/bdigvit.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.