Theory and Practice of Economic Policy: Tradition and Change

This volume contains 19 papers presented at the IX AISPE Conference, which was held in June 2006 at the University of Padua, Faculty of Political Sciences. The conference examined the theory and practice of \u201ceconomic policy\u201d during the 20th century, focusing on both historical aspects and present experiences. Although already introduced by the mercantilist doctrines and classical theories, during the past century economic policy acquired the full status of a discipline endowed with its own theoretical corpus and a wide range of applications. The volume is divided into six sections. The first section, \u201cState and Market in the History of Economic Thought,\u201d faces \u201cbig themes,\u201d such us the historical evolution of ideas on government, market and anti-trust. Following these wide surveys the second section, \u201cEconomic Policy and Knowledge,\u201d develops methodological and epistemological concerns, and singles out and discusses the foundations of the relationship between public policies and economic knowledge. The next sections present specific topics. The third one, on \u201cDistribution and Poverty,\u201d calls attention to a pivotal topic in this research area, the distributive aspects which remain at the centre of public policies, notwithstanding their marginalization from the economic debate. The fourth section, \u201cMonetary Policy and Banking,\u201d focuses on banking systems' evolution and on theoretical features introduced in the monetary circuit approach. The fifth section, on \u201cWage Policy,\u201d which sweeps from Walrasian wage law to current perspectives on full employment, traces history and the present. Finally the sixth section, on \u201cCurrent Issues,\u201d looks in-depth at some points which have been at the centre of recent political and theoretical debates; that is, innovation, growth, \u201cthird ways\u201d and international coordination