Reflections on Luigi Einaudi, Economist and Politician, in the Margins of the National Edition of his Writings

As a neoclassical economist, Luigi Einaudi focused on the market economy, but he did not share the vision of a real world that naturally converges towards a static general equilibrium. Rather, as a social scientist, his emphasis was on the progress of the individual and society, in the search for widespread prosperity, entrusted primarily to human creativity and a fruitful and free competitive struggle. Indeed, his attention to questions of social justice was the consequence of a deep conviction that it was neither useful nor possible to make a clear separation between the study of facts, with the efficient allocation that results from a properly regulated market, and the value judgements necessary to guide the right policy response. In his important role as an active policy maker after the Second World War, he searched for and proposed possible ways to build a better future for Italy and Europe. The national edition of his writings does full justice to his extraordinary versatility and profound writing skills as a social scientist, educator, columnist and leading political figure, and it helps to highlight the limitations of defining him as a conservative liberal, albeit a leading one.