Biography of Luigi Einaudi

Liberal stalwart

24 March 1874
October 30, 1961
Luigi Einaudi, the first Republican head of State elected by Parliament, was one of the highest representatives of the doctrine of economic liberalism, or liberalism, theorizing the non-separation between political freedom and economic freedom. The great statesman was born in Carrù (Cuneo) on March 24 1874 from a modest family, originally of the Maira valley. After his father died, his mother moved the family to Dogliani, where he lived for the rest of his life. Meanwhile the younger Einaudi earned a scholarship to attend the gymnasium at the fathers of the pious schools in Savona, and in 1895, only twenty-one years old, graduated in law at the University of Turin. In 1902 is lecturer at the University of Turin and occupies the Chair of public economics in charge of Industrial Law and political economy.
Two years later gets the Chair of public economics at the Bocconi University in Milan. Luigi Einaudi devoted himself in his studies to the research in the field of Economics and finance, to teaching and to journalism; from 1896, in fact, he collaborated with the newspaper La Stampa in Turin, then in 1900 to the already prestigious Corriere della Sera of Milan, and in 1908 he directed the magazine social reform. Meanwhile, in 1903, he married his pupil, Ida pilgrims; theirs was a happy Union, with whom had three children.
In 1912 offers a revolutionary new finance theory, presented first in the form of newspaper articles, and then in an essay entitled "concept of taxable income and income tax system consumed." The fiscal revolution, then implemented, is to withdraw from the State to every citizen a municipal tax of family income from wages, or by activity, or by the estate or other, by applying a reduced rate. This idea will lead to annual income tax declaration of physical persons, the current 740.
Among the works published in the first period deserves mention: "studies on the effects of the tax" (1902), "Savoy finance to open up the 17th century" (1908), "around the concept of taxable income and income taxes consumed" (1912), "the Earth and the tax" (1924), "contribution to the search for the" perfect set "" (1929). Luigi Einaudi was appointed Senator of the Kingdom in 1919, at the suggestion of Giovanni Giolitti, and the Senate was one of the most tenacious supporters of the need to abandon any form of State socialism that had infiltrated the Italian economic life during the first world war; These ideas were widely exposed in the book "The Italian economic and social effects of the war's conduct," 1933. Initially Einaudi looked with hope to the economic program of fascism, but even before the March on Rome (October 1922) took a stand against the breezy dictatorship, and in 1927 he left il Corriere della Sera which had passed under the control of the regime.
In 1935 the fascist authorities did close the magazine social reform, and the following year gave birth to the journal of economic history Einaudi (1936-1943). After the 25 July, the distinguished Economist was appointed Rector of the University of Turin, but with the proclamation of the social Republic of Salo had to leave this job and take refuge in Switzerland. At the end of 1944 he returned to Rome and on January 5, 1945 he was appointed Governor of the Bank of Italy, where he had the chance to demonstrate its high ability to statesman. In 1946 he was elected Deputy to the constituent Assembly for the Liberal Party was part of the Italian Government, and May 31, 1947 as Deputy Chairman and Minister of budget, providing for stabilization of the lira by means of a strict policy of credit squeeze.
On May 10, 1948 he was elected President of the Republic, and when the mandate (April 25, 1955) returned to the Senate. In June 1955, the British University of Oxford awarded him an honorary doctorate and drew this brief but eloquent profile: "Luigi Einaudi has done a lot for the salvation of his country. He is now the most respected of all figures of Italy, and in the eyes of foreigners symbolizes the resurgence of a country that, after 20 years of dictatorship and the great disasters of the war, was restored to its Honorable place among the free nations of the world. " The President was also one of the earliest and most ardent supporters of the need to create a United Europe and opponent of all forms of monopoly, sided in particular against that State school sector. Luigi Einaudi died in Rome on October 30, 1961 and was buried in the family plot in Dogliani, the country in which he loved to spend summer and talking with people of the everyday problems. Among other things, it must be remembered that Luigi Einaudi has always dedicated personally to race his farm near Dogliani, applying the most modern cropping systems.
For his outstanding achievements he has been awarded recognition, among which include: Member and Vice-President of the Accademia dei Lincei; Member of the Academy of Sciences of Turin; Member of the Institut International de Statistique of the Hague; Fellow of the Econometric Society in Chicago; Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Boston; Fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science of Philadelphia; Honorary Member of the American Economic Association; Honorary Member of the Economic History Association of New York; Honorary President of the International Economic Association; Corresponding member of the Société d'Economie Politique in Paris; Vice President of the Economic History Society of Cambridge; Corresponding member of Coben Club in London; Corresponding member of the Oesterreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften of Vienna. He was awarded honorary degrees from the universities of Paris and Algiers.
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.