Classics in the History and Development of Economics
2 total works
Despite being highly praised by F.A. Hayek, Marco Fanno's essay "Le Banche e il Mercato Monetario", published in 1913, has been largely ignored so far, even by Italian economists. The first English translation of this essay is published here together with an assessment of Fanno's contribution to economic theory and its relevance today. His work on the money market can be compared with Wicksell's, but their methodologies are significantly different as Fanno's model is based on the Irving Fisher type quantity theory of money that is rejected by Wicksell. Distinguishing deposit banks from the bank of issue, Fanno analyzes how the money market responds to an excess demand for or an excess supply of money. The key concept for his disequilibrium analysis is a discrepancy of the money rate of interest from the marginal productivity of capital, and in this Fanno's analysis is similar to Wicksell's.
Marco Fanno was among the most distinguished of Italian economists, and an important contributor to the history of economic thought. He is unique among the Italian economists of his generation in being influenced by the new macrodynamic theories of the 1930s as well as the Italian tradition of General Equilibrium. His theory of joint costs (1914) is among his most influential works. This translation by Cyprian Blamires makes this easily accessible in English in book form for the first time. The book contains an authoritative foreword from Michio Morishima, placing Fanno and his work in context.