Acknowledgements
In preparing this book, I was greatly assisted by the advice and criticism of many friends and colleagues. Some parts of this book draw on the results of my previous research, such as many of my papers and books, sometimes jointly authored with others.
I therefore thank the co-authors with whom I wrote: Giovanni Di Bartolomeo, Douglas A. Hibbs, Andrew Hughes Hallett, Giovanni Paolo Piacquadio and Patrizio Tirelli. Giovanni Di Bartolomeo and I first devised the new theory of economic policy that overcame radical objections to the classical theory, reestablishing what I call the ‘second pillar' of economic policy as a discipline. I still remember how excited we were when we realised the innovative character and deep implications of the new theory.Joint works are all cited in the relevant parts of this book where they are used and are included in the References. In some cases, the parts drawn from these papers are rather long, and I have asked permission from the co-authors to reproduce them. Anyway, the sources of these parts are not only quoted, as usually, but explicit mention of them is made at the beginnings of the relevant sections.
I must thank the friends and colleagues who have read the whole manuscript or parts of it and suggested a number of changes, in some case of perspective. Among them I must recall Alberto Baffigi, Guido Candela, Giovanni Di Bartolomeo, Andrew Hughes Hallett, Reinhard Neck, Michele Raitano, Roberto Schiattarella, Mario Tiberi and Ignazio Visco.
I am grateful to the members of the committee selecting the contributors to the Federico Caffe Lectures and the Bank of Italy for supporting the initiative. Cambridge University Press did a great job in preparing this book to be published. I am grateful, in particular, to Phil Good, who took over the editorship of the Federico Caffe Lectures from Chris Harrison, who first supported the initiative of a dedicated series. As in the past, Veronica Fedeli helped me in carefully checking and editing the whole manuscript.
Finally, I am mostly grateful to Federico Caffe, my mentor, whose memory this book intends to honour. He first introduced me to the wonderful world of economic policy as a discipline.