Paolo Savona - english

Paolo Savona
Presidente Paolo Savona
Paolo Savona is Emeritus Professor of political economy. Chairman of CONSOB – Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa, appointed with Decree of the President of the Republic 8 March 2019, for seven years.

Minister of European Affairs of the 1st Conte Government since 1st June 2018 to 8th March 2019.

Studies and university career

After graduating with distinction in Economics and Commerce in 1961, he starts his career at the Bank of Italy's Research Department, reaching the position of Director. Co-author of the M1BI, the first econometric model of the Italian economy, he specializes in Monetary Economics and Econometrics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he works with Franco Modigliani and Giorgio La Malfa at studying the yield curve of the Italian economy.

Researcher at the Special Studies Division of the Federal Reserve System's Board of Governors in Washington DC, he studies the functioning of monetary markets in view of the issue in Italy of the first Ordinary Treasury Bills.

In 1976, he leaves the Bank of Italy and starts his academic career as a Professor of Economic Policy at the Cagliari University. He also teaches at the Pro Deo University, where he participates in the refounding of the academia as "Luiss Guido Carli". In the same year he is designated Director General of Confindustria, following the election of Guido Carli to the chairmanship of the body, and holds the task until 1980.

Together with Michele Fratianni, he is the founder and director of  the Open Economies Review and from 2006 to 2011,  scientific editor for the reviews "Economia Italiana", "Journal of European Economic History" and "Review of Economic Conditions in Italy".

He also teaches at the Universities of Perugia and Roma Tor Vergata, at the School of Public Administration and at the Guglielmo Marconi University, where he introduces  the doctorate in Geopolitical economy in 2010.

He is Knight Grand Cross of Merit of the Italian Republic, Chinese Eisenhower Fellow of Taiwan and Jemolo Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford University.

Research areas

His most preferred  research subjects include the international monetary system, the derivative contracts and the productivity gaps between the Centre-North and  the "Mezzogiorno" of Italy. He is the author and co-author of numerous academic works on real economy, as well as on monetary and financial issues and methodologies. His most important research is delivered on  interest rates and their connections with investment decisions, but he has also pioneered analyses on the international monetary basis and the Eurodollar, as well as studies on the macroeconomic effects of derivative contracts,  foreseeing the dramatic events that have affected both the global and Italian economy in the past forty years.

When the Treaty on European Union is signed in 1992, he speaks out against the Maastricht criteria, as he deems them lacking in scientific basis and too rigid for an economy that rather requires flexibility. Convinced that Italy is not ready for participating in the Eurozone, he expresses his disagreement in a pamphlet entitled L'Europa dai piedi di argilla (Europe with feet of clay). Despite this, he maintains that the single market is good for the Italian economy and that  a single currency is necessary, the problem laying rather in the lack of a unitary State behind such a currency. He then suggests a series of measures and reforms designed to make Europe more united. 

Since the mid-nineties, he has warned about the unsustainability of  the derivatives market's development, cautioning that the central banks would be bound to supply liquidity in order to prevent the international financial system from collapsing, as it then happened in fact.

Public career

After his experience in Banca d'Italia and Confindustria, he takes charge as President of the Credito Industriale Sardo (1980-1989); between 1980 and 1982 he is entrusted with the responsibility of drawing the national economic plan at the Ministry of Finance; Director General and then Chief Executive Officer of the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro  (1989-1990), from 1990 to 1999 he chairs the Fondo Interbancario di Tutela dei Depositi (Interbank Deposit Protection Fund), and, in succession, the boards of companies as Impregilo, Gemina, Aeroporti di Roma and Consorzio Venezia Nuova (2000-2005).

Between 2000 and 2005 he is member of the RCS MediaGroup and the TIM Italia boards. After holding office as Vice President of Capitalia, upon the merger with UniCredit, he is appointed President of UniCredit Banca di Roma; from September 2010 to February 2014, he chairs for the second time the Fondo Interbancario di Tutela dei Depositi.

He is designed Minister of Industry, Commerce and Craftmanship under the Ciampi Cabinet (April 1993 - April 1994), with the task of restructuring State holdings. From 2005 to 2006, during the third Berlusconi Cabinet, he is in charge of the Department for Community Policies of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers and Coordinator of the Technical Review Committee on the Lisbon Strategy; in 2005 he is entrusted with drafting and submitting to the European Commission the national Plan for Growth and Jobs. 

Among his tasks, we also find memberships in the OECD Committee on Standardisation of Financial Statistics and in the BIS Standing Committee on Eurodollars, and - at national level - the chairmanship of the Scientific Technical Committee on Economic Planning of the Commission of Inquiry on Nuclear Power and the participation in the Ortona and Jucci Committees on intelligence services reform as an economy expert.

He has chaired the Board of Directors of EUKLID, a British fintech company that manages savings and investment using algorithmic trading methods

Scientific Advisor of the Associazione Guido Carli from 1996 until 2012; President of the Associazione per l'Enciclopedia della Banca e della Borsa (Assonebb) from 2006 to 2014, President of the Nemetria Scientific Committee since 1989 and Senior Vice President of the Aspen Institute Italia from January 1997 to March 2019. He is Honorary President of the Fondazione Ugo La Malfa. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Cesifin Foundation "Alberto Predieri".

He was a columnist for La Repubblica, Corriere della Sera, La Stampa, Il Sole 24 Ore, Il Messaggero, Milano Finanza, formiche.net and Scenari economici.

See Also

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