Changing Views on Incomes Policy and Economic Planning : Pasquale Saraceno and the Italian Experience, 1962-1964

The idea of incomes policy as a necessary condition for economic planning is sometimes dated back to the La Malfa Note of May 1962, a view which finds confirmation in the papers of Pasquale Saraceno who co-authored the Note, chaired the Experts’ division of the cnpe (Commissione Nazionale per la Programmazione Economica, National Committee for Economic Planning) and drafted its Final Report. However, the Saraceno papers also bear witness to the fact that this idea underwent a process of significant modification before it was labelled with its proper name. The embryo of an incomes policy outlined in the Note consists of a control of the growth of nominal wages, to be implemented in agreement with the Unions, associated with an increased supply of public goods and a wide programme of social reforms and redistribution. During the cnpe meetings, Saraceno argued for a short-term anti-cyclical policy intended to keep the rate of growth of the ‘Miracle’ years stable. Finally, in the Report, when the rapid and unexpected downturn in the economy became more and more perceptible, Saraceno pointed out the need to bring the process of capital accumulation and investment «back to the preceding condition, in which the rate of savings sufficed for the needs of economic planning».