Sergio Steve as a public economist

The author examines the thought and mission of Sergio Steve (1915-2006) as a leading public economics scholar of the ‘transition generation’ before and after World War ii. The theorization of Steve is viewed mainly through his portraits of the economists with whom he was most familiar: Keynes, De Viti de Marco, Einaudi and Griziotti. The theory developed by Steve may be defined as a De Viti-Keynesian (or rather, a Keynesian-De Vitian) macroeconomic theory. Steve’s peculiar interpretation of Keynes leads him to emphasize the limits and risks of deficit spending. On the other hand, Steve’s scepticism towards an approach in terms of public choice based on individual preferences in fiscal economics emerges both when he analyses the theoretical contributions of Pantaleoni and Black and when he contrasts the ‘economic’ approach of Einaudi with that of Griziotti in terms of political decisions. Steve prefers an approach à la De Viti, based on the alternation of different political groups (parties) in power. Steve’s ‘realism’ regarding the choice of the types of taxation emerges in his analysis of the different tax models of Einaudi and Griziotti. The critical and problematic stance of Steve is best depicted by his approval of Gustavo Del Vecchio’s dynamic perspective, which allows for the probabilistic nature of the economic theories and consequently for their fragmentation. This approach involves the impossibility of erecting a (completely closed) general theory, positive and/or normative.