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Italy’s foreign trade increased spectacularly in the decade ending in 1963, a major factor contributing to its rapid economic growth in this period. However, following this period a new set of conditions emerged, resulting in an easing in the external payments situation. 1963 thus appears to mark a turning point in the rate and pattern of Italy’s economic growth. The present paper analyses this shift by reviewing the major developments that have occurred in foreign trade in the preceding years. The author determines the contributions to changes in total Italian exports which may be attributable to changes in the commodity composition, market distribution, and competitiveness of these exports. In addition, imports are examined with particular reference to changes in their commodity composition and regions of origin. JEL: F10, O52, Moneta e Credito, V. 18, N. 69 (1965)

The paper evaluates the significance of existing and potential future conflicts between the United States and Western Europe on matters of trade and tariff policy, and suggests ways in which these conflicts might possible be resolved. The evolution of trade policy since the 1930s and its current status as codified and implemented by means of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade is first briefly reviewed. Some facts regarding the commodity structure and geographic distribution of the trade of the U.S. and Western Europe and the import duties and other restrictions used by these regions to protect domestic producers are then provided. The issues, outcome, and unresolved problems of the Kennedy Round of GATT tariff negotiations that was concluded in mid-1967 are then discussed, before a number of issues that were on the whole bypassed during the Kennedy Round and that are potentially disruptive to trade relations are examined. Various alternative methods by which further trade liberalisation can be pursued are then considered. Finally, future foreign trade policy for the U.S. and Western Europe are considered. JEL: F13, PSL Quarterly Review, V. 21, N. 86 (1968)

By letting prices be determined entirely by the requirements of macroeconomic equilibrium, flexible-price models bypass the issues of how prices and wages are set in the short run and whether there is any direct linkage between domestic price and wage formation and the levels of prices and wages internationally. This paper deals with such direct linkages between international and domestic prices and wages. Aside from a few papers, there appears to have been little effort made to account for international influences on domestic price formation at the theoretical macroeconomic level. The authors first offer a brief theoretical discussion of international price relationships. An analysis of empirical evidence as contained in several large national econometric models is then carried out. JEL: E31, E24, E37, PSL Quarterly Review, V. 31, N. 127 (1978)

The work considers what the future course of prices will be in the aftermath of the remarkable increases in primary commodity prices in 1973-74. To do so, the author examines the historical trend and cyclical movements of the prices of various commodities in the period since World War II. The causes and consequences of instability and the economic policies that nations have designed to deal with instability and other aspects of primary commodities are then considered. In this regard, conflicts in commodity policies between commodity exporting and importing nations are analysed. JEL: E31, N10, PSL Quarterly Review, V. 29, N. 117 (1976)