The chapter introduces some biographical notes of Ezio Tarantelli and relates the formation of his ideas to the influence of his intellectual formation at the two Cambridges (Cambridge, England, and Cambridge, Mass); the end of the Sixties student uprisings, the bitter strikes of Italy’s hot...

The chapter first introduces Tarantelli’s thought on the role of labour economics and social pacts. The implementation of his proposals for a social pact in Italy is then discussed and compared to similar experiences in Europe. Attention is finally devoted to developing a theory of social...

The chapter presents a model somehow inspired to Tarantelli. It first shows how important the value of the parameters reflecting nominal rigidities and industrial relations can be for the dynamics of the system. The indexation system has a certain influence on the former, in line with...

The chapter reconstructs Tarantelli’s suggestions for putting the inflation of the ’70s to an end in Italy. He proposed to pre-determine wage increases in order to guide prices along a path agreed by social partners and also advocated using incomes policy as an instrument of coordination for...

The chapter restates Tarantelli’s approach to macroeconomic stabilisation and the role of wage bargaining institutions. It also discusses the patterns and variation in the institutional make-up of wage bargaining since 1980, documenting the evolution of the social pacts stipulated in Europe...

The chapter presents a model, where the union is interested in the level of wages, employment and the level of public expenditure. Social pacts are shown not only to lead to a superior macroeconomic performance, but to be also acceptable by unions. The key to their acceptability lies in the...

The chapter deals with the overall impact of the comprehensive incomes policy adopted in Italy in July 1993. The extraordinary merits of the agreement in curbing inflation are recognized, along with some incompleteness (with respect to Ezio Tarantelli’s proposal) in the way on one hand the...