Alberto Alesina

Alberto Alesina was born in Broni in 1957. His father was an engineer and industrial manager, and his mother was a teacher. He attended a classical lyceum in Milan, before enrolling at Bocconi University to study economics and social sciences, where he received a laurea in 1981. He then went on to graduate study at Harvard University, where he received a PhD in economics in 1986.{{cite news|author=Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences|url=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2022/02/alberto-francesco-alesina-63/ |title=Alberto Francesco Alesina, 63 |work=The Harvard Gazette |access-date=8 March 2024 |date=2 February 2022}} His doctoral adviser at Harvard was Jeffrey Sachs.

From 1986 to 1987, Alesina was a postdoctoral fellow in political economy at Carnegie Mellon University. He joined the faculty of Harvard University in 1987, where he was an assistant professor of economics and government between 1987 and 1993, the Paul Sack Associate Professor of Political Economy from 1991 to 1993, a full professor of economics and government from 1993 to 2003, and the Nathaniel Ropes Professor of Political Economy from 2003 till his death in 2020. He chaired the Department of Economics at Harvard between 2003 and 2006.{{cite news |last=Mineo |first=Liz |date=27 May 2020 |title=Recalling a pioneer of modern political economy |url=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/05/alberto-alesina-a-pioneer-of-modern-political-economy-dies-at-63/ |access-date=24 October 2020 |work=The Harvard Gazette}}

Alesina became a research associate at the NBER in 1993, and founded its Political Economy Program in 2006.{{Cite web |title=Program Report: Political Economy, 2023 |url=https://www.nber.org/reporter/2023number1/program-report-political-economy |access-date=2024-01-11|last1=Trebbi|first1=Francesco|last2=Washington |first2=Ebonya L |date= 31 March 2023|website=National Bureau of Economic Research |language=en}} He was a co-editor of the Quarterly Journal of Economics between 1998 and 2004. He was elected a Fellow of the Econometric Society in 2002, and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2006.{{Cite web |title=Memoriam |url=http://www.econometricsociety.org/society/organization-and-governance/fellows/memoriam |access-date=2024-01-14 |website=The Econometric Society |language=en}}{{cite web|url=https://www.amacad.org/person/alberto-alesina|title=Alberto Alesina|date=July 2023|access-date=8 March 2024|website=American Academy of Arts and Sciences }}

Alesina's work covered a variety of topics at the confluence of politics, sociology, and economics, including:

• The politics of business cycles
• The political economy of fiscal policy and budget deficits
• The process of European integration
• Stabilization policies in high inflation countries
• The political economy of immigration
• Currency unions
• The political-economic determinants of redistributive policies
• Differences in the welfare state in the US and Europe
• Differences in the economic system in the US and Europe
• The effect of alternative electoral systems on economic policies
• The determination of the choice of different electoral systems

During the Great Recession in Europe, Alesina aroused controversy as an advocate of fiscal austerity.{{Cite journal |last=Helgadóttir |first=Oddný |date=15 March 2016 |title=The Bocconi boys go to Brussels: Italian economic ideas, professional networks and European austerity |journal=Journal of European Public Policy |language=en |volume=23 |issue=3 |pages=392–409 |doi=10.1080/13501763.2015.1106573 |issn=1350-1763 |s2cid=155917559}}{{Cite journal |last1=Farrell |first1=Henry |last2=Quiggin |first2=John |date=2017 |title=Consensus, Dissensus, and Economic Ideas: Economic Crisis and the Rise and Fall of Keynesianism |journal=International Studies Quarterly |language=en |volume=61 |issue=2 |pages=269–283 |doi=10.1093/isq/sqx010 |issn=0020-8833 |doi-access=free}} He argued that austerity can be expansionary, in situations where government reduction in spending is offset by greater increases in aggregate demand (private consumption, private investment and exports).{{Cite book |last1=Alesina |first1=Alberto |title=Austerity: When It Works and When It Doesn't |last2=Favero |first2=Carlo |last3=Giavazzi |first3=Francesco |date=2019 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-17221-7 |pages=5 |jstor=j.ctvc77f4b}} A credible fiscal consolidation would reduce private actors' uncertainty and lower the risk premium. Assuming that Ricardian equivalence and the permanent income hypothesis hold, actors' expected future wealth would increase and induce them to consume more.{{cite book |last1=Carlin |first1=Wendy |title=Macroeconomics:Institutions, instability, and the financial system |last2=Soskice |first2=David |date=2014 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=USA |pages=528–530}} In October 2009, Alesina and Silvia Ardagna published "Large Changes in Fiscal Policy: Taxes Versus Spending",{{Cite journal |last1=Alesina |first1=Alberto F. |last2=Ardagna |first2=Silvia |date=October 2009 |title=Large Changes in Fiscal Policy: Taxes Versus Spending |journal=NBER Working Paper No. 15438 |citeseerx=10.1.1.362.7482 |doi=10.3386/w15438}} a widely-cited academic paper aimed at showing that fiscal austerity measures did not hurt economies, and actually helped their recovery.

Alesina’s advocacy of austerity was strongly criticised by Nobel laureate Paul Krugman, who published "How the Case for Austerity Has Crumbled" in the New York Review of Books in June 2013, in which he noted the influence of pro-austerity articles authored by Alesina and his supporters, and described the work of the “Bocconi Boys” as "a full frontal assault on the Keynesian proposition that cutting spending in a weak economy produces further weakness".{{cite journal|url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2013/jun/06/how-case-austerity-has-crumbled/?pagination=false |title=How the Case for Austerity Has Crumbled |first=Paul |last=Krugman |journal=The New York Review of Books|date=6 June 2013|volume=60 |issue=10 }}

More recently, studies by the IMF and others have cast doubt on the methodological underpinning of Alesina's work, and conclude that the evidence is more likely to suggest a contractionary effect of fiscal consolidation.{{cite journal |last1=Devries |first1=Pete |last2=Guajardo |first2=Jaime |last3=Leigh |first3=Daniel |last4=Pescatori |first4=Andrea |date=2011 |title=A New Action-Based Dataset of Fiscal Consolidation |url=https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1861798 |journal=IMF Working Paper |volume=128 |issue=11 |ssrn=1861798}}[https://www.imf.org/~/media/Websites/IMF/imported-flagship-issues/external/pubs/ft/weo/2010/02/pdf/_c3pdf.ashx Imported flagship issues]IMF {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308165533/https://www.imf.org/~/media/Websites/IMF/imported-flagship-issues/external/pubs/ft/weo/2010/02/pdf/_c3pdf.ashx|date=8 March 2021}} However, Alesina along with Francesco Giavazzi and Carlo Favero published counterarguments that suggested some austerity programmes (such as the one in Britain) had produced above-average economic growth and stronger economic performance than had been predicted by the IMF, and argued that spending cuts were a more effective way to reduce the debt-to-GDP ratio than tax increases.{{Cite web |title=Improving Economic Growth: Cut Spending or Raise Taxes? - IMF F&D Magazine |url=https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/fandd/issues/2018/03/alesina|last1=Alesina |first1=Alberto |last2=Favero |first2=Carlo A |last3=Giavazzi |first3=Francesco|date=March 2018 |access-date=2024-01-10 |website=IMF |language=en}}

On 23 May 2020, while hiking with his wife, Susan, Alesina died; the cause was diagnosed as a heart attack.{{cite news |url=https://www.repubblica.it/economia/2020/05/24/news/morto_alberto_alesina-257495821/ |title=È morto Alberto Alesina, economista italiano che ha conquistato Harward |work=la Repubblica |date=24 May 2020 |language=it}} In 2021, Harvard University renamed its Seminar on Political Economy in Alesina's honor.{{Cite web |title=Seminar Series: Alberto Alesina Seminar on Political Economy |url=https://www.iq.harvard.edu/program-political-economy |access-date=2021-11-09 |website=Institute for Quantitative Social Science |language=en}}

• 1995. Partisan Politics, Divided Government and the Economy (with Howard Rosenthal). Cambridge. [http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521436206 Description & TOC] and [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZdWExcSkQEcC&dq=%22Partisan+Politics,+Divided+Government+and+the+Economy%22&pg=PA1 preview.]
• 1997a. Political Cycles and the Macroeconomy (with Nouriel Roubini & Gerald D. Cohen). MIT Press. [https://web.archive.org/web/20110629141208/http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=5977 Description] and chapter-preview [https://books.google.com/books?id=NAClEiUYzMwC&pg=PR7 links.]
• 1997b. Designing Macroeconomic Policy for Europe (with Olivier Blanchard et al.), CEPR, London.
• 2003. The Size of Nations (with Enrico Spolaore). MIT Press. [https://web.archive.org/web/20110629141229/http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=10534 Description] and chapter-preview [https://books.google.com/books?id=NAClEiUYzMwC&pg=PR7 links.]
• 2004. Fighting Poverty in the US and Europe: A World of Difference (with Edward Glaeser). Oxford. [http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Economics/Social/?view=usa&ci=9780199286102 Description], and "slide-show" [http://info.worldbank.org/etools/docs/library/139345/Fighting%20Poverty%20in%20the%20U.S.%20and%20Europe%20A%20World%20of%20Difference%20EdGlaeser.pdf summary], and chapter-preview links via "select" [https://archive.today/20130201031439/http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=109859099 click].
• 2006. The Future of Europe: Reform or Decline (with Francesco Giavazzi), MIT Press. [https://web.archive.org/web/20111228170313/http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=11574 Description], [http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/chapters/0262512041intro1.pdf Introduction] {{dead link|date=January 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=88PukrpL0uIC&pg=PR7= preview].

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• 1987. "Macroeconomic Policy in a Two-Party System as a Repeated Game," Quarterly Journal of Economics, 102(3), p [https://www.jstor.org/pss/1884222 pp. 651]–678.
• 1993. "Central Bank Independence and Macroeconomic Performance: Some Comparative Evidence" (with Lawrence H. Summers), Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, 25(2), p [https://www.jstor.org/pss/2077833 pp. 151]–162.
• 1994. "Distributive Politics and Economic Growth" (with Dani Rodrik), Quarterly Journal of Economics, 109(2), p [https://www.jstor.org/pss/2118470 pp. 465]–490.
• 1995. "The Political Economy of Budget Deficits" (with Roberto Perotti), IMF Staff Papers, 42(1), pp. [https://www.jstor.org/pss/3867338 pp. 1]–31.
• 1997. "On the Number and Size of Nations" (with Enrico Spolaore), Quarterly Journal of Economics, 112(4), p [https://www.jstor.org/pss/2951265 pp. 1027]–1056.
• 1999. "Public Goods and Ethnic Divisions" (with Reza Baqir & William Easterly), Quarterly Journal of Economics, 114(4), pp. [http://netdrive.montclair.edu/~lebelp/AlesinaPubGdsDivQJE1999.pdf 1243–1284.] {{dead link|date=January 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
• 2000. "Who Gives Foreign Aid to Whom and Why?" (with David Dollar), Journal of Economic Growth, 5(1), p [https://www.jstor.org/pss/40216022 pp. 33]–63.
• 2003. "Fractionalization" (with Arnaud Devleeschauwer et al.), Journal of Economic Growth, 8(2), p [https://www.jstor.org/pss/40215942 pp. 155]–194.
• 2004. "Inequality and Happiness: Are Europeans and Americans Different?" (with Rafael Di Tellab and Robert MacCulloch), Journal of Public Economics, 88(9–10), pp. [https://web.archive.org/web/20100807100505/http://ws1.ad.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/alesina/files/Inequality%20and%20Happiness.pdf 2009–2042] (close Bookmarks tab).
• 2005. "Ethnic Diversity and Economic Performance" (with Eliana La Ferrara), Journal of Economic Literature, 43(3), pp. [https://web.archive.org/web/20100807104106/http://ws1.ad.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/alesina/files/Ethnic%20Diversity%20and%20Economic%20Performance.pdf 762–800.]
• 2013. "On the Origins of Gender Roles: Women and the Plough" (with Paola Giuliano and Nathan Nunn), Quarterly Journal of Economics. 2013; 128 (2) : 469–530.
• 2016. "Birthplace Diversity and Economic Prosperity" (with Johann Harnoss and Hillel Rapoport), Journal of Economic Growth, vol. 21(2), pages 101-138 {{doi|10.1007/s10887-016-9127-6}}

{{Reflist}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20080705211742/http://ws1.ad.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/alesina Harvard Faculty page.]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20100403011827/http://www.speakers.co.uk/csaWeb/speaker,4352 Alberto Alesina at CSA Celebrity Speakers]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070926223645/http://www.stockexchangeofvisions.org/speaker.php?id=8 Stock Exchange Of Visions: Visions of Alberto Alesina (Video Interviews)]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20090921170932/http://www.voxeu.org/ Web site of Voxeu.org]
• [http://www.lavoce.info Web site of LaVoce.info]
• [http://thoughtcast.org/casts/the-future-of-europe Alberto Alesina talks about his new book, "The Future of Europe"] with Jenny Attiyeh on the interview program [http://www.thoughtcast.org ThoughtCast!]

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Category:1957 births

Category:2020 deaths

Category:20th-century Italian economists

Category:21st-century Italian economists

Category:Bocconi University alumni

Category:Carnegie Mellon University faculty

Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Category:Fellows of the Econometric Society

Category:Harvard University alumni

Category:Harvard University faculty

Category:Italian emigrants to the United States

Category:Labor economists

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Category:People from Broni

Category:Place of death missing

Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty