Alberto Beneduce

Beneduce was born in Caserta on 29 March 1877. He earned a mathematics degree from the University of Naples.

Beneduce was a socialist{{cite book|editor1=Franco Amatori|editor2=Robert Millward|editor3=Pier Angelo Angelo Toninelli

|title=Reappraising State-Owned Enterprise: A Comparison of the UK and Italy|year=2012|location=New York; London|publisher=Routledge|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7hDb-HSw0ycC&pg=PT49|isbn=978-1-136-73829-6|page=49|author1=Franco Amatori|author2=Pier Angelo Angelo Toninelli|chapter=Does a model of Italian state-owned enterprise still exist?}} and was a leading member of the Italian Reformist Socialist Party. He was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1919 and 1921 representing the party from his hometown Caserta. Beneduce managed to connect with high finance figures and to collaborate with the Italy's fascist regime.{{cite book|author=Roland Sarti|title=Italy: A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xhoLorFC1iwC&pg=PA148|year=2009|publisher=Fact on File, Inc.|isbn=978-0-8160-7474-7|page=148

|location=New York}} He worked in different capacities, including statistician, teacher, demographer, agricultural and insurance specialist.

He was a university professor of statistics and demography until 1919. He contributed to the establishment of the national institution of insurance (INA), which was founded in 1912. He also headed the INA from 1912 to 1919. During World War I, he was asked to established an institution that would help the veterans in finding jobs. As a result, he involved in founding the related body, Opera Nazionale Combattenti (ONC). In the period between 4 July 1921 and 26 February 1922 Beneduce served as the minister of labor and social security in the cabinet led by Ivanoe Bonomi.

Beneduce was appointed head of two state-run credit bodies: Consorzio di Credito per le Opere Pubbliche (Crediop) in 1919 and Istituto di Credito per le Imprese di Pubblica Utilità (ICIPU) in 1924. Until 1939 he headed both institutions. These institutions were later merged under the name of Istituto per il Credito Navale.{{cite book|editor=Manfred Pohl

|title=Handbook of the History of European Banks|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eXvfNDHpfWwC&pg=PA570|year=1994|publisher=Edward Elgar Publishing|isbn=978-1-78195-421-8|page=570|author=Peter Hertner|chapter=Modern Banking in Italy|location=Brookfield, VT}}

In 1931, he was named as a board member of the Istituto Mobiliare Italiano. He also served as an economic advisor to Benito Mussolini.{{cite journal|author=Franco Amatori|author2=Andrea Colli|title=Corporate governance: the Italian story|date=December 2000|url=http://www.insead.edu/v1/projects/cgep/Research/NationalSystems/CGItaly.pdf|url-status=dead|journal=Targeted Socio-Economic Research

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924035453/http://www.insead.edu/v1/projects/cgep/Research/NationalSystems/CGItaly.pdf|archive-date=24 September 2015}}{{Cite journal|author=Lorenzo Castellani|year=2023|title=Alberto Beneduce, a Technocrat in the Fascist Era

|journal=Contemporary European History|pages=1–18|doi=10.1017/S0960777323000140|s2cid=257868776}} In 1933, he was appointed by Mussolini as the head of the institute for industrial reconstruction (IRI), being the first president of the body.

In 1936 Beneduce was simultaneously president of IRI, of the public credit institutions Crediop and ICIPU, of the Institute for Naval Credit, and a member of the Board of Directors of IMI and of the National Foreign Exchange Institute while in the private sector he was president of the Italian Society for Southern Railways. He served in the post until 1939{{cite journal|author=Leonardo Giani|title=Ownership and Control of Italian Banks. A Short Inquiry into the Roots of the Current Context|journal=Corporate Ownership & Control|date=Fall 2008|volume=6|issue=1

|pages=87–98|doi=10.22495/cocv6i1p9|s2cid=152472860|doi-access=free}} when he became a senator in 1939, but he retired from politics and other public offices due to his health problems in 1940.

However, Beneduce retained his membership on the boards of various companies until his death. He was an advocate of a company management approach based on the private-sector criteria and free from political influences. Beneduce was also a director of the leading companies, including Fiat, Pirelli, Montecatini, Edison and Generali.{{Cite encyclopedia|title=Beneduce, Alberto|url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/alberto-beneduce_(Dizionario-Biografico)|encyclopedia=Dizionario Biografico|language=it}}

Beneduce and Luigi Rossi recorded detailed statistics about Italian citizens, who had migrated to the US, but returned to Italy between 1905 and 1906.{{cite book|title=From Italy to San Francisco: the immigrant experience|year=1982|publisher=Stanford University Press|page=49

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ESusAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA49|isbn=978-0-8047-1117-3|author=Dino Cinel|location=Palo Alto, CA}} Beneduce was instrumental in the nationalization of life insurance in Italy.{{cite book|author=Richard J. Samuels|title=Machiavelli's Children: Leaders and Their Legacies in Italy And Japan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9kAbOwB9tYQC&pg=PA136|year=2005|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=978-0-8014-8982-2|page=136|location=Ithaca, NY; London}} His activities in the finance sector of Italy shaped the industrial development of the country between the 1920s and the 1990s.{{cite book|editor1=Henry W. de Jong|editor2=William G. Shepherd|title=Pioneers of Industrial Organization: How the Economics of Competition and Monopoly Took Shape|chapter=Introduction to Market Theory and its European Pioneers|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TpfrPPOFWUIC&pg=PA100|year=2007|publisher=Edward Elgar Publishing

|isbn=978-1-84720-696-1|page=100|author=Henry W. de Jong|location=Cheltenham, UK; Northampton, MA}} One of his significant activities in this regard was the reorganization of the bankrupted Italian banking system. In addition, he was the mentor of many eminent financiers and technocrats, who reconstructed Italy after World War II. He also developed Mussolini's deflation policy.{{cite web|title=The Depression|url=http://histclo.com/essay/war/dep/cou/ita/dep-ita.html|work=Historical Boy's Clothing|access-date=31 May 2013}}

Beneduce had five children, three of whom were given names that reflected his socialist orientation: Idea Nuova Socialista, Italia Libera and Vittoria Proletaria.{{cite book|author=Vito Avantario|title=Die Agnellis: Die heimlichen Herrscher Italiens|publisher=Campus Verlag|page=179

|year=2002|isbn=978-3-593-36906-8|location=Frankfurt/Main; New York|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dt8no_jKEXUC&pg=PA179|language=de}} His two other children were Ernesto and Anna.{{cite web|title=Dati anagrafici|work=Senato della Repubblica|language=it

|access-date=21 September 2020|url=http://notes9.senato.it/web/senregno.nsf/1dbf7f5088956bebc125703d004d5ffb/e32880b9c8393e184125646f0058ccf5?OpenDocument}} One of his daughters, Idea, married Enrico Cuccia, a significant financier.{{cite news|author=Alessandra Stanley

|title=Enrico Cuccia Is Dead at 92; Key Figure in Italian Banking|access-date=25 April 2013|newspaper=The New York Times|date=24 June 2000

|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/06/24/business/enrico-cuccia-is-dead-at-92-key-figure-in-italian-banking.html}}{{cite journal

|author=Vera Zamagni|volume=14|issue=1|doi=10.1080/13545710802642883|title=Governing the Italian economy: a comparative perspective|year=2009

|journal=Journal of Modern Italian Studies|pages=46–51|s2cid=145770682}}

Beneduce died in Rome on 26 April 1944.{{cite journal|author=Andrea Pitzalis|title=Il giovane Alberto Beneduce: gli anni della formazione intellettuale tra la politica e le aspirazioni accademiche (1904-1911)|journal=SPE|year=2009|pages=45–76|doi=10.3280/SPE2009-001003}}

Beneduce was awarded the Grand Officer of the Order of the Crown of Italy on 16 November 1918 and the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Crown of Italy on 5 January 1922.

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Category:20th-century Italian economists

Category:20th-century Italian mathematicians

Category:1877 births

Category:1944 deaths

Category:Ministers of labour of Italy

Category:Italian Reformist Socialist Party politicians

Category:Italian statisticians

Category:Leaders of organizations

Category:Members of the Senate of the Kingdom of Italy

Category:People from Caserta

Category:University of Naples Federico II alumni

Category:Deputies of Legislature XXV of the Kingdom of Italy

Category:Deputies of Legislature XXVI of the Kingdom of Italy

Category:Recipients of the Order of the Crown (Italy)

Category:Giornale degli economisti e annali di economia editors