Francesco Forte is one of the founding fathers of the Public Choice school. This, together with his prominent position as a scholar, led to his appointment as President of a number of important academic societies. Among others, he was President of the European Public Choice Society, Honorary President of the International Institute of Public Finance, President of the “Società Economica Italiana di Demografia e Statistica, President of the Atlantic Economic Society, President of the Societa’ Italiana di Economia Pubblica
Francesco Forte also had a long and important political career as a Member of the Italian Parliament, from 1979 to 1994; Member of the chamber of Deputies for two terms; and then Member of the Senate for a further two terms.
Between 1982 and 1987 he served as a minister in a number of Italian Governments: first as Minister of Finance in the Fanfani Government, up to 1983; from 1983 to 1985 as Minister forEuropean Community policies; from 1985 to 1987 as Secretary of state with extraordinary powers for international aids to less developed economies.
Francesco Forte contributed to important European Commissions for the development of the European Community and the construction of European Monetary Union. These Commission were named after the rapporteurs and are known as the Marjolin Commission, the Mc Dougall Commission and the ForteStudy Groups on the Equalization Transfer for the EU Community. He also wrote the (Craxi) Report for the United Nations on the International debt crisis caused by foreign debts in developing countries.
Francesco Forte has produced scientific contributions in different but interrelated fields of theoretical and applied economics. Since the beginning of his work in public finance in the 1950s, Francesco Forte has believed that the appropriate approach to the theory of public spending and of taxation is that of the benefit principle, that is considering taxation as the price for public services, in a similar way to what takes place in a market economy. He then turned his attention to welfare economics as the theoretical foundation of public and market economies, and to related theories and applications, with particular attention to the monetary and balance-of-payments aspects of micro economics.
His bibliography includes 35 books and more than 350 articles in academic journals and volumes at national and international level.
He is also well-known for his contributions to national newspapers and magazines. In the mid-1950s, when he was still very young, he established the economic page of the newspaper “Il Giorno”. He then wrote for “La Stampa” of Turin as well as for the magazine l’Espresso. He wrote a regular column in the weekly magazine “Panorama” from its foundation until 1978. At the invitation of Indro Montanelli, he then moved from “La Stampa” to “il Giornale”, where he currently continues to write on economics. He also wrote for “Il Foglio”, from its inception until last year.
1/12/2016