Umberto Ricci (1879–1946) was an Italian academic and economist who served as the minister of education in 1945 shortly after the end of the Fascist rule in Italy. He was a leading academic and worked at various universities.
Umberto Ricci | |
|---|---|
| Born | 20 February 1879 |
| Died | 3 January 1946 (aged 66) Cairo, Kingdom of Egypt |
| Title | Professor |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater |
|
| Academic work | |
| Discipline |
|
| Sub-discipline | Agricultural economics |
| Institutions | |
Early life and education
editRicci was born in Chieti on 20 February 1879.[1] He obtained a diploma from the Ferdinando Galiani technical-commercial institute in Chieti.[2] Then he graduated from the Higher School of Commerce in Venice (forerunner of the Ca' Foscari University) with a degree in political economy, finance and statistics.[2] His fields of speciality were agricultural economics and general equilibrium analysis.[3]
Career, activities and views
editFollowing his graduation Ricci worked at the Ministry of Agriculture between 1907 and 1910.[2] Then he joined the International Institute of Agriculture based in Rome and headed its statistics department from 1910.[1] He published his first scholarly article in 1904 in the Journal of Economists.[2] He was the professor of statistics at the universities of Parma (1915–1918) and Pisa (1919–1921) and professor of economics at universities of Macerata (1912), Bologna (1922–1924) and Rome (1924–1928).[2][4] Following World War I Ricci was named as a member of the committee of technical experts, called the “commission for the revision of balances and the reduction of public expenditures”.[5] He authored a book on Italian food policy during World War I.[6] In addition to his academic activities, Ricci was also an active politician and became a member of the Liberal Party.[1] Ricci published articles in La Voce, L'Unità and La Rivoluzione Liberale.[2]
Ricci was an ally and advisor of Alberto de Stefani, minister of finance in the cabinet of Benito Mussolini.[5] In March 1928 he was removed from his teaching post at the Italian universities due to his criticism of fascist economic policies.[4][5] Then he left Italy and taught economics and statistics at Cairo University, Egypt, from October 1929 to 1940.[1][3] In September 1942 he began to teach at Istanbul University, Turkey.[3] There he stayed until 30 October 1945 when he returned to Italy.[1] He was appointed minister of education in the Bonomi cabinet, replacing Vincenzo Arangio-Ruiz in the post.[2]
Death
editAfter serving as the minister of education for a brief period Ricci returned to Cairo where he died of heart attack on 3 January 1946.[1][2] He was about to leave Egypt for Italy to resume his post at the Sapienza University of Rome.[3]
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f C. Bresciani-Turroni (July–August 1946). "Umberto Ricci". Giornale degli Economisti e Annali di Economia (in Italian). 5 (7–8): 385–395. JSTOR /23235152.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Pierluigi Ciocca (2016). "Ricci, Umberto". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (in Italian). Vol. 87.
- ^ a b c d Vedit İnal; Nur Merve Kılıçkan (2021). "Refugee Scholars of the 1930s and the German Contribution in the Development of Economics in Turkey". Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies. 23 (2): 285, 292–293. doi:10.1080/19448953.2020.1867809. S2CID 232116189.
- ^ a b "Ricci, Umberto". Treccani (in Italian).
- ^ a b c Clara Elisabetta Mattei (2017). "Austerity and repressive politics: Italian economists in the early years of the fascist government" (PDF). The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought. 24 (5): 999–1000, 1004. doi:10.1080/09672567.2017.1301510. S2CID 88508169.
- ^ Hicks, Ursula K. (1940). "Review of La Politica Annonaria dell'Italia durante la Grande Guerra". Economica. 7 (27): 348. doi:10.2307/2549759. ISSN 0013-0427. JSTOR 2549759.