Luigi Spaventa

Spaventa was born in Rome on 5 March 1934.[1][2] In 1957 he received a law degree from the Sapienza University of Rome.[3][4]

Following graduation Spaventa worked as a visiting scholar at Oxford University, the International Monetary Fund and at Cornell University.[5] Then he returned to Italy and was a professor of economics at several universities, including Palermo University and Perugia University.[2] Next he became a faculty member and professor of economics at the Sapienza University of Rome.[5]

In 1976, he was elected to the Italian Parliament and served there until 1983.[5] He was an independent deputy with the Communist Party.[1] In 1981 he involved in the establishment of Centro Europa Ricerche, a research center in Rome, along with Giorgio Ruffolo.[6] Spaventa was the minister of treasury from 1988 to 1989 and the minister of budget from 1993 to 1994.[1] In the latter post he was part of the cabinet led by Prime Minister Carlo Azeglio Ciampi[7] and was close to the Democratic Party of the Left.[8] From 1988 to 1989 Spaventa served as the chairman of the scientific consulting for the management of the public debt formed by the Italian treasury.[9] From 1992 to 1993 he was the coordinator of the council of experts at the general department of treasury.[9]

He ran for a parliament seat from Rome in the 1994 elections[10][11] but did not win.[12] He was part of the Democratic Alliance during this period.[10] In 1994, he became a member of the editorial board of the journals, Moneta e Credito and Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Quarterly Review.[3] He served as the chairman of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena from 1997 to 1998.[5] From 1998 to 2003 he was the chairman of the Commissione Nazionale per le Societa e la Borsa or CONSOB, the Italian public authority responsible for regulating the Italian securities market.[9]

Later he was promoted to the title Professor Emeritus at the Sapienza University of Rome.[1] He was the co-founder of CER, the Centro Europa Ricerche.[3] He was also a board member of Banca Nazionale del Lavoro.[13] He wrote for Italian newspapers La Repubblica and Corriere della Sera.[3] He was a member of the Trustees of the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation from 2008 to July 2010 when he retired from the post.[14][15]

Spaventa was named as the non-executive vice chairman of the board of Banca Profilo SpA on 8 June 2009.[9] In addition, he also served as the chairman of the board of Sator SpA to which he was appointed in 2007[4] and of MTS SpA.[9] His other posts include research fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research, based in London, member of the steering committee of the Euro 50 Group and a member of the “Group of Wise Men”, appointed by European ECOFIN on the regulation of European securities markets.[2]

In 1962 Spaventa married a British woman, Clare Royce, an economist to whom he had been introduced by Amartya Sen.[16][17] They had three children.[17] He died in Rome on 6 January 2013 at the age of 78 after a long illness.[1][4][18]

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