who was still formally the governor of the bank of italy, before being later elected president of the italian republic – advocated at a meeting of the constituent assembly the need to produce a report on “ the standard of living of italian citizens, their incomes, the social categories into which they are divided ”. thereafter, einaudi, del vecchio, then serving as the treasury minister, and giuseppe pella, the finance minister, commissioned a sample survey on household incomes with the purpose of providing a sound basis for economic policies. the survey was conducted by istituto doxa, a private agency for g. j. stigler, “ the early history of empirical studies of consumer behavior ”, journal of political economy 62, 1954, 95 – 113 ; g. del vecchio, “ relazioni fra entrata e consumo ”, giornale degli economisti 54 ( n. s. ), 1912, 111 – 142, 228 – 254, 389 – 439. del vecchio did not use italian data, because individual budgets were relatively scarcer for italy than for france or germany. however, giovanni vecchi has recently dug out as many as 11, 500 individual budgets for the period 1855 – 1911, plus another 9, 500 for the years until 1965. see s. chianese e g. vecchi, “ bilanci di famiglia ”, in g. vecchi, in ricchezza e in poverta. il benessere degli italiani dall ’ unita a oggi, bologna, il mulino, 2011, 355 – 389. a. neri, c. rondinelli and f. scoccianti, “ the marginal propensity to consume out of a tax rebate : the case of italy ”, bank of italy, mimeo, 2015. bis central bankers ’ speeches the analysis of public opinion founded and directed by pierpaolo luzzatto fegiz. 3 it cost 16 million lire, approximately 400, 000 euros at today ’ s prices. a second ( smaller ) survey was conducted and published by doxa in 1951. by digging through the bank of italy ’ s archives, it was recently found out that this survey was not only eventually paid for in full by the bank, but was also designed with the help of economists in its research department. its director, and the bank ’ s governor 25 years later, paolo ba

de larosiere report, the ecofin council has charged the commission to reinforce the so - called “ infrastructure legislation ” referring to the procedures for the prevention and resolution of crises of cross - border groups. the economic and financial committee has been asked to develop proposals to improve the cooperation mechanisms for managing crises at these intermediaries. ( i ) the instruments for managing crises. in the first place significantly increased harmonization of legislation on the instruments for managing crises is necessary. in fact the large disparities between member states with regard to national authorities ’ powers and responsibilities in early interventions and the procedures for resolving crises prevent the coordinated management of interventions involving cross - border groups. the commission has undertaken to present proposals for european legislation in this field shortly. the procedures laid down in the italian legislation on the management of banking crises, which include preventive measures, have proved effective and could be a useful model for guiding the work carried out at the european level. the possibility of introducing a common procedure for the management of the crises of cross - border banking groups should also be weighed. if this were not feasible, at least the application of the directive on the winding up of credit institutions could be extended to the subsidiaries of foreign banks, as a first step towards a greater degree of harmonization in this field. ( ii ) the removal of obstacles to the transfer of assets within the european union. progress is needed in the harmonization of company and bankruptcy law to remove the obstacles that prevent the transfer of assets and liquidity between the various components of cross - border banking groups. the possibility of ring - fencing assets held in a country leads in fact to solutions that are rational from the standpoint of individual member states but inefficient in terms of enhancing the value of the group ’ s assets ; in some cases ring - fencing may even accelerate insolvency and complicate the management of the crisis. ( iii ) deposit insurance schemes. the commission is also working to reduce the disparities still present in the working of deposit insurance schemes. the recent revision of the directive raised the levels of coverage and shortened reimbursement times, but it did not reduce the wide margins of discretion member states enjoy regarding the funding of the schemes, or the conditions for and the characteristics of the interventions. in promoting a greater degree of harmonization of these aspects, it should also be possible to consider a common deposit guarantee scheme at european level, which could interact with national deposit protection schemes and make an inval