The Italian State Monopoly in Life Insurance: The Organisational and Management Model of the INA

Abstract

During the first two decades of the twentieth century in Italy, in addition to the development of mutual insurance companies, the state was involved in safeguarding the interests of various social partners in expanding the concept of social security and, at the same time, increasing the importance of its central role as investor in the Italian economy. Life insurance – through the creation of a National Institute (INA) which carried out its activities in a relative monopoly regime for about a decade (1912–1923) – was the first sector in which the expansion of state intervention began. The simplicity of the organisation consisted in the way in which the INA’s insurance activity was structured, and it represented the real element of novelty. The research, largely based on documentary sources from the INA historical archive in Rome, sheds light on this particular moment in the Italian insurance and entrepreneurial history, connecting in an articulated way with the historical and economic contexts of reference: the strong political and economic implications, the legislative precedents of the project, the first economic results and the reactions – national and international – to the state monopoly.