Career
His family originated from Piacenza. His bond with economic studies started with the degree he got in 1957 from Bocconi University, Milan, being awarded top marks and distinction. In the following years Arcelli was assistant researcher in the same university.
In 1963 he became professor at the University of Trieste, and in 1967 he became full professor in Economics.
From 1969 to 1973 he took the chair of Economics at the University of Padua, leaving for a one-year visiting period at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) of Boston (United States of America). In 1974 he became full professor of economics at the Louisiana Sapienza University in Rome, where he served for about fifteen years, until 1989, and directed the Department of Economics between the late 1970s and early 1980s.
In 1989 he started teaching at Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali (then Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli) university of Rome, becoming chancellor in 1992 and remaining in that position until his retirement in 2002. In October 2003 he was appointed to the honorary post of professor emeritus by the university.
From 1979 until his death, he was editor of the Review of Economic Conditions in Italy.
Arcelli was for a decade one of the main economic advisors of Italian governments, serving as Head of the Economic Affairs Department at the office of the Prime Minister between 1981 and 1983 (during Fanfani V and Spadolini I and II cabinets). He was also economic advisor of the Prime Minister in 1987 (Fanfani VI cabinet) and 1988-1989 (De Mita cabinet). In those roles he was part of the Italian delegation to five G7 summits, held in Versailles, Williamsburg, Venice, Toronto and Paris.
In February 1996 he became Minister for the Budget, Economic Planning and European Affairs, during the Italian six-month turn as president of the European Union.
In this role he chaired the Ecofin summit in Venice (May 1996) and continued the process that led, two years afterwards, to the birth of the euro. Arcelli held a number of corporate and business appointments.
At the Christmas 2001 mass in Street Peter"s, Rome, Arcelli read the address to Pope John Paul II, as representative of the Italian universities.
