Ezio Tarantelli, probably the most important Italian labour economist, dedicated his short life, tragically broken by a terrorist ambush, to a full participation of labour in the management of the economy, in accordance with the Italian Constitution. His studies on the Phillips curve demonstrated the sub-optimality of monetary policy as a tool to combat stagflation, highlighting - on the contrary - the role of the unions in directing expectations and giving credibility to disinflation announcements. His proposal for government-social partners shared targets on inflation and incomes policy, based on international comparative studies of industrial relations systems, profoundly influenced the social pacts which allowed Italy to tame inflation, recover from the 1991-92 crisis, and access the euro since its launch.