Maffeo Pantaleoni: At the Origin of the Italian School of Economics and Finance

by Mario Baldassarri (Editor)

This collection traces the professional and personal fortunes of Maffeo Pantaleoni (1857-1924), one of the most eminent and controversial Italian economists and a representative of the eclectic liberalist culture which in the early twentieth century perceived the shortcomings and dangers of the nascent monopolist concentrations. He was one of the founders of what is today the Italian school of economics and finance.
The volume opens with Piero Sraffa's anonymously written obituary of Pantaleoni commissioned for the Economic Journal of 1924 by John Maynard Keynes, who appreciated and understood the importance of Pantaleoni's thought and wanted an incisive interpretation of it.
The importance of Pantaleoni's life, thought and works and their reception since his death are then examined. His vital influence on the economic revolution of Vilfredo Pareto is outlined and Pantaleoni's important scientific and cultural contributions to debates about competition, the state and the market and the role of institutions are placed within the broader context of the Italian school of economics of that period.
The volume celebrates and remembers Maffeo Pantaleoni, but does not intend to confine him to the past. The focus is on the topicality and renewed relevance of these themes to contemporary debates and future developments in economic theory and policy.

216 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1997