LIBRI DI MANUELA MOSCA

This article concentrates on the final twenty years of Antonio de Viti de Marco’s life, the years of the fascist dictatorship, in order to fill a gap in the knowledge of his activity and motivations. It brings together the limited infor-mation available, tracking down elements that explain his decision to withdraw into isolation. The article considers the main aspects marking this period of his life, namely: the antifascist who rarely had a chance to show himself; the economist, whose scientific work makes up the best-known part of his biography of this peri-od; the agriculturalist, whose role is linked to his anti-protectionist battle; and lastly the private man, who during these years went through a profound ordeal. The re-search explains the reasons for his long silence by revealing that there was not a single aspect in which De Viti was spared during the twenty years of fascism, nei-ther political, nor scientific, nor in economic policy, and not even in the private sphere

The Italian economist Antonio de Viti de Marco is well known as the founder of the pure theory of Public Finance, and as one of the inspirators of Public Choice. However, outside Italy nothing is known about his political commitment, an aspect that was truly important for him and closely linked to his scientific work. This paper explores his collaboration with daily newspapers in the context of early 20th century Italy, in order to project information beyond Italy’s borders about his political role.

The paper deals with the historical reconstruction of the relation between the Austrian economist Emil Sax and the Italian economists of his generation. It is focused on three episodes. The first concerns the introduction of marginal analysis in public finance, seeing the works of Maffeo Pantaleoni (1883) and Sax (1887) as of primary significance. The second is about the reception accorded to the 1887 Sax’s work in Italy by Giuseppe Ricca-Salerno (1887), and by Augusto Graziani (1887). The third relates to the development of a pure theory of public finance, and concerns the works of Sax (1887) and Antonio De Viti De Marco (1888). This analysis indicates that school rivalries were responsible for the different reactions of Italian economists to Sax’s work.

This volume contains the papers presented at the VIII AISPE conference dealing with the relationship between economic theory and economic institutions in historical perspective. The organizing Committee felt this was an area of the history of economics that contained numerous opportunities for new and interesting research in the following areas: the influence of economic ideas or of single economists upon the creation and the governance of specific institutions; the way the actual working and organization of institutions may have influenced the growth of economic theory and knowledge; the economic theory of institutions in historical perspective.