Research strategies of Paretian economists in the interwar period in Italy

The aim of the present article is to contribute to the exploration of economic history by offering a glimpse into the Paretian tradition that flourished in interwar period. The writings of the Paretian circle have been acknowledged mainly in the field of economic dynamics (for example Tusset, 2009; Pomini, 2018; Mon-tesano, 2015), but there are many other strands of research in which they offered relevant and internationally well recognized but not yet fully explored contribu-tions. In this article, I will focus on three specific fields of research developed by Pa-retian followers. The first is static general economic theory, the main legacy of Pare-tian theory. The Paretians looked for innovations in different directions. The second line of research is the theory of non-competitive markets. In an economic context characterized by huge monopolistic concentrations, this became an increasingly de-bated issue. The third field is the movement toward fascism and the way in which the Great Depression opened the door to an economic theory of corporatism. In their area of research, the Paretians accomplished some original analytical achieve-ments that are still not wholly appreciated in the Italian context. Indeed, in Italy, the interwar period was not a phase of decline with respect to the great economists of earlier generations but rather a fruitful context in which new results would emerge (Porta, 2004).