Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Author-Name: Mario Pomini
Author-Email:
Author-Workplace-Name: Università di Padova - Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche «Marco Fanno»
Title: Eraldo Fossati, un economista di transizione tra Pareto e Keynes 
(Eraldo Fossati, a transition economist between Pareto and Keynes)
Abstract: Eraldo Fossati (1902-1962) can be recognized as one of the most important exponents of the Paretian
school in Italy. Fossati’s thinking on economic dynamic theory can be assigned to two different phases
although they derive from a single design. In the first period he presented a formal model of the
Austrian approach in which subjective uncertainty played a key role. As a mathematical economist he
pursued the aim of obtaining a formal model but this attempt was not successful. The mathematical
apparatus was modest, based on the traditional differential calculus together with a loss function assumed
ad hoc. In the period following WW 2 Fossati’s research took a very different path. On the one
hand, he stressed the need to strengthen the international scope of Italian economists by founding a
new journal, «Metroeconomica». On the other hand, in contrast with the majority of Italian economists,
he found in Keynes’s General Theory a new source for framing dynamic analysis. Although the 
Paretian equilibrium constituted a great conquest at the theoretical level, the economic reality facing
the economist was very far from these ideal conditions and had to be analyzed with instruments that
were perhaps less sophisticated but more useful in order to explain economic phenomena. There is
no doubt that he contributed in a significant manner to the renewal of economic research in Italy, supporting
the passage from a static and abstract vision to a dynamic and empirical one
Classification-JEL: B13; B31 
Keywords: Eraldo Fossati; dinamica economica; equilibrio economico generale; keynesismo 
(Eraldo Fossati; economic dynamics; general equilibrium; Keynesianism)
Journal: Il Pensiero Economico Italiano
Pages: 107-125
Volume: 15
Issue: 1
Year: 2007
File-URL: http://www.libraweb.net/articoli.php?chiave=200706301&rivista=63
Handle: RePEc:pei:journl:v:15:y:2007:1:5:p:107-125