Economic cycle theory has constituted one of the most important research fields in the period between the two world wars. It is possible to identify an Italian element in the international debate, composed primarily of contributions from Amoroso (1932; 1935; 1940), Vinci (1934; 1937; 1953), Bordin (1935) and...

The main goal of this essay is to outline the fundamental theses of Milton Friedman about the distribution of all goods. The ethical principles supporting and justifying the Friedman’s positions are enucleated, and some theoretical and practical difficulties in terms of justice inherent in his...

In the lab, in both one-shot interactions and first rounds of repeated games, subjects turn out to cooperate significantly more than the well-known, classical Homo Oeconomicus model predicts. Behavioural economics has persuasively shown that this ‘irrational’ rate of cooperation is...

One of the most important debates in today’s economic policy is between Neo-Liberals supporters of free market and Neo-Keynesians supporting the fundamental relevance of public action. In this paper the James M. Buchanan’s role among the masters of neo-liberal politics is underlined. In his...

Recently an old debate amongst scholars of economics and of other social sciences has been revived: that between supporters of the free market and supporters of public regulation of economic activity, the aims being specifically that of efficiency according to the former group, and development,...

This paper considers and analyses theses about justice supported by Michael Sandel. The crucial problem concerns the connection between the definition of good for every individual and for a society, and if this good must be defined and pursued freely, or if it can be established by other...

Econometrics demands that economists be familiar both with mathematical statistics and with different branches of higher mathematics. Economists – Lombardini argues in his essay – believe this scientific discipline has some utility, insofar as it paves the way to new perspectives and new...

In this paper we describe the main causes of the recent financial crisis as a result of many theoretical, methodological, and practical shortcomings mostly according to heterodox, but also including some important orthodox economists. At theoretical level, there are problems concerning teaching...

Epstein gave to one of his books a title that summarizes the main conclusion of some studies, in particular Hayek's, of emergent orders (also known as spontaneous orders) such as the law and the market: we need, says Epstein, simple rules to cope with a complex world. We offer a critical...