Ernesto Rossi and the “dismal science”, between Wicksteed and Robbins

Abstract

Ernesto Rossi has repeatedly stated that the economist who has most influenced his thinking is Philip Wicksteed, who is credited with completing the “marginalist revolution”. The present contribution highlights the strong influence of Lionel Robbins, whose works Rossi extensively and thoroughly studied during the years of prison and confinement, and who was the main promoter of Wicksteed’s work. The line of thought that unites Ernesto Rossi and Lionel Robbins starts from Pareto, passes through Wicksteed and reaches to the federalism, understood as the institutional framework necessary for the full affirmation of a liberal economic and political order. Rossi shares with Robbins the theoretical approach and methodological rigor, including the idea of the neutrality of economic science and the possibility of using its tools in the context of different normative systems. In the practical application of theoretical tools, Rossi appears very close to the British democratic and liberal socialism, as represented for example by Barbara Wootton in her work Lament for economics.