Manuela Mosca – författare

This book provides insight into the remarkable life and work of the Italian economist Antonio de Viti de Marco (1858-1943). This book presents eleven interviews with American and Italian scholars from various disciplines that provide a profile of this major intellectual as an economic theorist, politician, and individual. He was the founder of the pure theory of Public Finance, played an important role in the foundation of Public Choice, and was also a staunch liberal and radical politician. An English translation of one of his books, made as early as 1936, greatly influenced James M. Buchanan, Nobel prize-winner for economics.

Manuela Mosca analyses their articulate vision of competition, and the structural and strategic entry barriers considered in their works to enrich existing literature on the history of the sources of market power. The book is not limited to the reconstruction of the elaboration of pure theory, it also highlights its policy implications and how this group applied their theories as cutting-edge experiments in analysing the labour market, socialism, the Great War and gender issues, against the background of the political situation of the period.

Monopoly Power and Competition is a vital resource for historians of economic thought, as it explores a relatively untouched area of microeconomics in historical perspective, and reveals the theories surrounding monopoly power and competition. Microeconomists and industrial organisation scholars would similarly benefit from the knowledge of the origins of many microeconomic tools and notions.

This book explores and traces the progressive activism and radical ideas of several elite women in Italy beginning in the early 20th century. It discusses the shared political culture that shaped the thinking and the activity of these women, mainly oriented towards political philanthropy and work, seen as the cornerstone of a comprehensive redefinition of gender relations. It also discusses the connections linking them to an international network of women involved in similar political actions and economic initiatives addressing women’s'' interests, as well as their legacy for the next generations.

This book reconstructs the economic thought of Italian women who produced written sources, and of those whose “only” legacy was their actions. The conceptual tools of economic history and the history of economic thought alike are used to reveal the economic ideas of women overlooked by historiography in four fields, namely as entrepreneurs, workers, educators, and politicians. As for the entrepreneurs, the book examines the businesswoman Isabella De Mari Doria (eighteenth century) and other figures active in both the industrialized and the informal sectors in the nineteenth century. The important issues of female employment and wage discrimination based on gender are analyzed, taking into account the debates of the period. In turn, the role of women in economic education in the first half of the twentieth century is reconstructed through the figure of Aurelia Josz, an educational entrepreneur who trained female agricultural entrepreneurs, managers, and teachers, and by exploring the presence of women at universities, both as students of economics and as educators and researchers. Lastly, the book takes a closer look at women involved in politics who dealt with economic issues: the socialist Anna Kuliscioff, the fascist Margherita Grassini Sarfatti, and the 21 women who took part in the Italian Constituent Assembly in June 1946. Given its scope, the book appeals to scholars and students of the history of economic thought, economic history, and women’s studies.