Profile Major Works Resources

Augusto Graziani, 1865-1944.

Italian economist (not to be confused with his grandson and namesake).

Augusto Graziani was born in Modena, and obtained his bachelor's degree at the University of Modena in 1886, with a thesis on the law of profit. Graziani subsequently worked as a lecturer and assistant professor at Modena, Forli and Siena.  Graziani was finally appointed to the chair of finance and business law at the University of Siena 1890, and in 1892, inherited the chair of political economy at Siena from Achille Loria, who departed that year for Padua. Graziani would remain in Siena, teaching nearly all the economics-related courses at the university for several years.  In 1899, Graziani moved to the University of Naples, where he would remain until his retirement in 1938. 

Augusto Graziani would play a significant role in the dissemination of the Marginalist Revolution in Italy, although he was much more eclectic.  Although schooled in Classical economics (in the version of Luigi Cossa), Graziani was early  influenced by the Austrian school, and he would spend much of his career trying to reconcile historicism and marginalism.  In the 1890s, Graziani was a frequent contributor to the  Giornale degli Economisti crowd, alongside instiutionalists like Loria, and marginalist high theorists like Maffeo Pantaleoni and Vilfredo Pareto.  His 1893 GdE article on the economic theory of law, often hailed as a milestone of the "law and economics" movement. was very much influenced by his contemporary Achille Loria.

A classical liberal by conviction, Augusto Graziani nonetheless tried to steer clear of politics, and stay strictly within the academy.  Unlike other contemporaries, Graziani did not flirt with fascism, and,  in one of his rare public stances, lined up with Benedetto Croce against it  Nonetheless, to retain his academic job, Graziani was obliged to swear an oath of loyalty to the Italian fascist regime, but accepted no other positions from them.

 

  

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Major Works of Augusto Graziani

  • "Review of Rodbertus's Socialen Fragen, v.2", 1886, GdE (May) p.371
  • "Review of Mazzola's L'assicurazoine", 1886, GdE (May)  p.375
  • Sulla teoria generale del profitto, 1887
  • Storia critica della teoria del valore in Italia, 1889
  • Teoria delle operazioni di borsa, 1890
  •  "La ragione progressiva del sistema tributraio in rapporto al principio del grado finale de utilita", 1891, GdE p.156
  • Teoria economica delle macchine, 1891 [bk]
  • "Review of Schrattenhofen's Theoretischen Nationalokönomie Italiens", 1892, AAPSS, p.135 [av]
  • Di alcune questioni relative alla dottrina del salario, 1893
  • Le idee e gli scritti degli scrittori emiliani e romagnoli sino al 1848, 1893 [bk]
  • Istituzioni di scienza delle finanze, 1897 [bk, hth]
  • Studi sulla teoria dell'interesse, 1898
  • Istituzioni di economia politica, 1904 [bk, av] [1908 2nd ed] [1917 3rd ed, av, hth]
  • La moneta nel pagamenti internazionale, 1906 [bk]
  • Teorie e fatti economici, 1912 [hth]
  • Economisti del cinque e seicento, 1913 [av, hth]
  • Principi di economia commerciale, 1913
  • La guerra ed il sistema sociale, 1916 [av]
  • Ricardo e J.S. Mill, 1921 [av]
  • Critica Ricardiana, 1926
  • Studi di critica economica, 1935
  • Storia delle dottrine economiche, 1949
HET

 
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Resources on Achille Loria

 

 
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