One Hundred Years from Today: Vilfredo Pareto's Manuale Di Economia Politica

Abstract

This article marks the centenary of Pareto's Manuale di Economic Politica by briefly reviewing the editions and translations of this book and reflecting on its four main seminal contributions: the formulation of choice theory with reference to an (imperfect) ordinal specification of utility; the advancement of formalism in economics; the re-specification of general equilibrium theory in terms of tastes and obstacles and the related treatment of economic maximisation under different 'types' of economic conditions; and the investigation of the logic of various human actions and identification of the consequent implications for methodology, economic theory and the social sciences.

Keywords: Centenary, Manuale, Pareto

JEL Classification: B13, B31