The Paretian school was one of the most important schools of economic\ud thought in the interwar period in Italy. It comprised a small but combative\ud group of economists, among whom the names of Luigi Amoroso and\ud Giulio La Volpe stand out. The most ambitious project undertaken by\ud the Paretians was to make dynamic the theory of general equilibrium\ud by grounding it in the use of then sophisticated mathematical instruments,\ud such as functionals, differential equations, and the calculus of variations\ud drawn by analogy from mechanics. Amoroso, utilizing his scientifi c background\ud to emphasize analogies with the physical sciences, in particular\ud with rational mechanics, proposed a view of economic dynamics based\ud on the past; La Volpe took a totally different tack by concentrating on\ud choices based on plans and predictions, that is, on the future. The Paretian\ud approach to dynamics was one of the most original products of the Italian\ud tradition between the two world wars, at least in the fi eld of pure theorizing;\ud but, for reasons that we will explore, it did not have a signifi cant impact\ud on the working out of economic dynamics in the postwar period

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The current idea of the 'representative agent' cannot be readily applied to Vilfredo Pareto's analysis, which is predicated on the heterogeneity of individuals. Indeed, recognition of the importance of heterogeneity leads Pareto to introduce statistical equilibrium as a complement to the theoretical equilibrium that results from a balance of economic forces. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the implications of Pareto's views on heterogeneity for the study of political economy and to draw attention to the largely Italian literature that stresses Pareto's anticipation of aspects of statistical equilibrium developed in the physical sciences.

Contrary to the prevailing literature, the study of economic dynamics began at the end of the nineteenth century, at least four decades before Hayek's and Samuelson's essays on dynamic equilibrium, as Pareto's dynamic insights prove. Throughout this early phase of the discipline, economists interested in dynamic studies put forward a wide spectrum of suggestions. This paper investigates the lines of research that sprang from the Italian debate either according to or in opposition to the Paretian mechanistic legacy, aiming to show that a growing awareness of subjective variables' role weakened the mechanistic faith of the strictly Paretian followers, pushing them toward probabilistic analysis, anchoring dynamics to uncertainty and disequilibrium.Dynamic economic equilibrium, Pareto and Italian economists, mental variables, disequilibrium,

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