About a dispute of some time ago: Umberto Ricci vs Attilio da Empoli

Reconsiders Umberto Ricci’s harsh comments on the book of the young Attilio da Empoli about the Theory of Economic Equilibrium and also re‐examines da Empoli’s original theses about “ultramarginality” that aroused Umberto Ricci’s fierce criticism. In his reply, da Empoli punctually rebutted those comments, but Ricci did not answer back, probably in order not to lend himself to act as a resonance chamber. In fact, da Empoli’s approach, which led to doubt being cast on the competitive equilibria of Marshallian memory, seconded the criticism brought forward at that time against dominant orthodoxy. And Ricci really was an economist who acted inside orthodoxy and claimed to keep on doing so.