Paolo Sylos-Labini’s Contribution to and Affinities for Institutional Economic Thought

The text proposes a study of Sylos-Labini’s interdisciplinary orientation and how this relates to the institutional approach. Sylos-Labini’s multi-disciplinary approach seems to stand between Old Institutional Economics and New Institutional Economics. He states that an interdisciplinary approach, in which economic theory is juxtaposed with history, sociology, anthropology, and empirical research, is realistic and does not entail any limitation on the production of scientific knowledge. Thus, Sylos-Labini seems to be more interested in the old institutionalist school and sociology than new institutional economics and the theory of firms and contracts. Therefore, this paper investigates whether Sylos-Labini’s multidisciplinary approach to economics can represent a possible bridge between Old Institutional Economics and New Institutional Economics.