Introduction

EnThe paper deals with the historical reconstruction of the relation between the Austrian economist Emil Sax and some Italian economists. It is focused on three questions of priority. The first concerns priority in the introduction of marginal analysis in public finance, seeing the work of Matteo Pantaleoni (1883) and Sax (1884)as of primary significance. The second is about priority in the reception accorded to the 1887 Sax's work in Italy by Giuseppe Ricca-Salerno (1887), and by Augusto Graziani (1887). The third relates to priority in the development of a pure theory of public finance, and concerns the works of Sax (1887) and Antonio De Vito De Marco(1888)