Paolo Sylos Labini (1920–2005) was the one of the most influential economists in Italy after the Second World War. After graduating in 1942, Sylos Labini won a fellowship in the USA. After an initial period in Chicago, he moved to Harvard, where he was able to attend Schumpeter’s lectures from 1948 to 1950. Influenced in particular by Adam Smith, Marx, Keynes, Schumpeter and Sraffa, Sylos Labini can be considered one of the three champions of Italian economics in the second half of the 20^th century, together with Luigi Pasinetti and Pierangelo Garegnani.

In this paper, Alessandro Roncaglia, who was both his student and his colleague, guides us through a fascinating tour of Sylos Labini’s life and work.