Dominick Salvatore (May 23, 1940 – January 27, 2026) was an Italian-born American economist who specialized in international economics. He taught at Fordham University from 1970 until his retirement in 2024, where he was a distinguished professor of economics, directed the graduate economics program, and directed the Global Economic Policy Center. He was among the founders of the Libera Università Mediterranea (LUM) in Italy, where he taught political economy. He was best known as the author of the textbook International Economics, which was translated into 11 languages and reached its 14th edition.
Early life and education Salvatore was born in Villa Santa Maria, in the Abruzzo region of central Italy, where he spent his childhood. His father, Nicola, was a cook, one of many from Villa Santa Maria, a town known for training chefs who worked in restaurants abroad. The family emigrated to New York in 1954, after he had finished middle school, when his father obtained a work contract there. While working as a waiter, Salvatore studied at the City University of New York. He received a BA from the City College of New York in 1964, an MA in 1966, and a PhD in economics in 1971, the last under the supervision of Edwin P. Reubens; he taught as an instructor at City College from 1968 to 1971.
Career Salvatore joined the Fordham faculty in the fall of 1970. By his own account, he became the youngest full professor at Fordham at the time, and he chaired its economics department from 1986 to 1992. Over a 54-year career there he directed the graduate (PhD) program in economics and the university's Global Economic Policy Center. He contributed to the founding of Fordham's International Political Economy and Development (IPED) graduate program, and helped establish a student exchange program between Fordham and the University of Pretoria. He brought prominent economists, including John Nash and Amartya Sen, to speak at Fordham, and organized panel sessions with Nobel laureates at the annual meetings of the American Economic Association. He retired in August 2024.
In Italy, Salvatore was among the founders of the Libera Università Mediterranea (LUM) in Casamassima, near Bari, where he was a full professor of political economy from its establishment and continued teaching remotely from New York until shortly before his death. He also held honorary professorships at Shanghai Finance University, Nanjing University, Hunan University and the University of Pretoria. He was a columnist for the Italian financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore from 1998 to 2006 and appeared as a commentator on Italian television.
He consulted for the United Nations, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Economic Policy Institute. He served as president of the International Trade and Finance Association and of the North American Economics and Finance Association, and as chairman of the economics section of the New York Academy of Sciences, of which he was a fellow.
Research and editorial work Salvatore's applied research focused on international trade, the international monetary system, and growth in developing and transition economies. According to his Fordham colleague Henry Schwalbenberg, his principal scholarly contribution was showing that protectionist trade policies undermine growth in developing countries.
He was co-editor of the Journal of Policy Modeling and a past co-editor of Open Economies Review and The American Economist, and edited the Handbook Series in Economics for Greenwood Press. He was among the most frequent contributors to the Journal of Policy Modeling and edited numerous special issues of it, including memorial issues for the economists Peter Kenen, Michael Mussa and Ronald McKinnon.
His textbook International Economics, first published in 1983 and later published by Wiley, went through 13 editions under his sole authorship; the 14th edition was co-authored with Ralf Hepp. His other textbooks included Introduction to International Economics (Wiley), Managerial Economics in a Global Economy and Microeconomics: Theory and Applications (both Oxford University Press), and the Schaum's Outline of Microeconomic Theory, which his publisher reported had been translated into ten languages and sold more than half a million copies.
Honors Premio Scanno – Provincia dell'Aquila (1996), recognizing Abruzzese achievement abroad. Premio Dorso (2004, international section), presented by the President of the Italian Senate, Marcello Pera; he later served on the scientific committee of the Associazione Internazionale Guido Dorso. Honorary citizenship of Villa Santa Maria (2010).
Selected works
International Economics. 1st ed. 1983; Wiley editions through 13th ed. 2019; 14th ed. (with Ralf Hepp), . Introduction to International Economics. Wiley. 3rd ed. 2012, . Managerial Economics in a Global Economy. Oxford University Press. Microeconomics: Theory and Applications. Oxford University Press. Schaum's Outline of Microeconomic Theory. McGraw-Hill.
References
External links Dominick Salvatore on Google Scholar