People

Taibi, Salvatore

Salvatore Taibi

Fifth-Year PhD Candidate

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 RESEARCH INTERESTS
 Economics and Literature; Italian Renaissance Romance Epic; World Cinema; Westerns

 

Salvatore Taibi holds a B.A. in Italian (summa cum laude) from Columbia University and a B.A. in English (with a double major in Administration of Justice) from Rutgers University. A native of a small Northern New Jersey Italian-American community, he has traveled and lived extensively worldwide, initially venturing out as a result of his service in the United States Marine Corps.

His research examines Italian literature and cinema through the lens of the Austrian School of economics, drawing primarily on Ludwig von Mises and F.A. Hayek. His recent chapter, “A Wooden Boy and a Lesson in Free Market Economics: How Pinocchio Becomes an Entrepreneur,” appeared in Libertarian Literary and Media Criticism: Essays in Memory of Paul A. Cantor (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025). A companion piece, “No Strings Attached: Pinocchio Discovers the Freedom of Entrepreneurship,” is forthcoming in Strings of Imagination: Rethinking Pinocchio in the New Millennium (Routledge, Fall 2026). These essays form core components of his dissertation, which applies Austrian economic theory to key 19th-century Italian authors, including Carlo Collodi, Giovanni Verga, and Paolo Mantegazza.

Although his recent work bridges economics and literature, cinema remains his primary passion. He is especially drawn to Westerns, both American and Italian (Spaghetti Westerns), with prior work exploring the Christian undertones in Sergio Leone’s Dollars Trilogy.

 

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS 

Articles and Book Chapters

  •  Taibi, Salvatore. “No Strings Attached: Pinocchio discovers the freedom of entrepreneurship,” In Rethinking Pinocchio in the New Millennium. New York: Routledge, Forthcoming 2026. 
  •  Taibi, Salvatore. (Book Review) “Christopher Adair-Toteff. The Early Austrian School of Economics.” Cosmos and Taxis, Forthcoming 2026.
  • Taibi, Salvatore. 2025. “A Wooden Boy and a Lesson in Free Market Economics: How Pinocchio Becomes an Entrepreneur.” In Cavallo, J.A. (eds) Libertarian Literary and Media Criticism: Essays in Memory of Paul A. Cantor, 101-125. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2025. 
  • Taibi, Salvatore. (Book Review) “Matthew Treherne. Dante’s Commedia and the Liturgical Imagination.” Italian Quarterly, Year LVIII NOS. 229-230, Summer-Fall 2021.