In Manual of Political Economy, Vilfredo Pareto develops a mathematical account of how individuals make economic choices and how those choices interact within markets. He examines preferences, exchange, production, prices and economic equilibrium, building on the general equilibrium framework associated with Léon Walras. Pareto places particular emphasis on ranking preferences rather than attempting to measure satisfaction directly.

The work develops the use of indifference curves and explores the conditions under which economic resources are allocated efficiently. Pareto considers a state in which one person cannot be made better off without making another worse off, an idea later known as Pareto optimality or Pareto efficiency. He also examines competition, production and the relationship between economic theory and wider social phenomena.

First published in Italian in 1906, the Manual became an important contribution to neoclassical and mathematical economics, particularly to theories of consumer choice, general equilibrium and economic efficiency.