Achille Loria (2 March 1857 – 6 November 1943) was an Italian political economist.

His work draws on a wide range of predecessors: Karl Marx, Herbert Spencer, Charles Darwin, Adolph Wagner and Luigi Cossa, who was his teacher.

This concept was developed in a large number of books, many of which were translated into foreign languages.

Achille Loria is also seen as a forerunner of socio-legal studies (see International Institute for the Sociology of Law).

Loria was one of the earliest critics of Marx's ideas, and as such his views were ridiculed by Friedrich Engels, Georgi Plekhanov[2] and Antonio Gramsci.