Italian society of economics demography and statistics (SIEDS - Società italiana di economia demografia e statistica) is a cultural and scientific institution aiming to the progress of the economic, demographic and statistical studies and to the establishment of active forms of co-operation among professionals of the mentioned subjects and similar issues in the field of social sciences

Social sciences

Social science is the field of study concerned with society. "Social science" is commonly used as an umbrella term to refer to a plurality of fields outside of the natural sciences usually exclusive of the administrative or managerial sciences...

 and human behaviour. The society pursues this aim by:

• organising seminars, congresses or scientific meetings for analysing and discussing problems concerning its activity;
• implementing scientific surveys, enquires and researches and promoting, training activities (courses, seminars, etc.);

• publishing the Italian Review of Economics, Demography and Statistics (Rivista italiana di economia demografia e statistica), SIEDS News, a series of studies and monographies on specific items concerning the scientific interest of the society as well as the proceedings of its congresses and seminars;
• undertaking every activity for supporting such studies or for scientifically collaborating with the policy makers in the economic, demographic and statistical field;
• participating with its official representatives to congresses, meetings, commissions of other similar national and international societies or public or private bodies;
• sustaining the aspirations of similar national and international societies and scientifically co-operating with them.

History of the Society

SIEDS is a scientific society funded 29 of June 1939 thanks to the initiative of Livio Livi and other eminent academics. The first seat of the society was located in Florence in viale Curtatone n.1.
Initially named Italian Society of Demography and Statistics (SIDS), it takes its origins from the Advisory Committee for the Population Study funded by Corrado Gini

Corrado Gini

Corrado Gini was an Italian statistician, demographer and sociologist who developed the Gini coefficient, a measure of the income inequality in a society. Gini was also a leading fascist theorist and ideologue who wrote The Scientific Basis of Fascism in 1927...

. The first publications of the Society were only the scientific meeting proceedings but, starting from January 1947, the Society published its own scientific journal, namely Italian Review of Demography and Statistics (RIDS). On 18 April 1950 the society decided to expand its fields of interest also to the economics and then took the current denomination of “SIEDS – Italian Society of Economics Demography and statistics” mainly thanks to the requests of Prof. Luigi Amoroso

Luigi Amoroso

- References : . The first paper where a set of necessary and sufficient conditions for the solvability of the Dirichlet problem for holomorphic functions of several variables is given....

, an economist/mathematician who together with Vilfredo Pareto

Vilfredo Pareto

Vilfredo Federico Damaso Pareto , born Wilfried Fritz Pareto, was an Italian engineer, sociologist, economist, political scientist and philosopher. He made several important contributions to economics, particularly in the study of income distribution and in the analysis of individuals' choices....

 was one of the first to explain the income distribution

Income distribution

In economics, income distribution is how a nation’s total economy is distributed amongst its population.Income distribution has always been a central concern of economic theory and economic policy...

 based on statistical data. In 1950 the scientific journal of the society took its current name Italian review of economics demography and statistics (RIEDS).
The Society allowed for the first time a close link among academics that in most cases used to meet only abroad during the seminars organized by the International Statistical Institute

International Statistical Institute

The International Statistical Institute is a professional association of statisticians. The Institut International de Statistique or International Statistical Institute was founded in 1885 although there had been international congresses from 1853.. The Institute publishes a variety of books and...

 and the International Union for the Study of the Population.
During the first meeting of SIDS, held at Istat (Rome, 28–29 May 1939), Livio Livi underlined that at that time there were already 16 statistical Society in Europe as well as in North America, Argentina Brazil, India, China and Japan. Therefore Italian academics thought that the time was arrived also for their own wide national society.
Many eminent academics become members of the Society. During the scientific meeting held on December 28, 1940 the society already counted 122 ordinary members among them: Carlo Emilio Bonferroni

Carlo Emilio Bonferroni

Carlo Emilio Bonferroni was an Italian mathematician who worked on probability theory. Carlo Emilio Bonferroni was born in Bergamo on 28 January 1892 and died on 18 August 1960 in Firenze . He studied in Torino , held a post as assistant professor at the Turin Polytechnic, and in 1923 took up the...

, Raffaele D’Addario, Mario de Vergottini and Giuseppe Parenti (Rector of the University of Florence), Giuseppe De Meo (Istat President), Pierpaolo Luzzatto Fegiz , Diego De Castro, Guglielmo Tagliacarne

Guglielmo Tagliacarne

Tagliacarne Guglielmo 31 May 1893, Orta San Giulio, Novara – 10 April 1979, Rome was an Italian statistician-Biography:Guglielmo Tagliacarne was born in Orta San Giulio, Novara, on May 31st 1893. He studied in Bocconi University, Milan, obtaining aMaster Degree in Economics...

, Bruno Grazia Resi, Ugo Papi (Rector of the University of Rome) and Silvio Vianelli. All these academics gave a great contribution, also at international level, to the Economics and Statistics theory.