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Indeed, Leo XIII's 1891 encyclical, Rerum Novarum, was the reason for the 1991 centennial.
On its origins and consequences there is a huge literature of enormous political
importance, the ideological fund of 20th-century "Catholic socialism" or "Christian
Democracy." To start, see The New Catholic Encyclopedia
on Rerum Novarum and on "corporatism." You will go back to Aquinas, then to Rome, and
forward to Jacques Maritain, inter-war Romanians, and Lula in Brazil.
 
To my knowledge there is no mathematized version of corporatist economics or coherent neo-
classical criticism of it (although I would like to see either if anyone knows of any).
The most sophisticated and influential version, I believe, is by Mihail Manoilescu, Le
siecle du corporatisme: Doctrine du corporatisme integral et pur (Paris, 1934). For other
starters try "corporatism"
and "Manoilescu" in The New Palgrave; the author of the latter, Georgescu-Roegen, is worth
pursuing too.
 
 
                                                                         
 
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