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Paul A. Samuelson (born May 15, 1915, in Gary, Indiana) is an American economist known for his work in many fields of economics. He was awarded the John Bates Clark Medal in 1947 and Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel (more commonly known as Nobel Prize in Economics) in 1970. Academic accomplishments Professional positions Consultancy Membership of honorary and professional organizations Fields of interest As professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Samuelson has worked in fields including: Publications Samuelson's book Foundations of Economic Analysis (1947, Enlarged ed. 1983), from his doctoral dissertation, is his magnum opus. Its purposes were to: The chapter on welfare economics "attempt(s) to give a brief but fairly complete survey of the whole field of welfare economics" (Samuelson, 1947, p. 252). It also exposits on and develops what became commonly called the Bergson-Samuelson social welfare function. It shows how to represent (in the maximization calculus) all real-valued economic measures of any belief system that is required to rank consistently different feasible social configurations in an ethical sense as "better than," "worse than," or "indifferent to" each other (p. 221). There are 388 papers to date in Samuelson's Collected Scientific Papers. Stanley Fischer (1987, p. 234) writes that taken together they are unique in their verve, breadth of economic and general knowledge, mastery of setting, and generosity of allusions to predecessors. Samuelson is also author (and since 1985 co-author) of an influential principles textbook, Economics, first published in 1948, now in its 18th edition. The book has been translated into forty-one languages and sold over four million copies. Miscellaneous Stanislaw Ulam once challenged Samuelson to name one theory in all of the social sciences which is both true and nontrivial. Several years later, Samuelson responded with David Ricardo's theory of comparative advantage. Famous Quotes: "Economists have correctly predicted nine of the last five recessions." - Paul Samuelson "Investing should be more like watching paint dry or watching grass grow. If you want excitement, take $800 and go to Las Vegas." - Paul Samuelson Impact Along with Kenneth Arrow, Samuelson is considered one of the founders of modern neoclassical economics. The following is an excerpt on the reasons for awarding him the Nobel Prize: More than any other contemporary economist, Samuelson has helped to raise the general analytical and methodological level in economic science. He has simply rewritten considerable parts of economic theory. He has also shown the fundamental unity of both the problems and analytical techniques in economics, partly by a systematic application of the methodology of maximization for a broad set of problems. This means that Samuelson's contributions range over a large number of different fields. Other prominent family members Paul Samuelson is an uncle of the former Harvard President Larry Summers. According to the book Harvard Rules, Summers's father (himself a distinguished economist) changed his family name from Samuelson to Summers following the example of his oldest brother, who changed the name in order to sound less Jewish in a time when succeeding in the economic world was easier for those of other religions. See also Books by Paul Samuelson v. 1 & 2, 1937-mid-1964 (1966) v. 3., mid-1964-1970 (1970) v. 4, 1971-76 (1977) v. 5, 1977-1985 (1986) v. 6 & 7, 1986- (in preparation) | |||||||
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