American economist, a major figure of the 20th century. The first American to receive the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1970, he helped found modern economics by introducing mathematical formalization into it, and was the author of a world-renowned economics textbook.
Paul Samuelson(1915 — 2009)
Paul Samuelson
États-Unis
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Frequently asked questions
Key Facts
- Born on May 15, 1915, in Gary, Indiana; died on December 13, 2009
- Published Foundations of Economic Analysis in 1947, which introduced mathematical methods into economics
- Published the textbook Economics in 1948, translated into dozens of languages and a worldwide best-seller
- Received in 1970 the first Nobel Prize in Economics awarded to an American
- Iconic professor at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) for decades
Works & Achievements
A method for inferring consumers' preferences from their observed choices, without relying on untestable assumptions.
A major result in international trade theory, explaining how opening up to trade affects the returns to labor and capital.
A landmark work in which Samuelson unified economics through mathematics, laying the foundations of modern economics.
The best-selling economics textbook in history, which spread the “neoclassical synthesis” throughout the world.
A pioneering analysis of goods whose use benefits everyone (defense, street lighting) and that the market alone cannot supply efficiently.
A framework for analyzing saving, pensions, and debt across generations, still central to macroeconomics today.
The first Nobel Prize awarded to an American economist, honoring his entire body of scientific work.
Anecdotes
In 1970, Paul Samuelson became the very first American to receive the Nobel Prize in Economics, just two years after the award was created. The Stockholm committee praised the man who had "done more than any other contemporary economist to raise the level of scientific analysis in economic theory.
His textbook *Economics*
published in 1948
became the best-selling economics book in history: millions of copies
translated into more than forty languages
and used by generations of students around the world. Samuelson liked to say:
I don't care who writes a nation's laws if I can write its economics textbooks.
For years, Samuelson wrote a regular column in *Newsweek* magazine, alternating with his great rival in ideas, the free-market champion Milton Friedman. The two men — one a Keynesian, the other a monetarist — thus offered the general public an ongoing debate on how to manage the economy.
A brilliant doctoral student at Harvard, Samuelson nonetheless chose to join nearby MIT, where he would build one of the most prestigious economics departments in the world. It is said that MIT struck one of the best "bargains" in its academic history.
Samuelson had an economist's humor when it came to risky forecasts: he joked that "the stock market has predicted nine of the last five recessions
a way of reminding everyone that markets often panic over nothing.
Primary Sources
The textbook popularized the “neoclassical synthesis” — blending Keynes's ideas with the traditional theory of markets — among millions of students.
In it, Samuelson argues that the same operational mathematical methods underlie economic fields that appear very different from one another.
In it, Samuelson defends the idea that economics can and must be treated as a rigorous science, formalized through mathematics.
In his columns, which alternated with Milton Friedman's, Samuelson explained the government's economic policy choices to the general public.
Key Places
Industrial city in the United States where Paul Samuelson was born in 1915, into a family of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe.
Where he pursued his first university studies, and where the young Samuelson discovered economics and, in his own words, fell “in love” with the discipline.
Where Samuelson earned his doctorate with a brilliant thesis that would become “Foundations of Economic Analysis.”
University in Cambridge where Samuelson taught and, over the course of decades, built one of the most renowned economics departments in the world.
Town near Boston where Paul Samuelson passed away in 2009, at the age of 94.
Liens externes & ressources
Références
Œuvres
Théorie des préférences révélées
1938
Théorème de Stolper-Samuelson
1941
Foundations of Economic Analysis
1947
Economics: An Introductory Analysis
1948
Théorie des biens publics
1954
Modèle à générations imbriquées
1958
Prix Nobel d'économie
1970
