American Philosophical Society
Member History

Results:  1 ItemModify Search | New Search
Page: 1Reset Page
Residency
Resident (1)
Class
Subdivision
1Name:  Dr. Paul A. Samuelson
 Institution:  Massachusetts Institute of Technology
 Year Elected:  1958
 Class:  3. Social Sciences
 Subdivision:  302. Economics
 Residency:  Resident
 Living? :   Deceased
 Birth Date:  1915
 Death Date:  December 13, 2009
   
 
Perhaps more than anyone else, Paul A. Samuelson has personified mainstream economics in the second half of the twentieth century. Author of the premier principles textbook, he is presently Institute Professor Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he has taught since 1940. Dr. Samuelson's most famous piece of work, Foundations of Economic Analysis (1947), helped revive Neoclassical economics and launched the era of the mathematization of economics. He was also one of the progenitors of the Paretian revival in microeconomics and the Neo-Keynesian Synthesis in macroeconomics during the post-war period. A graduate of Harvard University (Ph.D., 1941), where he studied under Schumpeter and Leontief, Dr. Samuelson early on demonstrated a prodigious grasp of economic theory. After moving to M.I.T., he built one of the century's most powerful economics departments while espousing two rules which can be said to characterize much of Neoclassical economics since: with every economic problem (1) reduce the number of variables and keep only a minumum set of simple economic relations; and (2) if possible, rewrite it as a constrained optimization problem. In microeconomics, Dr. Samuelson is responsible for the theory of revealed preference. He also introduced the use of comparative statics and dynamics through his "correspondence principle" which was applied fruitfully in his contributions to the dynamic stability of general equilibrium. He also developed what are now called "Bergson-Samuelson social welfare functions" and he is responsible for the harnessing of "public goods" into Neoclassical theory. Dr. Samuelson was also instrumental in establishing the modern theory of production. His Foundations are responsible for the envelope theorem and the full characterization of the cost function. He also made important contributions to the theory of technical progress. His work on the theory of capital is also well known, if contentious. He demonstrated one of the first remarkable "Non-Substitution" theorems and, in his famous paper with Solow, initiated the analysis of dynamic Leontief systems. This work was famously reiterated in his famous 1958 volume on linear programming with Dorfman and Solow, wherein we also find a clear introduction to the "turnpike" conjecture of linear von Neumann systems. In international trade theory, he is responsible for the Stolper-Samuelson Theorem and, independently of Lerner, the Factor Price Equalization theorem as well as resolving the age-old "transfer problem" relating terms of trade and capital flows as well as the Marxian transformation problem and other issues in Classical economics. In macroeconomics, Dr. Samuelson's multiplier-accelerator macrodynamic model is justly famous, as is his presentation of the Phillips Curve. He is also famous for popularizing Allais's "overlapping generations" model which has since found many applications in macroeconomics and monetary theory. In many ways, his work on speculative prices effectively anticipates the efficient markets hypothesis in finance theory. His work on diversification and the "lifetime portfolio" (1969) is also well known. Paul Samuelson's many contributions to Neoclassical economic theory were recognized with a Nobel Memorial prize in 1970.
 
Election Year
1958 (1)