The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07.
Samuelson, Paul A.
1915–, American economist, b. Gary, Ind., grad. Univ. of Chicago (B.A., 1935), Harvard (M.A., 1936; Ph.D., 1941). Appointed a professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1941, he later (1966) became institute professor, the highest professorial rank at the school. A liberal and a supporter of applied Keynesian economics, Samuelson has held a variety of governmental positions. He has been a consultant to the National Resources Planning Board (1941–43), the U.S. Treasury (1945–52), and served as an economic adviser to the U.S. government. In 1970, Samuelson received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences on behalf of his efforts to “raise the level of scientific analysis in economic theory.” His contributions to the systematization of economic theory’s underlying mathematical structure are probably unequaled by any other 20th-century economist. His introductory textbook, Economics (16th ed. 1997), now coauthored with W. Nordhaus, is a standard work in its field. Originally published in 1948, it has been translated into more than 40 languages. Samuelson’s other writings include Foundations of Economic Analysis (1947, enl. ed. 1983), Collected Scientific Papers (3 vol., 1966), and numerous articles in Newsweek magazine, to which he was a contributing editor and columnist.
