Paul A. Samuelson

Facts

Paul A. Samuelson

Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive.

Paul A. Samuelson
The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1970

Born: 15 May 1915, Gary, IN, USA

Died: 13 December 2009, Belmont, MA, USA

Affiliation at the time of the award: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA, USA

Prize motivation: “for the scientific work through which he has developed static and dynamic economic theory and actively contributed to raising the level of analysis in economic science”

Prize share: 1/1

Life

Paul Samuelson was born in Indiana into a Jewish family that had emigrated from Poland. In 1923 he moved to Chicago, where he began studying economics at the university at age 16. His talent was soon recognized, and he presented his doctor’s thesis at Harvard in 1941. Growing up during the Depression influenced his economic and political views. He served as an advisor to both John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. His 1948 work, Economics, written to help provide for his six children, has become the world’s best selling economic textbook.

Work

Where Ragnar Frisch and Jan Tinbergen had earlier focused on statistics and empirical data, Paul Samuelson devoted his time to theoretical methods and analysis of economics. He formalized economics research using mathematics and his work influences practically all branches of modern economics. He saw himself as the last generalist among increasingly specialized economists and was one of the foremost innovators in the New Keynesian school, which incorporated Keynes' ideas with market theories.

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MLA style: Paul A. Samuelson – Facts. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2024. Tue. 19 Mar 2024. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/1970/samuelson/facts/>

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