Foundations of Economic Analysis.

SAMUELSON, Paul A.

$5,500.00

Item Number: 135729

Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1947.

First edition of the Nobel Prize-winning economist’s magnum opus and one of the most influential economic texts of the twentieth century as published in Harvard Economic Studies as volume LXXX in the series. Octavo, original burgundy cloth. In near fine condition with light toning to the spine. Harvard College library bookplate to the pastedown. An exceptional example with noted provenance.

Based on Samuelson's 1941 doctoral dissertation at Harvard University, Foundations of Economic Analysis "drastically redirected the advanced study of economics toward greater and more productive use of mathematics" (Cooper, 1997). Through the work, Samuelson sought to demonstrate a common mathematical structure underlying multiple branches of economics from two basic principles: maximizing behavior of agents (such as of utility by consumers and profits by firms) and stability of equilibrium as to economic systems (such as markets or economies). Among other contributions, it advanced the theory of index numbers and generalized welfare economics. The title of this work "was meant to be exactly as ambitious as it sounds, and the book’s impact on the profession has largely justified it. For the first time in a book in English on economic principles, the mathematics, instead of being relegated to an appendix, provided the skeleton of the argument. Fifty years after it was written, the Foundations (together with Hicks’ Value and Capital) is still one of the most inspiring classics of general equilibrium economics (Niehans, History of Economic Theory, 423).