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The MIT Press

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Cover of The Collected Scientific Papers of Paul A. Samuelson

The sixth and seventh volumes of Paul Samuelson's papers gather his final writings.

"It is a measure of Professor Samuelson's preeminence that the sheer scale of his work should be so much taken for granted," a reviewer for the Economist once observed, marking both Paul Samuelson's influence and his astonishing prolificacy. These two volumes gather the Nobel Laureate's final writings. Samuelson declined suggestions that he write an autobiography. Yet the texts in these volumes (selected by Samuelson with the help of his longtime assistant, Janice Murray) have a somewhat autobiographical cast, with tributes to friends and colleagues and speeches and interviews of both personal and historic interest. Volume 6 offers essays on classical economics; neoclassical, Marxian, and Sraffian economics; modern macroeconomics; welfare and efficiency economics; and economic and scientific theories. Volume 7 covers stochastic theory; modern economic policy; biographical essays; and autobiographical writings. [Revised appendixes accompany Samuelson and Etula's "Where Ricardo and Mill Rebut and Confirm Arguments of Mainstream Economists Supporting Globalization" and a previously unpublished "Afterthought" has been added to Samuelson's Dictionary of American Biography text on Joseph Schumpeter.] Additionally, three contributions omitted from early volumes have been included. The acknowledgements sections list the strict chronological order of the papers. The seven volumes of Samuelson's collected papers document the long and distinguished career of one of America's most important economists.

Cover of The Collected Scientific Papers of Paul Samuelson
Volume 5 collects 108 articles written since 1976, bringing the total to nearly 400 important contributions to economics."It is a measure of Professor Samuelson's preeminence that the sheer scale of his work should be so much taken for granted," observes a reviewer in the Economist who goes on to note that "a cynic might add that it would have been better for Professor Samuelson to write less merely to give others a chance to write at all."In fact, Samuelson's output, his "extraordinary mastery of methods, both mathematical and linguistic" (review of Volume 4 of The Collected Scientific Papers), have not diminished. Volume 5 collects 108 articles written since 1976, bringing the total to nearly 400 important contributions to economics. As in earlier volumes, the papers are arranged by subject. They cover Economic Theory: Marx, Keynes, and Schumpeter; International Economics; Stochastic Theory; Classical Economics; Mathematical Biology; Biographical and Autobiographical Writings; and Current Economics and Policy.Volumes 1 through 4 encompass more than 280 articles. The first two contain virtually all of Samuelson's contributions to economic theory through mid-1964; Volume 3 contains all the scientific papers written from mid-1964 through 1970, and the last volume brings his work up to through 1976.