Paul Samuelson on Public Goods

The Road to Nihilism

Bibliographic Data

ID4298404
AuthorsJ Daniel Hammond (0009-0002-1735-510X, corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume47
Issuesuppl_1
Pages147-173
Publication date2015-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueHistory of Political Economy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0018-2702 • E-ISSN: 1527-1919
PublisherDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1215/00182702-2007-3130487
OpenAlexW2336536606
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited17

This article is an analytical history of Paul Samuelson's writings on the theory of public goods and the role of government. We examine Samuelson's scholarly work from "The Pure Theory of Public Expenditure" (1954) to "Pure Theory of Public Expenditure and Taxation" (1969). We also briefly consider his treatment of public expenditure in Economics: An Introductory Analysis over the same period. We find that from the beginning of his career to the end of the 1960s Samuelson moved from optimism that a new age of scientific progress in economics was imminent to a view so pessimistic that he described it as nihilistic. This suggests that Samuelson's project of mathematizing and formalizing economic theory was a scientific failure

Economics · Government (linguistics · History of economic thought · Keynesian economics · Macroeconomics · Neoclassical economics · Optimism · Pessimism · Positive economics · Public economics · Public expenditure · Public finance · Public good · Work (physics · Economic Theory and Institutions · Economic Theory and Policy · Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth · Philosophy

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