27 Facts About Paul Samuelson

Paul Anthony Samuelson was an American economist who was the first American to win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.

Paul Samuelson considered mathematics to be the "natural language" for economists and contributed significantly to the mathematical foundations of economics with his book Foundations of Economic Analysis.

Paul Samuelson was author of the best-selling economics textbook of all time: Economics: An Introductory Analysis, first published in 1948.

Paul Samuelson entered the University of Chicago at age 16, during the depths of the Great Depression, and received his PhD in economics from Harvard.

Paul Samuelson spent his career at MIT, where he was instrumental in turning its Department of Economics into a world-renowned institution by attracting other noted economists to join the faculty, including later winners of the Nobel Prize Robert Solow, Franco Modigliani, Robert C Merton, Joseph Stiglitz, and Paul Krugman.

Paul Samuelson served as an advisor to President John F Kennedy and President Lyndon B Johnson, and was a consultant to the United States Treasury, the Bureau of the Budget and the President's Council of Economic Advisers.

Paul Samuelson wrote a weekly column for Newsweek magazine along with Chicago School economist Milton Friedman, where they represented opposing sides: Paul Samuelson, as a self described "Cafeteria Keynesian", claimed taking the Keynesian perspective but only accepting what he felt was good in it.

Paul Samuelson was born in Gary, Indiana, on May 15,1915, to Frank Paul Samuelson, a pharmacist, and Ella nee Lipton.

In 1923, Paul Samuelson moved to Chicago where he graduated from Hyde Park High School.

Paul Samuelson then studied at the University of Chicago and received his Bachelor of Arts degree there in 1935.

Paul Samuelson said he was born as an economist, at 8.00am on January 2,1932, in the University of Chicago classroom.

Paul Samuelson felt there was a dissonance between neoclassical economics and the way the system seemed to behave; he said Henry Simons and Frank Knight were a big influence on him.

Paul Samuelson next completed his Master of Arts degree in 1936, and his Doctor of Philosophy in 1941 at Harvard University.

Paul Samuelson won the David A Wells prize in 1941 for writing the best doctoral dissertation at Harvard University in economics, for a thesis titled "Foundations of Analytical Economics", which later turned into Foundations of Economic Analysis.

Paul Samuelson moved to MIT as an assistant professor in 1940 and remained there until his death.

Paul Samuelson's family included many well-known economists, including brother Robert Summers, sister-in-law Anita Summers, brother-in-law Kenneth Arrow and nephew Larry Summers.

Paul Samuelson died after a brief illness on December 13,2009, at the age of 94.

Paul Samuelson's death was announced by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Susan Hockfield, the president of MIT, said that Paul Samuelson "transformed everything he touched: the theoretical foundations of his field, the way economics was taught around the world, the ethos and stature of his department, the investment practices of MIT, and the lives of his colleagues and students".

Paul Samuelson is considered one of the founders of neo-Keynesian economics and a seminal figure in the development of neoclassical economics.

Paul Samuelson has simply rewritten considerable parts of economic theory.

Paul Samuelson has shown the fundamental unity of both the problems and analytical techniques in economics, partly by a systematic application of the methodology of maximization for a broad set of problems.

Paul Samuelson was essential in creating the neoclassical synthesis, which ostensibly incorporated Keynesian and neoclassical principles and still dominates current mainstream economics.

One article included Paul Samuelson's most quoted remark and a favorite economics joke:.

Paul Samuelson was influential in providing explanations on how the changes in certain factors can affect an economic system.

Paul Samuelson's book was the second to introduce Keynesian economics to a wide audience, and was by far the most successful.

Paul Samuelson's textbook was a watershed in introducing a serious study of business cycles in the economics curriculum.