Books

First edition, first printing, with a loosely inserted slip signed by Samuelson at MIT in 1979, and formerly belonging to Ragnar Nurkse (1907-2007), a key founder of development economics, with his ink signature on the front free endpaper. In 1947, Nurkse had just joined Columbia University as an associate professor of economics. Interestingly, Samuelson does not appear to have been sympathetic to development economics, warning in 2004 that continued economic integration of global markets would damage high-wage jobs in more highly developed countries. Foundations is the Nobel Prize-winning economist's first book, which established mathematics as the foundation of economics, rather than an addendum. It is based on Samuelson's doctoral dissertation at Harvard. "Regarded by most economists as providing the mathematical foundations for contemporary economics... more than anyone else he bears responsibility for the mathematical bent of economics in the late 20th century" (Pressman, pp. 162-3). Samuelson demonstrates that the common mathematical structure underlying multiple branches of economics is based on a set of basic principles: the optimizing behaviour of agents and the stability of equilibrium for economic systems. Octavo. Original red cloth, spine lettered and with publisher's device in gilt, covers panelled in blind. Tables, graphs, and formulas in the text. Short pencil annotation on p. x. Cloth bright, minimal bumping and rubbing, faint toning to spine, minor browning and foxing to outer leaves: a very good copy indeed. Fundaburk 2039; Mattioli 3186. Steven Pressman, Fifty Major Economists, 1999.

Foundations of Economic Analysis is a book by Paul Anthony Samuelson published in 1947. It is a work that laid the foundation for modern economics, introducing many novel concepts and mathematical approaches to economic theory.