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Beyond Samuelson's chapter on Ramsey

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  • Pedro Garcia Duarte

    (University of São Paulo (FEA-USP) - Department of Economics)

Abstract

Paul Anthony Samuelson proposed and practiced a program for the Whig history of economics. One such example is his account of Frank Ramsey’s contribution to optimal taxation in 1927. For him, and mainly for the public finance economists who rediscovered later Ramsey’s contribution, Ramsey was a genius ahead of his time who used a mathematics too advanced for his contemporaries and was thus rediscovered only in the 1970s, when economists became more mathematically literate. In such rediscovery, a memorandum that Samuelsom wrote in 1951 for the us Treasury became central. I examine Samuelson’s account and challenge it in some respects and explore the historical context of the emergence of the optimal taxation literature in the 1970s. Additional, I analyze the canonization of Ramsey in this field, stressing Samuelson’s role in this process as a professor who liked telling stories about economists, especially about Ramsey, to his graduate students.

Suggested Citation

  • Pedro Garcia Duarte, 2010. "Beyond Samuelson's chapter on Ramsey," History of Economic Ideas, Fabrizio Serra Editore, Pisa - Roma, vol. 18(3), pages 121-160.
    • Handle: RePEc:hid:journl:v:18:y:2010:3:6:p:121-160
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    Cited by:

    1. Pedro Garcia Duarte & Kevin D. Hoover, 2012. "Observing Shocks," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 44(5), pages 226-249, Supplemen.
    2. Francis E. Raymond, 2024. "Connecting Classical and Early Neoclassical Views on Savings and Capital Formation to Modern Growth Theory Through the Lens of F. P. Ramsey," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 50(1), pages 54-78, January.
    3. Pedro Garcia Duarte, 2014. "Frank Ramsey," Working Papers, Department of Economics 2014_17, University of São Paulo (FEA-USP).

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