When they come to evaluate the significance of Paul Samuelson's contributions to economics, some of the authors included in this anthology choose to adopt a writing style that is quite unusual for academics and serious scholars. They gush. His output, they say, has been “simply breathtaking”, “piercingly witty”, “immortal”, “stunning”, “profound” and more. This kind of eager hyperbole may seem awkward to readers from outside the Economics Department. For everyone else, it is hardly surprising.
This is partly due to selection bias. Just about all the economics we do these days is “Samuelsonian”, and not just in the sense that we use his models and cite his papers. Beyond that, he changed the way economics is done. His Foundations of Economic Analysis (1947) showed how to use mathematical rigour and precision to understand the fundamental elements of economic reasoning, such as rational choice, production, and market equilibrium. The power of this new framework was clear from Samuelson's own research. It was also disseminated by his undergraduate textbook, Economics (1st ed. 1948; 19th ed. 2009), and its many imitators. Hence, the selection bias. Mathematical rigour is not everyone's cup of tea, and there is plenty of room in the social sciences for those with different preferences. Chances are, those who complete an economics degree find it congenial. So, we might think, asking 21 professional economists to evaluate Paul Samuelson is like polling the Board of McDonald's for their views on the Big Mac.
With that caveat in mind, I would suggest that Samuelson is in fact most comparable to the physicist Richard Feynman. Like Feynman, Samuelson operates at a mental level that is far beyond what his colleagues are capable of; he always keeps a clear view of the bigger picture; his explanation of the fundamentals has inspired generations of students; and he writes with style and a sense of humour.
Is it rational, then, to invest in a copy of Samuelsonian Economics and the Twenty‐First Century, given that a reader's limited budget of time and money could also be spent on Samuelson's own work, or on one of the other commentaries and festschrifts devoted to Samuelson's career? The answer is surely yes, on the strength of several outstanding chapters. Edmund Phelps's contribution explores how to incorporate speculative optimism in a neoclassical theory of the macroeconomy. Robert Solow and Laurence Kotlikoff offer intuitive explanations of one of Samuelson's most influential contributions, the model of overlapping generations, which has been applied to the study of pensions, asset pricing, and market frictions. Hal Varian takes us on a personal tour of revealed preference, a theory which seems at first glance like a relic of Skinnerian behaviourism, but which has in fact inspired a rich variety of research. Robert Merton explains the fundamental concepts of financial economics. William Nordhaus's chapter gives a stylish and thought‐provoking analysis of worldwide public goods. And, on a historical note, there is a fascinating essay by Lawrence Klein on the meaning of Keynesianism in the post‐war USA. Though technical at times, all these chapters are engaging and authoritative. The reader can understand why researchers would find these topics fascinating, and specialists in those areas could well gain valuable insights from the authors' personal comments.
Overall, the book's selection of topics is suitably broad, reflecting Samuelson's own interests. (Accordingly, though, it does not cover the neoclassical theories of pricing, industrial organisation and managerial behaviour, about which Samuelson himself said relatively little.) However, the title of the book seems unbalanced, because its contributors say a great deal about Samuelsonian economics, and almost nothing about the twenty‐first century. This implicitly suggests an optimism about the future of the discipline, in which economists continue to elaborate on the work programme that Samuelson outlined more than 60 years ago. Despite the world's recent experience of financial catastrophe and economic recession, there is every reason to believe that this kind of optimism is justified. As this book itself illustrates, Samuelson's legacy is in fine shape.
The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of the Reserve Bank of Australia.
