Paul Samuelson was born on May 15, 1915 in Gary, Indiana, the son of Ella Lipton and Frank Samuelson. His family relocated to Chicago when he was a year old and was raised there. When he was a young boy, his family moved to California and he attended school in Berkeley.
Paul Samuelson developed an early interest in mathematics, which was sparked by a visit from his grandfather, who was a professor of mathematics. He was also inspired by the books he read by Ludwig Wittgenstein, Bertrand Russell, W.V.O. Quine, and Stephen Toulmin, who would later become his teacher and mentor.
In 1933, Paul Samuelson graduated high school valedictorian, an achievement which earned him a scholarship to attend the University of Chicago. He completed his undergraduate studies in economics there before going on to Harvard in 1936 to do graduate work. At Harvard he studied mathematical economics under Joseph Schumpeter, Kenneth Arrow, and Wassily Leontief.
In 1941 Samuelson wrote the groundbreaking paper Foundations of Economic Analysis, which provided the foundation for modern microeconomics. He also co-authored the paper The Demand for Money,” where he and Paul Krugman found that the demand for holding money depends on the rate of return that can be earned by investing it. This work earned Samuelson the first ever John Bates Clark Medal, and also the Nobel Prize for Economics.
After Harvard, Paul Samuelson began a lifelong career of teaching and lecturing, first at the University of Chicago and then in 1945 at MIT. During his time at MIT, he wrote the book Foundations of Economic Analysis, which became the foundation for modern economic theory. He also wrote Economics: An Introductory Analysis, which was the most widely-read economics textbook from 1948 until 2004.
Paul Samuelson was a critical part of the postwar recovery in the United States. He served on President Eisenhowers Council of Economic Advisors and was a strong advocate for government intervention in the economy in order to promote full employment and combat inflation. He also served as president of the American Economic Association and as a consultant to the White House on issues of taxation and social security.
Throughout his career, Paul Samuelson was a devoted student of economics whose work changed the way economists viewed the world. His work on price theory, macroeconomic theory and international trade shaped modern economic thinking. He was the first American economist to receive the Nobel Prize and remains the only nominee to have been awarded the prize twice.
Paul Samuelson passed away in 2009 but his legacy lives on. His contributions to economics are still studied and debated to this day and his influence will certainly continue to inspire future generations of economists. He is remembered for his immense contributions to the field, for his mentorship of countless colleagues and students, and for his passionate commitment to economic equality for all.
