''Economics'' is an introductory textbook by American economists

Paul Samuelson Paul Anthony Samuelson (May 15, 1915 – December 13, 2009) was an American economist who was the first American to win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. When awarding the prize in 1970, the Swedish Royal Academies stated that he "h ...

and William Nordhaus. The textbook was first published in 1948, and has appeared in nineteen different editions, the most recent in 2009. It was the best selling

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analy ...

textbook for many decades and still remains popular, selling over 300,000 copies of each edition from 1961 through 1976. The book has been translated into forty-one languages and in total has sold over four million copies. ''Economics'' was written entirely by Samuelson until the 12th edition (2001). Newer editions have been revised with others, including Nordhaus for the 17th edition (2001) and afterwards.

Influence

''Economics'' has been called a "canonical textbook", and the development of mainstream economic thought has been traced by comparing the fourteen editions under Samuelson's editing. ''Economics'' coined the term "

neoclassical synthesis The neoclassical synthesis (NCS), neoclassical–Keynesian synthesis, or just neo-Keynesianism was a neoclassical economics academic movement and paradigm in economics that worked towards reconciling the macroeconomic thought of John Maynard Ke ...

" and popularized the concept, bringing a mix of

neoclassical economics Neoclassical economics is an approach to economics in which the production, consumption and valuation (pricing) of goods and services are observed as driven by the supply and demand model. According to this line of thought, the value of a good ...

and

Keynesian economics Keynesian economics ( ; sometimes Keynesianism, named after British economist John Maynard Keynes) are the various macroeconomic theories and models of how aggregate demand (total spending in the economy) strongly influences economic output ...

and helping make this the leading school in mainstream economics in the United States and globally in the second half of the 20th century. It popularized the term '' paradox of thrift,'' and attributed the concept to Keynes, though Keynes himself attributed it to earlier authors, and forms of the concept date to antiquity. The 1958 text introduced a "family tree of economics", which by the 20th century consisted of only two groupings, "socialism", listing

Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

and

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...

, and the "neo-classical synthesis", listing Marshall and Keynes. This paralleled the then-extant Cold War economies of Soviet

communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society ...

and American

capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, private ...

. This advanced a simplified view of the vying

schools of economic thought In the history of economic thought, a school of economic thought is a group of economic thinkers who share or shared a common perspective on the way economies work. While economists do not always fit into particular schools, particularly in modern ...

, subsuming schools which considered themselves distinct, and today many within and without economics equate "economics" with "neo-classical economics", following Samuelson. Later editions provided expanded coverage of other schools, such as the

Austrian school The Austrian School is a heterodox school of economic thought that advocates strict adherence to methodological individualism, the concept that social phenomena result exclusively from the motivations and actions of individuals. Austrian scho ...

, Institutionalism, and

Marxian economics Marxian economics, or the Marxian school of economics, is a heterodox school of political economic thought. Its foundations can be traced back to Karl Marx's critique of political economy. However, unlike critics of political economy, Marxian e ...

Reception

''Economics'' was the second Keynesian textbook in the United States, following the 1947 ''The Elements of Economics,'' by

Lorie Tarshis Lorie Tarshis (22 March 1911 – 4 October 1993) was a Canadian economist who taught mostly at Stanford University. He is credited with writing the first introductory textbook that brought Keynesian thinking into American university classrooms, ...

. Like Tarshis's work, ''Economics'' was attacked by

American conservatives Conservatism in the United States is a Political philosophy, political and social philosophy based on a belief in limited government, individualism, Tradition, traditionalism, Republicanism in the United States, republicanism, and limited ...

(as part of the Second Red Scare, or

McCarthyism McCarthyism is the practice of making false or unfounded accusations of subversion and treason, especially when related to anarchism, communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left so ...

), universities that adopted it were subject to "conservative business pressuring", and Samuelson was accused of

Communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society ...

. Nonetheless, ''Economics'' proved successful and remained widely adopted. The success of Samuelson's text, compared with Tarshis's, which was subject to more "virulen attacks, is attributed to various factors, notably Samuelson's dispassionate, scientific style, in contrast to Tarshis's more engaged style, and subsequent texts have followed Samuelson's style. Accusations by conservatives of communist sympathies in ''Economics'' continued into the 1980s.

Influence

Reception

See also

References

Further reading