Foundations of Economic Analysis is a book by Paul A. Samuelson published in 1947 (Enlarged ed., 1983) by Harvard University Press. It is based on Samuelson's 1941 doctoral dissertation at Harvard University. The book sought to demonstrate a common mathematical structure underlying multiple branches of economics from two basic principles: maximizing behavior of agents (such as of utility by consumers and profits by firms) and stability of equilibrium as to economic systems (such as markets or economies). Among other contributions, it advanced the theory of index numbers and generalized welfare economics. It is especially known for definitively stating and formalizing qualitative and quantitative versions of the "comparative statics" method for calculating how a change in any parameter (say, a change in tax rates) affects an economic system. One of its key insights about comparative statics, called the correspondence principle, states that stability of equilibrium implies testable predictions about how the equilibrium changes when parameters are changed.
The front page quotes the motto of J. Willard Gibbs: "Mathematics is a language." The book begins with this statement:
The existence of analogies between central features of various theories implies the existence of a general theory which underlies the particular theories and unifies them with respect to those central features. This fundamental principle of generalization by abstraction was enunciated by the eminent American mathematician E. H. Moore more than thirty years ago. It is the purpose of the pages that follow to work out its implications for theoretical and applied economics.
Its other stated purpose (p. 3) is to show how operationally meaningful theorems can be described with a small number of analogous methods. Thus, "a general theory of economic theories" (1983, p. xxvi).
The body of the book is 353 pages. Topics and applications covered (all in terms of theory) include the following.
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Kenneth Arrow's monograph Social Choice and Individual Values (1951, 2nd ed., 1963, 3rd ed., 2012) and a theorem within it created modern social choice theory, a rigorous melding of social ethics and voting theory with an economic flavor. Somewhat formally, the "social choice" in the title refers to Arrow's representation of how social values from the set of individual orderings would be implemented under the constitution.
La justice économique est un principe d'équité dans la redistribution des bénéfices économiques résultant de politiques officielles. À la croisée des champs de l'éthique et de l'économie, les réflexions sur ses modalités impliquent au début du philosophes et bon nombre d'économistes majeurs, dont Arthur Cecil Pigou, John Hicks, Nicholas Kaldor, Paul Samuelson, Kenneth Arrow, d'autres refusant toutefois que l'économie puisse avoir un contenu « normatif ».
Léconomie normative (par opposition à l'économie positive) est une partie de la science économique qui étudie les valeurs et les jugements normatifs. Elle s'intéresse aux problématiques de la justice et de l'équité dans les domaines économiques, et notamment à ce que l'organisation économique elle même, et les objectifs de la politique publique, devraient être. Les économistes préfèrent distinguer l'économie normative ( dans les questions économiques) de l'économie positive ().
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