Ian Kumekawa
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780691163482
- eISBN:
- 9781400885206
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691163482.001.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
This book is an intellectual biography of the British economist A. C. Pigou (1877–1959), a founder of welfare economics and one of the twentieth century's most important and original thinkers. Though ...
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This book is an intellectual biography of the British economist A. C. Pigou (1877–1959), a founder of welfare economics and one of the twentieth century's most important and original thinkers. Though long overshadowed by his intellectual rival John Maynard Keynes, Pigou was instrumental in focusing economics on the public welfare. And his reputation is experiencing a renaissance today, in part because his idea of “externalities” or spillover costs is the basis of carbon taxes. The book tells how Pigou reshaped the way the public thinks about the economic role of government and the way economists think about the public good. Setting Pigou's ideas in their personal, political, social, and ethical context, the book follows him as he evolved from a liberal Edwardian bon vivant to a reserved but reform-minded economics professor. With World War I, Pigou entered government service, but soon became disenchanted with the state he encountered. As his ideas were challenged in the interwar period, he found himself increasingly alienated from his profession. But with the rise of the Labour Party following World War II, the elderly Pigou re-embraced a mind-set that inspired a colleague to describe him as “the first serious optimist.” The story is not just of Pigou but also of twentieth-century economics, the book explores the biographical and historical origins of some of the most important economic ideas of the past hundred years. It is a timely reminder of the ethical roots of economics and the discipline's long history as an active intermediary between the state and the market.Less
This book is an intellectual biography of the British economist A. C. Pigou (1877–1959), a founder of welfare economics and one of the twentieth century's most important and original thinkers. Though long overshadowed by his intellectual rival John Maynard Keynes, Pigou was instrumental in focusing economics on the public welfare. And his reputation is experiencing a renaissance today, in part because his idea of “externalities” or spillover costs is the basis of carbon taxes. The book tells how Pigou reshaped the way the public thinks about the economic role of government and the way economists think about the public good. Setting Pigou's ideas in their personal, political, social, and ethical context, the book follows him as he evolved from a liberal Edwardian bon vivant to a reserved but reform-minded economics professor. With World War I, Pigou entered government service, but soon became disenchanted with the state he encountered. As his ideas were challenged in the interwar period, he found himself increasingly alienated from his profession. But with the rise of the Labour Party following World War II, the elderly Pigou re-embraced a mind-set that inspired a colleague to describe him as “the first serious optimist.” The story is not just of Pigou but also of twentieth-century economics, the book explores the biographical and historical origins of some of the most important economic ideas of the past hundred years. It is a timely reminder of the ethical roots of economics and the discipline's long history as an active intermediary between the state and the market.
Ian Kumekawa
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780691163482
- eISBN:
- 9781400885206
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691163482.003.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
This introductory chapter takes a brief look into the life and career of Arthur Cecil Pigou, as an economist and as a historical figure. Pigou lived through at least two periods of radical transition ...
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This introductory chapter takes a brief look into the life and career of Arthur Cecil Pigou, as an economist and as a historical figure. Pigou lived through at least two periods of radical transition in the economic discipline. During the first, in the early 1900s, he was a pioneer, a new breed of economist who helped usher out the age of political economy and usher in that of economic science. As this new discipline spread throughout Britain, Europe, and the United States, Pigou's work was adopted as part of the new orthodoxy of economic thought that increasingly was leveraged by national governments. But in the subsequent period of transformation in the 1930s, Pigou found himself in an entirely different position. During this time, though he was an established “giant” of his field, the contours of his discipline were swiftly becoming unfamiliar to him.Less
This introductory chapter takes a brief look into the life and career of Arthur Cecil Pigou, as an economist and as a historical figure. Pigou lived through at least two periods of radical transition in the economic discipline. During the first, in the early 1900s, he was a pioneer, a new breed of economist who helped usher out the age of political economy and usher in that of economic science. As this new discipline spread throughout Britain, Europe, and the United States, Pigou's work was adopted as part of the new orthodoxy of economic thought that increasingly was leveraged by national governments. But in the subsequent period of transformation in the 1930s, Pigou found himself in an entirely different position. During this time, though he was an established “giant” of his field, the contours of his discipline were swiftly becoming unfamiliar to him.
Ian Kumekawa
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780691163482
- eISBN:
- 9781400885206
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691163482.003.0010
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
This concluding chapter covers Pigou's death in 1959 as well as his legacy. Today, Pigou's ideas seem more germane than ever, and a renewed understanding of his influence is coming into clearer ...
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This concluding chapter covers Pigou's death in 1959 as well as his legacy. Today, Pigou's ideas seem more germane than ever, and a renewed understanding of his influence is coming into clearer focus. In an age beset by increasingly arresting predictions of climate change, the external effects of the normal operation of the economy have never been more headlined. For it is widely recognized that the ramifications of pollution extend far beyond those “occupying neighbouring properties.” In this way, much of the world has awakened to the fact that it is, and has been for some time, in a post-Pigovian age.Less
This concluding chapter covers Pigou's death in 1959 as well as his legacy. Today, Pigou's ideas seem more germane than ever, and a renewed understanding of his influence is coming into clearer focus. In an age beset by increasingly arresting predictions of climate change, the external effects of the normal operation of the economy have never been more headlined. For it is widely recognized that the ramifications of pollution extend far beyond those “occupying neighbouring properties.” In this way, much of the world has awakened to the fact that it is, and has been for some time, in a post-Pigovian age.
John Eatwell and Murray Milgate
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- April 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199777693
- eISBN:
- 9780190261344
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199777693.003.0018
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Macro- and Monetary Economics
This chapter covers the exchanges of comments and criticisms that passed between John Maynard Keynes and A. C. Pigou on practical matters of economic policy and the theory of money and employment. It ...
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This chapter covers the exchanges of comments and criticisms that passed between John Maynard Keynes and A. C. Pigou on practical matters of economic policy and the theory of money and employment. It focuses on the controversy between Keynes and Pigou in the interwar years, which includes the period leading up to Britain’s return to the gold standard in 1925 and the era of the Treatise on Money. The chapter concludes with a description of Keynes’s reactions to Pigou’s Theory of Unemployment and Pigou’s reactions to the General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money.Less
This chapter covers the exchanges of comments and criticisms that passed between John Maynard Keynes and A. C. Pigou on practical matters of economic policy and the theory of money and employment. It focuses on the controversy between Keynes and Pigou in the interwar years, which includes the period leading up to Britain’s return to the gold standard in 1925 and the era of the Treatise on Money. The chapter concludes with a description of Keynes’s reactions to Pigou’s Theory of Unemployment and Pigou’s reactions to the General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money.
