Samuelson, Paul Anthony

Foundations of Economic Analysis [Harvard Economic Studies, No. 80]

Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1948.

Hardcover. Near fine in a very good dust jacket. Second printing of the original 1947 edition. xii, 447pp. Cloth at head of spine creased, signature on front free endpaper, else fine in a very good dust jacket with small chips at corners and spine ends, mild toning. Overall, a handsome copy. Although often mistakenly referred to as the “Second Edition,” the 1948 offered here is not a textual second edition (i.e., there are no changes to the text save for the 1948 date on the title page, and the words “Second Printing” on both the copyright page and the front flap of the dust jacket). This highly influential book, which was based on Samuelson’s doctoral thesis, “provided a toolbox of techniques that were to become standard in postwar economics. In particular, it established the importance of deriving comparative statics results—what happens to an equilibrium when something changes—and provided methods for doing this. A recurring theme in the book was the need for economic theories to be ‘operational’—to have testable implications” (ANB). Provenance: On the front free endpaper is the prior owner name R.W. Oliver, most likely Robert W. Oliver (1922-1998), who earned his PhD in economics at Princeton in 1957, was a Professor of Economics at Caltech from 1959-1988,and worked as an economist at the World Bank.

Item #24102

Price: $550.00