Creating Modern Economics

Abstract The concluding chapter of the book assesses Paul Samuelson’s role in creating modern economics against the background of broader changes in the field. This appraisal considers not only his well-known mathematical economics and his defense of such methods, but also his political economy, as he called it. It seeks to assess both how Samuelson helped shape the way economic theory developed and to identify ways in which the field evolved in ways different from those he supported. The chapter concludes by assessing Samuelson’s role in shaping modern economics in relation to his teacher, Joseph Schumpeter, and the eminent British economist of the late nineteenth century, Alfred Marshall.