美
國首位諾貝爾經濟學獎得主保羅•薩繆爾森(Paul A. Samuelson)週日去世﹐享年94歲。薩繆爾森的分析著作奠定了現代經濟學的基礎﹐他的教科書是大學流傳最廣的教材之一。用美聯儲主席貝南克(Ben Bernanke)的話講﹐薩繆爾森是經濟學界最偉大的教師之一﹐是經濟學巨匠。
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美國前總統克林頓幫助薩繆爾森（左）佩戴1996年國家科學獎章
薩 繆爾森在20世紀著作甚豐﹐他的經濟學職業延續了長達80年。1932年還在上高中時﹐他聽了一堂芝加哥大學的經濟學課程﹐並深受吸引。但他在今年初接受 《華爾街日報》採訪時說﹐當他在大蕭條時期就讀芝加哥大學時﹐他才真正意識到課堂上教授的內容與在街頭巷尾的所見所聞之間的差異。
不顧芝 加哥大學教授的反對﹐1935年薩繆爾森到哈佛大學就讀研究生。1941年﹐他的博士論文論述了經濟學下的數學結構﹐這就是後來出版的《經濟分析基 礎》(Foundations of Economic Analysis)。這種做法在經濟學領域具有革命性的意義﹐時至今日﹐經濟學家仍常常借助數學手段證明他們的理論。
普林斯頓大學經濟學家迪克西特(Avinash Dixit)說﹐對我來說﹐這是一個巨大的損失。我的整體研究風格﹐以及支持我的幾乎全部論文的技術都來自於他的基礎性文章。
薩 繆爾森1940年開始在麻省理工學院授課﹐這是他與該大學終生聯繫在一起的開始﹐也讓這所大學的經濟學系成為了全球最受尊崇的學科。1948年﹐他編寫的 教科書《經濟學》首次出版﹐多年來都是最為廣泛使用的大學教科書﹐他的分析方法也成為了本科課程的標準。這本書還將凱恩斯(John Maynard Keynes)的著作引入到了大學的課程中。這本書現在已經是第19版﹐仍然深受歡迎。貝南克在其美聯儲辦公室的書架上就放著一本薩繆爾森簽名的《經濟 學》。
麻省理工學院經濟學家、美國國家經濟研究局主席波特伯(James Poterba)記得高中時就看過薩繆爾森的教科書。他說﹐每個大學生都從中學到了很多﹐我們都理所當然地認為薩繆爾森在編纂和發掘方面絕對發揮了關鍵作 用。這就好比是想象人們在牛頓之前是如何處理力學問題的。
1970年﹐薩繆爾森在設立諾貝爾經濟學家的第二年就獲此殊榮﹐他也是美國的第一位諾貝爾經濟學獎得主。諾貝爾獎委員會寫道﹐與其他當代的經濟學家不同﹐薩繆爾森的貢獻推動了經濟學總體分析和方法論水平的提高。實際上他是改寫了相當一部分經濟理論。
薩繆爾森一直是民主黨人﹐他曾擔任肯尼迪和約翰遜總統的顧問﹐但他拒絕在政府中擔任官職。
薩繆爾森出身於一個著名經濟學家家庭﹐包括弟弟羅伯特•薩默斯(Robert Summers)、弟媳阿妮塔•薩默斯(Anita Summers)和侄子勞倫斯•薩默斯(Lawrence Summers)。
擔任奧巴馬總統國家經濟委員會主任的勞倫斯•薩默斯週日說﹐除此之外﹐薩繆爾森還是一名學者。他過去曾經驕傲地說﹐他從來沒有在華盛頓度過一週以上。但是﹐通過他的研究、教學和寫作﹐他對美國乃至全球的經濟生活產生了比任何政府官員和許多總統更大的影響。
薩 繆爾森今年3月在接受《華爾街日報》採訪時談到了努力平息金融危機的那些人。他說﹐當年的典型權威可能是25年前我在麻省理工學院時的學生。我對貝南克非 常敬佩。但出生於1956年的他可能對金融危機沒有多少感覺。他說﹐如果你是上世紀50年代以後出生的﹐你骨子裡不會真正有大蕭條的感覺。作為麻省理工學 院的聰明學生也不能替代這點。
事實上﹐麻省理工大學的博士主導著這個專業﹐在政府中佔據很多高級職位﹐包括貝南克和經濟顧問委員會主席克里斯蒂娜•羅默(Christina Romer)。
Justin Lahart / Jon Hilsenrath
Paul A. Samuelson, whose analytical work laid the foundation for modern economics, died Sunday. He was 94.
Mr. Samuelson, the first American to win the Nobel Prize in economics and the author of one of the most-ubiquitous college textbooks ever, was 'one of the greatest teachers that economics has ever known' and 'a titan of economics,' according to Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke.
'Paul Samuelson was both a pathbreaking and prolific economic theorist,' said Mr. Bernanke, a former student of Mr. Samuelson's at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Actively publishing into the 2000s, Mr. Samuelson's career in economics spanned eight decades. As a high school student in 1932, he wandered into an economics lecture at the University of Chicago and was enamored. But attending Chicago as an undergraduate during the Great Depression, he became acutely aware, he said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal earlier this year, of the differences between what was being taught in the classroom and 'what I heard out the windows and I heard from the street.'
In 1935 he went, despite his Chicago professors' protestations, to Harvard University for his graduate work. His 1941 PhD thesis, later published as 'Foundations of Economic Analysis,' examined the mathematical structure underlying economics. The approach revolutionized the field, to the point where economists today are often consumed with finding mathematical proofs for their theories.
'For me, it is a special bereavement,' said Princeton University economist Avinash Dixit. 'My whole style of research, and the techniques that support almost all of my own papers, derive from his foundational articles.'
Mr. Samuelson started teaching at MIT in 1940, the beginning of a lifelong association with the university that helped its economics program become the most highly-regarded in the world. Through his 'Economics' textbook, first published in 1948 and for years the most widely used college textbook on any topic, his analytical approach became the standard for undergraduate courses. It also introduced the work of John Maynard Keynes into the college curriculum. Now in its 19th edition, it is still popular. Mr. Bernanke keeps a copy signed by Mr. Samuelson on the shelves in his office at the Fed.
'There's just an enormous amount of what every undergraduate learns that we take for granted that Paul played an absolutely critical role in codifying and uncovering,' said MIT economist and National Bureau of Economic Research president James Poterba, who remembers carrying around Mr. Samuelson's textbook as a high school student. 'It's like trying to envision how did people do mechanics before Newton.'
In 1970, Mr. Samuelson was the first American to win the Nobel Prize in economics, the second year the prize was offered. 'Samuelson's contribution has been that, more than any other contemporary economist, he has contributed to raising the general analytical and methodological level in economic science,' wrote the Nobel prize committee. 'He has in fact simply rewritten considerable parts of economic theory.'
Mr. Samuelson, a lifelong Democrat, acted as an adviser to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, though he refused to take an official position in government.
Mr. Samuelson hailed from a family of well-known economists, including brother Robert Summers, sister-in-law Anita Summers and nephew Lawrence Summers.
'Above all else, Paul Samuelson was a scholar,' Lawrence Summers, who runs President Obama's National Economic Council, said Sunday. 'He used to proudly remark that he had never spent a full week in Washington. But through his research, teaching, and writing he had more impact on the economic life of this country and the world than any government economic official and many presidents.'
Mr. Samuelson, in a March interview with The Wall Street Journal, took aim at those trying to quell the financial crisis. 'The typical pundit today would be somebody who might have been my student at MIT 25 years ago. I have great admiration for Ben Bernanke. But having been born in 1956 he did not have a feel for what it was like. If you were born after 1950, you really don't have the feel of that Great Depression in your bones,' he said. 'Being a bright boy at MIT, it's not really a substitute for that.'
Indeed, MIT PhDs now dominate the profession and hold many high positions in government, including Mr. Bernanke and Christina Romer, chair of the Council of Economic Advisers.
Justin Lahart / Jon Hilsenrath
2009年12月14日09:42
Economist Paul A. Samuelson Dies At 94
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