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Chapter 92 The Encyclopedia of Western Economics

Chapter 91 The Encyclopedia of Western Economics: "Economics"

The book "Economics" involves all fields of western economics, such as western economic theory, finance, accounting, economics, etc.

Statistics, money and bank credit, econometrics, development economics, international trade, etc.Due to the improvement of economic theory

Samuelson won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1970 for his outstanding contributions to the level of scientific analysis.

No. 1 of the prize.

Studying Western Economics and Establishing a New Theoretical System

Paul Samuelson is a famous American economist and the main representative of neoclassical comprehensive economics.He was originally from Poland,

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Born in Gary, Indiana, USA in 15, graduated from the Economics Department of the University of Chicago in 1935, and studied at Harvard University in the same year

, received a master's degree in economics from Harvard University in 1938, a doctorate from Harvard University in 1941, and a post at MIT in 1940

An assistant professor in the Faculty of Economics at the college, he was promoted to professor in 1947 and has since taught at the school.Samuelson

Contributed to improving the level of scientific analysis of economic theory

outstanding contribution. Winning the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1970, Samuelson was an American Keynesian who put his

Economics calls it "neoclassical synthesis" or "post-Keynesian mainstream economics".

Samuelson's Economics is a history in itself, from its first edition in 1948 to the end of the 1th century

There are nearly 50 editions.

The content of the book "Economics" is all-encompassing. Here, the most worthwhile introductions are several important economic theories in the book.

In Economics, Samuelson defines the economy as:
"Economics is the study of how people and societies choose to use scarce resources that could have other uses in order to produce various
Commodities and their distribution, now or in the future, to various members or groups of society for consumption. "

According to Samuelson's explanation, three closely related questions can be drawn, in fact, the first question is the question of production purpose
, the second problem is the problem of means of production, and the third problem is the problem of distribution.These three central problems are only quantitative
problems, but not the "quality" of society, that is, problems of social institutions, and not even limited to human
social problems.

Samuelson then proposed a law of scarcity, which is the basic premise and starting point of his economic theory.he thinks if
Resources are unlimited, so what to produce, how to produce and for whom is not an issue.But under any historical conditions, all
The amount of production factors and resources that exist is limited, and the knowledge of technology will also have a certain limit, so only a limited amount can be produced.

limited production.That is to say, due to the limitation of all resources capable of producing various commodities, people must

Choose among relatively scarce commodities.He called this limitation of scarcity the production possibility frontier of society.he makes

Using the analysis method of the neoclassical school, the famous example of cannon and butter is used to illustrate this problem.assumed

Society needs to produce two types of goods: cannons and butter.Under certain conditions of natural resources such as land and water power, using certain

The production means (tools, workshops) and technical knowledge, there is a choice of military items and civilian items.for raw
The more resources and technologies available to produce cannons, the fewer resources and technologies available to produce butter.If more

Butter, you have to drop some cannon.Samuelson called this relationship "the possibility of substitution of factors of production".such a
Therefore, there are different combinations for the production of various products. He called this relationship "production possibility set".economy

Science is to study how people organize production and distribution to maximize production, consumption and enjoyment under the condition of scarcity of resources.
.

In this book, Samuelson puts forward unique insights on Keynesian economics, and combines Keynesian economics with neoclassical
Economics was synthesized, and neoclassical comprehensive economics was created.

Samuelson basically stuck to Keynes' position, arguing that
In any case, modern society cannot go back to the era of liberal capitalism.But he also advocated to follow the neoclassical method

In general, it is believed that the macroeconomics used in the mixed economy can make the microeconomic theory of traditional economics applicable again.

Specifically, he believes that the use of fiscal policy and monetary policy proposed by Keynes can regulate economic activities, so in this theory
The so-called mixed economy on the premise of this theory makes it possible to guarantee full employment, and then the general equilibrium will reappear.In this way, you can
In order to organically combine Keynesian economic theory and neoclassical economic theory.In fact Samuelson's economics
It is the product of the synthesis of these two economic theories.

Keynes pointed out that full employment can be achieved on the basis of the consistency of aggregate supply and aggregate demand.the relationship between them
Yes: aggregate supply = national income = consumption = savings; aggregate demand = consumption + investment; savings = investment; aggregate supply = aggregate demand.

Samuelson in points
When analyzing the consistency of aggregate supply and aggregate demand, the concept of gross national product (GNP) is used, which is the final product of all final products.
The sum of goods, including consumption goods and investment goods.It can also be said to be national income or net national product (NNP) plus depreciation, or GNP
=NNP+Depreciation.

Mixed economic theory is an extremely important content in Samuelson's book, and it is the basic theory of Samuelson's economics
, this theory runs through the book.Regarding the mixed economy, he believes that the mixed economy refers to both market competition and

There is macro-control by the national government, there are both a large number of privately owned economies and the national public economy, and there are both market competition and monopoly
Composite economy of business.

In a reprint of the Economics textbook, on the mixed economy
The concept of system is also extremely uncertain.

In the
In the 12th edition, Samuelson proposed that neither the market economy nor the command economy can summarize the contemporary economy, but only mixed

Only economics can summarize the modern economy represented by the American economy. The modern economy is the implementation of economic control by both private organizations and government agencies.
mixed economy in which private institutions function through the asexual command of market mechanisms and government agencies
The role of the government is achieved through regulatory orders and fiscal policy stimulus.

Regarding the characteristics of the "mixed economic system", Samuelson pointed out that the main characteristics of the mixed economy can be summarized as follows:

Aspects:

First, it emphasizes the economic role of government.Samuelson points to the expanding role of government in modern mixed economies

.This can be reflected in three aspects: the increase in the number of government expenditures; the redistribution of income by the state;

regulate economic life.The economic role of government is very prominent in federal taxation and local finance, Samuelson argues
: Taxes and transfers help determine the distribution of individual income.The end result of taxation is who will share it and its consideration
The aggregate impact of prices and other economic categories.It can be seen that national taxation is one of the important means to regulate economic life.

Second, emphasize the so-called mixture of monopoly and competition.When Keynesianism failed, Samuelson sought to find

As a way out, the merits of the free enterprise system were reintroduced.He reminded people: Everyone senses that the government is controlling the economy
How many things have been done in terms of activities.What is not perceived is how much economic activity continues without government intervention
.Samuelson in the "Economics" textbook, Distribution Theory, he repeated the "marginal product" and "diminishing returns"
concept.He defined "marginal product" as: "The marginal product of a certain factor of production is the
The product or output that is increased by adding one unit of that factor of production, while constant.The marginal product of labor is the
The increase in output by adding one unit of labor while holding goods constant.Likewise, the marginal product of land is the
holding constant, the change in total output caused by adding one unit of land, and so on.law of diminishing returns
, the marginal product has diminishing returns.With these two concepts in hand, Samuelson believed, the fundamental mystery could be solved
up.According to this theory, all factors of production have taken a share of the social product (national product) as a matter of course.

There are capitalists exploiting workers and landlords exploiting peasants, each factor of production has obtained its own income, wages-labor

The marginal product of land rent, the marginal product of land, and so on for other factors of production.Because wages, rent, and profits

Both interest and interest come from the marginal product of each factor of production, so the cost of production is determined by the price of each factor of production,
That is, the marginal income product of labor = the price of labor; the marginal income product of land = the price of land, etc., they are all production costs
An integral part of the cost, which together constitute the cost of production.

In this book, Samuelson basically discusses modern capitalism in accordance with the theory of price determination of production factors in neoclassical economics.
distribution theory.In Marshall's "Principles of Economics", using the prices of factors of production to determine distribution problems, Samuel Senkey

The book follows this traditional theory.Samuelson quotes William Petty, "Labor is the father of the product, land the father of the product.

"Mother", he believes that in most cases, we cannot determine: how much of the material product is produced by various production requirements

Which of the factors alone is responsible.Various factors of production must interact with each other.Because of this, when the product is distributed
At this time, people should assign each factor of production.

An epoch-making masterpiece of economics

The book "Economics" is the culmination of Western economics, and the theoretical system it provides is modern Western economics.

An important stage of development, it has made a great contribution to the development of contemporary Western economics, and to modern Western capitalists.
It provides a very important theoretical and policy basis for righteous economic development.

This work marks a new historical stage in the development of Western economics.Western economics from the neoclassical economy at the end of the 19th century

After the emergence and development of economics, the traditional economic system increasingly showed its deficiencies and defects, especially after the 1929
Economic crisis, traditional economics cannot adapt to the needs of capitalist economic development, so the Keynesian macroeconomic
economic theory.This economic theory played a considerable role in the recovery period of the capitalist economy and became almost immovable.

Shake's official economic theory, however, Keynesian economics also has its own shortcomings, the government intervention in the economy it advocates
Economic policies have also brought many troubles to the economic development of Western countries, especially the government's fiscal deficit is very serious.and"

The book "Economics" advocates the combination of Keynesian macroeconomics and neoclassical economics microeconomics, which can be said

It is an inevitable historical stage in the development of western economics.

The book "Economics" has greatly influenced the development direction and degree of modern western economics.At the same time, this

The practical impact of this book has also been enormous.In the process of economic recovery in Western capitalist countries, this book played a theoretical role
and policy foundation.In short
The book "Economics" is an epoch-making work in the development of modern Western economics and modern capitalist economy.

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