The First Serious Optimist : A. C. Pigou and the Birth of Welfare Economics - Ian Kumekawa

The First Serious Optimist

A. C. Pigou and the Birth of Welfare Economics

By: Ian Kumekawa

Hardcover | 6 June 2017

At a Glance

Hardcover


$76.75

or 4 interest-free payments of $19.19 with

 or 

Aims to ship in 15 to 25 business days

When will this arrive by?
Enter delivery postcode to estimate

A groundbreaking intellectual biography of one of the twentieth century's most influential economists

The First Serious Optimist 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. Drawing from a wealth of archival sources, Ian Kumekawa 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 not just of Pigou but also of twentieth-century economics, The First Serious Optimist 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.

Industry Reviews
"[A] fascinating intellectual biography . . . . it is very well researched and the result is a truly enjoyable read."---Maxime Desmarais-Tremblay, History of Economics Ideas
"Co-Winner of the 2018 Joseph J. Spengler Best Book Prize, History of Economics Society"
"[A] graceful and elegantly structured new intellectual biography."---Duncan Kelly, Times Literary Supplement
"[This book] should be required reading for every economist who has an interest in public economics and public choice economics. . . . It will reaffirm the reader's faith in the value of intellectual history and of the value of archival historical research. I cannot recommend this book highly enough."---Peter J. Boettke, Public Choice
"Through his biographical and historical study of Pigou and his work, Kumekawa shows us how the Cambridge professor bound ethics and economics together, and did so in a way that intersected with the social changes, spurred by the rise of the Labor Party, that were taking place around him." * Choice *

More in Economics

We Should Be So Lucky : Why the Australian Way Works - Andrew Low
The Bookseller at the End of the World - Ruth Shaw
The Trading Game : A Confession - Gary Stevenson

RRP $36.99

$33.25

10%
OFF
Technofeudalism : What Killed Capitalism - Yanis Varoufakis

RRP $24.99

$23.75

Humankind : A Hopeful History - Rutger Bregman

RRP $24.99

$23.75

The Road to Freedom : Economics and the Good Society - Joseph Stiglitz
The Changing World Order : Why Nations Succeed or Fail - Ray Dalio
Equality : What It Means and Why It Matters - Thomas Piketty