TY  - BOOK
AU  - Kumekawa,Ian
TI  - The First Serious Optimist: A. C. Pigou and the Birth of Welfare Economics 
SN  - 9780691163482
AV  - HB103.P54 K86 2018
U1  - 330.1556092 23
PY  - 2017///]
CY  - Princeton, NJ : 
PB  - Princeton University Press, 
KW  - Economics
KW  - History
KW  - Economists
KW  - Great Britain
KW  - Welfare economics
KW  - BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Economic History
KW  - bisacsh
KW  - A Study in Public Finance
KW  - A. C. Pigou
KW  - Alfred Marshall
KW  - Arthur Cecil Pigou
KW  - Austin Robinson
KW  - British economist
KW  - Cambridge
KW  - Clarence Pigou
KW  - Great Depression
KW  - Industrial Fluctuations
KW  - John Maynard Keynes
KW  - Labour Party
KW  - Nora Lees
KW  - Oscar Browning
KW  - Philip Noel-Baker
KW  - The General Theory
KW  - Wealth and Welfare
KW  - World War I
KW  - World War II
KW  - academic economics
KW  - academic journals
KW  - atrocity
KW  - bureaucracy
KW  - carbon taxes
KW  - climate crisis
KW  - common people
KW  - death
KW  - disillusionment
KW  - economic ideas
KW  - economic science
KW  - economics journals
KW  - economics
KW  - ethics
KW  - government
KW  - historical reformer
KW  - influence
KW  - interwar period
KW  - legacy
KW  - liberalism
KW  - morals
KW  - objectivity
KW  - optimism
KW  - optimist
KW  - political advocacy
KW  - political economy
KW  - political involvement
KW  - politics
KW  - pollution
KW  - public welfare
KW  - retirement
KW  - science
KW  - social reform
KW  - societal wellbeing
KW  - state action
KW  - state apparatus
KW  - welfare economics
N1  - Frontmatter --; Contents --; Acknowledgments --; Introduction. History and Economics --; Chapter 1. Beginnings --; Chapter 2. Ethics, Politics, and Science --; Chapter 3. Bearing Fruit as Well as Light --; Chapter 4. War, Peace, and Disillusionment --; Chapter 5. Retreat to the Ivory Tower --; Chapter 6. Paradigms Lost --; Chapter 7. Another War and a Fresh Start --; Chapter 8. To "Really Do a Little Good" --; Epilogue --; Notes --; Bibliography --; Index; restricted access; Issued also in print
N2  - A groundbreaking intellectual biography of one of the twentieth century's most influential economistsThe 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
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400885206?locatt=mode:legacy
UR  - https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9781400885206
UR  - https://www.degruyter.com/cover/covers/9781400885206.jpg
ER  -