Paul Anthony Samuelson (1915-2009 )

1. Paul Anthony Samuelson is recognized as the father of modern economics. He is the first American economist to win a Nobel Prize in 1970. Samuelson put great effort to raise the level of scientific theory in economics which resulted in the "New York Times" declaring him to be the "foremost academic economist of the 20th century."

2. Samuelson was the first proponent for incorporating mathematics with economics for the logical analysis of economic theories. More than any other economist, Paul Samuelson raised the level of mathematical analysis in the profession. Until the late 1930s, when Samuelson started his stunning and steady stream of articles, economics was typically understood in terms of verbal explanations and diagrammatic models. Samuelson wrote his first published article, “A Note on the Measurement of Utility,” as a twenty-one-year-old doctoral student at Harvard. He introduced the concept of “revealed preference” in a 1938 article. The consumer revealed by choices his or her preferences—hence the term “revealed preferences.”

3. Samuelson’s magnum opus, which did more than any other single book to spread the mathematical revolution in economics, is Foundations of Economic Analysis. Based on his Harvard Ph.D. dissertation, this book used the classical thermodynamic methods of Willard Gibbs to analyze economic theories.

4. He wrote a book titled "Economics: An Introductory Analysis" in 1948, which turned out to be the largest selling text book of Economics. This book has been translated into forty-one languages so far and is in great demand with sales of over four million copies. The book discusses Keynesian economics and principles and explains how to think about economics.

5. He also introduced the concept of the neoclassical synthesis—a synthesis of the old neoclassical microeconomics and the new (in the 1950s) Keynesian macroeconomics. According to Samuelson, government intervention via fiscal and monetary policies is required to achieve full employment. At full employment the market works well, except at providing public goods and handling problems of externalities. James Tobin called the neoclassical synthesis one of Samuelson’s greatest contributions to economics.

6. For his contributions, America honored him with the highest science award, the "National Medal of Science" for his 'fundamental contributions to economic science'. He left behind a great legacy as a researcher, teacher and as a major contributor in the field of economics. Samuelson is among the last generalists incredibly productive in a number of fields in economics. He has contributed fundamental insights in consumer theory and welfare economics, international trade, finance theory, capital theory, dynamics and general equilibrium, and macro-economics.

 

VII. Дайте письменные ответы на следующие вопросы к тексту:

1. What book by Samuelson was revolutionary in the analysis of economic theories?

2. What is the concept of neoclassical synthesis?

3. What are Samuelson’s greatest contributions to economics?

 

 

Вариант 4.

I. Составьте предложения, используя данные слова, переведите предложения на русский язык.

1. in / economy / why / market / competition / exist / a / does / free /?

2. bad / the / of / twentieth / was / a / time / the / for / beginning / century / trade /.

3. monopoly / supply / when / there / and / is / a / the / / not / normal / of / demand / do always / laws / work /.

4. the / have / in / rules / the / WTO / trade / to follow / countries / the / same / all /.

5. truly / there / a / free / in / economy / is / world /anywhere / market / the /?

II. Перепишите предложения, подчеркните глаголы to be и to have, определите их функцию и переведите предложения на русский язык.

1. The reason why the law of demand works is quite obvious: the money we have is limited.

2. Modern economics was really born in the 19^th century.

3. Smith and other classical economists were writing at a time of great change.

4. Most rules have exceptions, but economists agree that there are very few exceptions to the law of demand.

5. Companies have to compete with each other for a share of the market.

III. Перепишите предложения, поставьте глаголы, данные в скобках, в Present, Past или Future Simple активного залога и переведите предложения на русский язык.

1. Foreign companies (not to invest) in countries that (to suffer) from corruption.

2. The government is going to set up a new state corporation that (to focus) on high-tech investments, including alternative energy and nanotechnology.

3. International trade (to become) important only in the 14^th century, when many modern countries were formed.

4. Engineers and designers of that company (to create) and (to develop) new products for the IT market.

5. The financial crisis, which (to hit) the country in 2008, (to cause) a sharp reduction of the investments by the business sectors.

IV. Перепишите предложения, поставьте прилагательные, данные в скобках, в положительную, сравнительную или превосходную форму, переведите предложения на русский язык.

1. Thanks to (large) number of inhabitants in the EU, Germany is (important) market in Europe.

2. French and English economists told their governments that a trade agreement would be (good) for both countries.

3. The (much) money a person earns the (high) the tax he pays.

4. Because a home is one of (large) assets most people have, homeowners suddenly felt that they were not as (wealthy) as they had been.

5. When interest rates increase, borrowing money from banks becomes (expensive).

V. Перепишите предложения, подчеркните модальные глаголы и их эквиваленты, переведите предложения на русский язык.

1. If customers aren’t happy with a product or service, or if they can’t afford it, they go to a competitor.

2. There must not be anything that helps one company stay in the market and blocks others from trading.

3. In a market with perfect competition, there are many companies supplying the same good or service, but none of them are able to control the price.

4. An important deciding factor about what you will buy is the amount you have to spend.

5. The government may decide that a competitive market is not good for a certain industry.

VI. Прочитайте текст, перепишите и письменно переведите абзацы № 3, 4, 5.

John R. Hicks (1904-1989)

1. Sir John Richard Hicks was a British economist and Nobel Laureate, who had made many important contributions to economic science. He had an extraordinary talent to think ahead of time and his theories are regarded as standard economic theories even today. No wonder he is esteemed as one of the most important and influential economists of the twentieth century. His unparalleled effort to revive economics and his urge to learn more and more was recognized by the world and he was honored with the prestigious Nobel Prize in 1972. He was a research fellow in much prestigious institution and never hesitated to share the knowledge he gathered.

2. John Hicks’ remarkable contributions to economics, especially to macro-economic and social choice theory, made him one of the greatest economists of all times. Hicks-Hansen IS-LM model is the best example of his contribution to microeconomics. As a formal interpretation of John Maynard Keynes’s theory, this work is viewed as his most significant work until date. This book represents economy as a balance between money, consumption and investment. His invention of what is called the IS-LM model, is a graphical depiction of the argument John Maynard Keynes gave in his General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1936) about how an economy could be in equilibrium with less than full employment.

3. John Hicks’s experience as a labor economist led to the formulation of The Theory of Wages. He formulated these theories with a long-term vision. Hicks’ neutral technical change formulated in 1932, in this book is an important concept, which represents change in the production function of an industry that satisfies certain economic neutrality conditions.

4. Hicks’s third major contribution is his 1939 book Value and Capital, in which he showed that most of what economists then understood and believed about value theory (the theory about why goods have value) can be derived without having to assume that utility is measurable. His book was also one of the first works on general equilibrium theory, the theory about how all markets fit together and reach equilibrium.

5. Downward sloping Marshallian demand curves - another important contribution from John Hicks, explains the outcome of price change on quantity. It explains that when the price of a commodity rises, the quantity of that commodity falls, thus making wealth and other prices constant. These changes in price are due to the income effect and substitution effect.

6. Hicks was very active even during the later years of his life. He wrote on many concepts including money and on international trade, growth and fluctuations, applied economics with a stress to problems of "developing" countries and many more.

 

VII. Дайте письменные ответы на следующие вопросы к тексту:

1. Why can we view J. Hicks as one of the greatest economists of all times?

2. What are Hicks’s most remarkable contributions to economics?

3. Are the ideas and conceptions of J. Hicks still popular today?

 

 

Контрольное задание №2

Для того, чтобы правильно выполнить контрольное задание №2, необходимо усвоить следующий грамматический материал:

1. Видо-временные формы глагола:

Simple (Present, Past, Future),

Continuous (Present, Past, Future),

Perfect (Present, Past, Future)

в действительном залоге.

2. Видо-временные формы глагола:

Simple (Present, Past, Future)

в страдательном залоге.