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

(Hardback)

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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 intel

Reviews

"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
"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 *
"[This book] should be required reading for every economist who has an interest in public economics and public choice economics. . . . It will reaffirm the readers 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
"[A] fascinating intellectual biography . . . . it is very well researched and the result is a truly enjoyable read."---Maxime Desmarais-Tremblay, History of Economics Ideas

Author Bio

Ian Kumekawa is a PhD candidate in history at Harvard University, where he works on the history of economic thinking.