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Frank Ramsey

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  • Pedro Garcia Duarte

Abstract

Frank P. Ramsey (b. 1903 – d. 1930) was a Cambridge mathematician who interacted closely to leading economists of his time such as Arthur Cecil Pigou, John Maynard Keynes and Roy Harrod. In the 1920s he was considered by many as a brilliant student who was clearly integrated to the elite group of Cambridge and who knew and was friend of such luminaries as G. E. Moore, Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and also Lytton and James Strachey, Virginia Woolf, Lionel Penrose, Kingsley Martin, Richard Braithwaite, I. A. Richards, and C. K. Ogden. Despite being few in numbers, his contributions to mathematics, logic, philosophy and economics are considered by practitioners in these areas as the most profound and original work in the first half of the twentieth century. This canonization was initiated soon after the untimely death of Ramsey, before completing 27 years of age. Economists portray Ramsey as a sleeping giant, someone with almost no impact until the 1950s, when they finally learned the mathematical tools necessary to apprehend his ideas. Building on my previous works on Ramsey this article surveys his life and work, focusing on economics, and shows how this provides interesting historical windows both to the Cambridge milieu of the 1920s and to the important transformations of economics after World War II.

Suggested Citation

  • Pedro Garcia Duarte, 2014. "Frank Ramsey," Working Papers, Department of Economics 2014_17, University of São Paulo (FEA-USP).
    • Handle: RePEc:spa:wpaper:2014wpecon17
    as

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    File URL: http://www.repec.eae.fea.usp.br/documentos/PedroDuarte_17WP.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Gaspard, Marion, 2003. "Ramsey's theory of National Saving: A Mathematician in Cambridge," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 25(4), pages 413-435, December.
    2. Michael Emmett Brady & Rogério Arthmar, 2012. "Keynes, Boole and the interval approach to probability," History of Economic Ideas, Fabrizio Serra Editore, Pisa - Roma, vol. 20(3), pages 65-84.
    3. Guido Erreygers, 2009. "Hotelling, Rawls, Solow: How Exhaustible Resources Came to Be Integrated into the Neoclassical Growth Model," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 41(5), pages 263-281, Supplemen.
    4. Pedro Garcia Duarte, 2010. "Beyond Samuelson's chapter on Ramsey," History of Economic Ideas, Fabrizio Serra Editore, Pisa - Roma, vol. 18(3), pages 121-160.
    5. Moggridge, D E, 1992. "The," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 6(3), pages 207-209, Summer.
    6. Pedro Garcia Duarte, 2009. "The Growing of Ramsey's Growth Model," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 41(5), pages 161-181, Supplemen.
    7. Mary S. Morgan & Malcolm Rutherford, 1998. "American Economics: The Character of the Transformation," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 30(5), pages 1-26, Supplemen.
    8. Heukelom,Floris, 2014. "Behavioral Economics," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107039346, October.
    9. Pedro Garcia Duarte, 2009. "Frank Ramsey's Notes on Saving and Taxation," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 41(3), pages 471-489, Fall.
    10. Pedro Garcia Duarte, 2009. "Frank P. Ramsey: A Cambridge Economist," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 41(3), pages 445-470, Fall.
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    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Why Don't Economists Go to Hollywood Parties?
      by pgduarte in History of Economics Playground on 2015-02-17 02:34:27

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Frank Ramsey; University of Cambridge; Arthur Cecil Pigou; John Maynard Keynes; Paul Samuelson;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B31 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought: Individuals - - - Individuals
    • B22 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - Macroeconomics
    • B16 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Quantitative and Mathematical
    • B23 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - Econometrics; Quantitative and Mathematical Studies

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