Francis Edgeworth may be the face of my blog site, however, prior to this assignment, Francis Edgeworth has held little to no meaning to me. However, upon discovery, one can concur that Mr. Edgeworth is a man worth noting and appreciating. His natural inclination and tact for statistical and mathematical application to the social sciences contributed to many modern day economic theories and uses.
Born in Edgeworth, County Longford, Ireland on February 8, 1845, Francis Edgeworth was raised on his grandfather's estate by his parents, two well known children's book writers, and grew up educated by private tutors until he attended Trinity College, Dublin, and Balliol College, Oxford. Surprisingly, Francis did not start out studying mathematics or statistics. Instead he studied ancient and modern languages: Spanish, French, German and Italian. However, Francis had a natural aptitude for mathematics, and after assuming that he self-taught himself, one could predict that his work with mathematics would surpass his studies in language. Through a series of published papers, Mathematical Psychics: an Essay on the Application of Mathematics to the Moral Sciences, Methods of Statistics, and Correlated Averages, Francis made discoveries in the area of index numbers, indifference curves, contract curves, the Edgeworth box, utility functions, and terms of trade. Working until the year of 1922, Francis remained unmarried yet full of youth and happiness. Peers noted his satisfaction with walking, mountaineering, golfing, and boating, unwavering until his death on February 13, 1926.
Francis Edgeworth's work contributed to the economic subjects of international trade, taxation paradox, monopoly pricing, marginal productivity theory, and much more. His significance in economic history is one that I plan to uphold and dignify as I continue this course under the alias of a well known and respected man. It is my hopes to do his name justice and honor his legacy.
Citations: http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Edgeworth.html, http://www.policonomics.com/lp-neoclassical-economics-francis-ysidro-edgeworth/
Before commenting on the substance, let me not something about the appearance of the post. The text is center adjusted. You normally do that only for text that describes an image and appears immediately under it (where the image is also center adjusted). For the rest of the text, it is standard to have that left adjusted.
ReplyDeleteFor us, Edgeworth and Walras are the fathers of General Equilibrium theory. He is important for us mostly because the Edgeworth Box is how undergraduates get exposed to these ideas. As your post observes, he made many other fundamental contribution to our economic understanding.