Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/149713 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2014
Series/Report no.: 
CHOPE Working Paper No. 2014-01
Publisher: 
Duke University, Center for the History of Political Economy (CHOPE), Durham, NC
Abstract: 
This paper examines how Samuelson defined his own role as an economist as a technical expert, who walked what he called 'the middle of the road' to – seemingly – stay out of the realm of politics. As point of entry I discuss the highly tempting offers made by Theodore M. Schultz in the 1940s to come over to Chicago, which Schultz persistently repeated over a period of three years and despite strong Chicago faculty resistance. A contrast between Schultz's own experiences as an economic expert at Iowa State, Samuelson's work as an external consultant for the National Resources Planning Board during the Second World War and the firm support of the MIT administration for Samuelson's research, serve to pinpoint the meaning of being technical for Samuelson, and the relation of the technical economic expert to the realm of politics.
Subjects: 
technical expertise
economic modeling
'middle of the road' economists
National Resources Planning Board
MIT
University of Chicago
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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