Nació el 15 de mayo de 1915 en Indiana. Obtuvo el Bachillerato en la Universidad de Chicago en 1935, la Maestría en 1936 y el grado de doctor en Economía en 1941 en la Universidad de Harvard.
De estudiante fue tan destacado que cuando sustentó su tesis doctoral (que fue publicado en 1947 con el título de "Fundamentos del Análisis Económico") se dice que los miembros de jurado tenían dificultades para entender los aportes del graduando y se escuchó que Schumpeter le preguntaba en voz baja a Leontief (miembros del jurado) ¿le habremos aprobado a Samuelson?
En la Microeconomía contribuyó con la teoría de las Preferencias Reveladas,
En la Macroeconomía formalizó el modelo acelerador multiplicador (1939) estableciendo las condiciones de estabilidad dinámica que se hizo muy popular. Es conocido por sus aportes al desarrollo de la llamada Síntesis Neoclásica Keynesiana (1951) por desarrollar modelos en los que a corto plazo se presenta rigidez de precios y la economía puede estar estancada por buen tiempo en el cual hay espacio para la política económica contracíclica mientras que a largo plazo los precios y salarios son más flexibles tendiéndose lentamente al pleno empleo.
En la Teoría Monetaria introdujo el uso de los modelos de generaciones yuxtapuestas (1948) para explicar la demanda de dinero como un depósito de valor en un contexto en el que las personas tienen vida limitada y simultáneamente coexisten diferentes generaciones que se van sucediendo en el tiempo.
En la teoría del comercio internacional contribuyó con dos modelos importantes: Efecto Balassa-Samuelson y con el Teorema Stolper-Samuelson.
En área de las Finanzas Públicas analizó el problema de la asignación óptima en presencia de bienes públicos y privados.
En la Teoría del Bienestar desarrolló la función de bienestar social Bergson-Samuelson
En los últimos años participó activamente del debate sobre las causas de la Crisis Financiera Internacional señalando que la creencia exagerada de las bondades del libre mercado
Samuelson reconocía las bondades del mercado pero advirtió de las fallas de los mercados libres por lo que requieren que se complemente con la intervención del Estado mediante políticas de Regulación y de Política Económica.
Junto a Krugman y Stiglitz, Samuelson últimamente señalaba que era necesario que EE.UU. aplique programas de estímulos fiscales y monetarios pero sobre todo de mayor gasto de gobierno para salir más rápidamente de la crisis y puso como ejemplo a las políticas aplicadas por China como caso exitoso de política anticíclica para hacer frente a la crisis económica mundial. (ver: Paul Samuelson: Una pronta recuperación ¿ficción o realidad?)
Barnett, William A; Paul A. Samuelson; 2004. "An Interview with Paul A. Samuelson," Method and Hist of Econ Thought 0405006, EconWPA.
Samuelson, P.A., 1997. "Wherein Do the European and American Models Differ?," Papers 320, Banca Italia - Servizio di Studi.
Dornbusch, Rudiger; Fischer, Stanley; Samuelson, Paul A, 1977. "Comparative Advantage, Trade, and Payments in a Ricardian Model with a Continuum of Goods," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(5), pages 823-39, December.
P. A. Samuelson, 1970. "On the Trail of Conventional Beliefs About the Transfer Problem," Working papers 54, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Department of Economics.
Samuelson, Paul A., 2009. "A few remembrances of Friedrich von Hayek (1899-1992)," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 1-4, January.
Samuelson, Paul 2009. "Recuerden a los que frenaron la recuperación de Estados Unidos," Revista de Economía Institucional, Universidad Externado de Colombia - Facultad de Economía, vol. 11(20), pages 425-427, January-J.
Samuelson, Paul 2009. "¿Estados Unidos puede sufrir “décadas perdidas” como las de Japón?," Revista de Economía Institucional, Universidad Externado de Colombia - Facultad de Economía, vol. 11(20), pages 428-430, January-J.
Anthony B. Atkinson; Sijbren Cnossen; Helen F. Ladd; Peter Mieszkowski; Pierre Pestieau; Paul A. Samuelson, 2008. "Commemorating Richard Musgrave (1910-2007)," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 64(2), pages 145-170, June.
Samuelson, Paul 2008. "Thoughts about the Phillips curve," Conference Series ; [Proceedings], Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
Samuelson, Paul 2008. "Asymmetric or symmetric time preference and discounting in many facets of economic theory: A miscellany," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 37(2), pages 107-114, December.
Attiat Ott & Robert Solow & Henry Aaron & Martin Feldstein & Oliver Oldman & Paul Samuelson, 2008. "A tribute to Richard Abel Musgrave," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer, vol. 32(4), pages 330-333, October.
Samuelson, Paul 2007. "Classical and Neoclassical harmonies and dissonances," European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 14(2), pages 243-271.
Samuelson, Paul A, 2006. "The pros and cons of globalization," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 592-594, December.
Samuelson, Paul A; Etula, Erkko M., 2006. "Complete work-up of the one-sector scalar-capital theory of interest rate: Third installment auditing Sraffa's never-completed "Critique of Modern Economic Theory"," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 331-356, August.
Samuelson, Paul A. Etula, Erkko M., 2006. "Testing to confirm that Leontief-Sraffa matrix equations for input/output must obey constancy of returns to scale," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 90(2), pages 183-188, February.
Marshall Goldman; Jeffrey Sachs; Paul Samuelson; Martin Weitzman, 2005. "Testimonials," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan Journals, vol. 47(2), pages 492-502, June.
Samuelson, Paul 2005. "Abram Bergson, Economist," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 115(501), pages F130-F133, 02.
Samuelson, Paul A. 2004. "Where Ricardo and Mill Rebut and Confirm Arguments of Mainstream Economists Supporting Globalization," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 18(3), pages 135-146, Summer.
Samuelson, Paul A., 2002. "Innovational progress sans thrift," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 281-284, August.
Corden, Max; James S. Duesenberry; Craufurd D. Goodwin; J. Allan Hynes; Richard G. Lipsey; Gideon Rosenbluth; Paul A. Samuelson; Elizabeth Johnson Simpson, 2001. "Harry G. Johnson (1923-1977): Scholar, Mentor, Editor, and Relentless World Traveler," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 60(3), pages 601-649, 03.
Samuelson, Paul A. 2001. "A Ricardo-Sraffa Paradigm Comparing Gains from Trade in Inputs and Finished Goods," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 39(4), pages 1204-1214, December.
Samuelson, Paul A., 2001. "Future Asian stock market trends," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 187-189, April.
Samuelson, Paul A, 2000. "Economic and cultural aspects of tomorrow's multinational firms," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 12(4), pages 393-394, December.
Samuelson, Paul A; Robert Merton, 2000. "Speeches by Nobel Laureates," Financial Management, Financial Management Association, vol. 29(3), Fall.
Samuelson, Paul A. 2000. "Speculations about Japan and US relations in the coming decade," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 285-287, September.
Samuelson, Paul A. 2000. "Japan's future financial structure," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 185-187, May.
Samuelson, Paul A. 2000. "The narrowing of the world market," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 99-101, January.
Samuelson, Paul A.1999. "Samuelson’s Economics at Fifty: Remarks on the Occasion of the Anniversary of Publication," Journal of Economic Education, Helen Dwight Reid Foundation, vol. 30(4), pages 352-363.
Samuelson, Paul A. 1998. "Summing up on business cycles: opening address," Conference Series ; [Proceedings], Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, issue Jun, pages 33-36.
Samuelson, Paul A, 1997. "How Best to Flip-Flop If You Must: Integer Dynamic Stochastic Programming for Either-Or," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 183-90, December.
Samuelson, Paul A., 1997. "Theories of the feasible FIRST best," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 9(4), pages 569-571, December.
Samuelson, Paul A, 1997. "Proof by Certainty Equivalents that Diversification-across-Time Does Worse, Risk Corrected, Than Diversification-throughout-Time," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 14(2), pages 129-42, March.
Samuelson, Paul A, 1997. "Estimating Probabilities Relevant to Calculating Relative Risk-Corrected Returns of Alternative Portfolios," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 191-200, December.
Samuelson, Paul, 1995. "Some uneasiness with the Coase Theorem," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 1-7, May.
Olson, Mancur; Lawrence Klein; Paul Samuelson; Robert Solow; James Tobin, 1995.
Samuelson, Paul A; James Tobin; Robert J. Barro; Lyle E. Gramley; Bennett T. McCallum, 1994. "How can monetary policy be improved?," Conference Series ; [Proceedings], Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, pages 229-258.
Samuelson, Paul A, 1994. "Richard Kahn: His Welfare Economics and Lifetime Achievement," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 18(1), pages 55-72, February.
Samuelson, Paul A, 1994. "The To-Be-Expected Angst Created for Economists by Mathematics," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 20(3), pages 267-273, Summer.
Samuelson, Paul A, 1994. "The Classical Classical Fallacy," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 32(2), pages 620-39, June.
Samuelson, Paul A, 1994. "How can monetary policy be improved?," Conference Series ; [Proceedings], Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, pages 229-231.
Samuelson, Paul A, 1993. "Altruism as a Problem Involving Group versus Individual Selection in Economics and Biology," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(2), pages 143-48, May.
Samuelson, Paul A, 1992. "Graduated Income Taxation, Which Reduces Inequality, Leaves Pareto's Coefficient Invariant: A Pseudo-paradox That Debunks Pareto's Coefficient," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 6(4), pages 205-06, Fall.
Samuelson, Paul A., 1992. "Speaking of the unspeakable: Pearl Harbor after fifty years and at the century's turn," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 4(2), pages 173-177, September.
Samuelson, Paul A. 1991. "Leontief's 'the economy as a circular flow': An introduction," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 2(1), pages 177-179, June.
Samuelson, Paul A, 1989. " Ricardo Was Right!," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 91(1), pages 47-62.
Samuelson, Paul A, 1988. "Mathematical Vindication of Ricardo on Machinery," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 96(2), pages 274-82, April.
Samuelson, Paul A, 1988. " How a Certain Internal Consistency Entails the Expected Utility Dogma," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 1(4), pages 389-93, December.
Paul A. Samuelson, 1988. "The Passing of the Guard in Economics," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 14(4), pages 319-329, Oct-Dec.
Samuelson, Paul A., 1988. "The Keynes-Hansen-Samuelson multiplier-accelerator model of secular stagnation," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 3-19, October.
Samuelson, Paul A, 1986. "Yes to Robert Dorfman's Vindication of Thunen's Natural-Wage Derivation [Thunen at Two Hundred]," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 24(4), pages 1777-85, December.
Samuelson, P. A., 1986. "Theory of optimal taxation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 137-143, July.
Samuelson, Paul A, 1985. "Modes of Thought in Economics and Biology," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(2), pages 166-72, May.
Samuelson, Paul A., 1985. "Thermodynamic theory as mathematical economics could have discovered it," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 10(3), pages 281-281, December.
Samuelson, Paul A; 1984. "Princípios de maximização na economia analítica," Revista Brasileira de Economia, Graduate School of Economics, Getulio Vargas Foundation (Brazil), vol. 38(4), April.
Samuelson, Paul A, 1984. "Second Thoughts on Analytical Income Comparisons," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 94(374), pages 267-78, June.
Samuelson, Paul A; Sato, Ryuzo, 1984. "Unattainability of Integrability and Definiteness Conditions in the General Case of Demand for Money and Goods," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(4), pages 588-604, September.
Samuelson, Paul A; 1983. "1983: Marx, Keynes, and Schumpeter," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 9(3), pages 166-179, Jul-Sep.
Samuelson, Paul A, 1981. "Summing up on the Australian Case for Protection," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 96(1), pages 147-60, February.
Samuelson, Paul A, 1981. "Justice to the Australians," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 96(1), pages 169-70, February.
Samuelson, Paul A, 1980. "Noise and Signal in Debates among Classical Economists: A Reply," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 18(2), pages 575-78, June.
Samuelson, Paul A., 1979. "Why we should not make mean log of wealth big though years to act are long," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-307, December.
Samuelson, Paul A., 1978. "Interest rate equalization and nonequalization by trade in Leontief-Sraffa models," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 21-27, February.
Samuelson, Paul A, 1978. "The Canonical Classical Model of Political Economy," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 16(4), pages 1415-34, December.
Samuelson, Paul A, 1977. "Correcting the Ricardo Error Spotted in Harry Johnson's Maiden Paper," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 91(4), pages 519-30, November.
Dornbusch, Rudiger; Fischer, Stanley; Samuelson, Paul A, 1977. "Comparative Advantage, Trade, and Payments in a Ricardian Model with a Continuum of Goods," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(5), pages 823-39, December.
Dornbusch, Rudiger; S. Fischer; P. A. Samuelson, 1976. "Comparative Advantage, Trade and Payments in a Ricardian Model With a Continuum of Goods," Working papers 178, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Department of Economics.
Samuelson, Paul A, 1977. "A Modern Theorist's Vindication of Adam Smith," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(1), pages 42-49, February.
Samuelson, Paul A, 1977. "Reaffirming the Existence of "Reasonable" Bergson-Samuelson Social Welfare Functions," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 44(173), pages 81-88, February.
Samuelson, Paul A, 1977. "St. Petersburg Paradoxes: Defanged, Dissected, and Historically Described," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 15(1), pages 24-55, March.
Samuelson, Paul A, 1976. "Economics of Forestry in an Evolving Society," Economic Inquiry, Oxford University Press, vol. 14(4), pages 466-92, December.
Samuelson, Paul A, 1976. "The Optimum Growth Rate for Population: Agreement and Evaluations," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 17(2), pages 516-25, June.
Samuelson, Paul A, 1976. "Is Real-World Price a Tale Told by the Idiot of Chance?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 58(1), pages 120-23, February.
Samuelson, Paul A, 1976. "Optimality of Sluggish Predictors under Ergodic Probabilities," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 17(1), pages 1-7, February.
Samuelson, Paul A, 1976. "Alvin Hansen as a Creative Economic Theorist," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 90(1), pages 24-31, February.
Samuelson, Paul A., 1976. "Limited Liability, Short Selling, Bounded Utility, and Infinite-Variance Stable Distributions," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 11(03), pages 485-503, September.
Samuelson, Paul A, 1975. "Seymour Harris as Political Economist," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 57(1), pages ii-v, February.
Samuelson, Paul A., 1975. "Trade pattern reversals in time-phased Ricardian systems and intertemporal efficiency," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(4), pages 309-363, November.
Samuelson, Paul A, 1975. "The Optimum Growth Rate for Population," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 16(3), pages 531-38, October.
Samuelson, Paul A, 1975. "Optimum Social Security in a Life-Cycle Growth Model,"
Samuelson, Paul A, 1975. "Steady-State and Transient Relations: A Reply on Reswitching," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 89(1), pages 40-47, February.
Samuelson, Paul A; 1974. "Is the Rent-Collector Worthy of His Full Hire?," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 1(1), pages 7-10, January.
Samuelson, Paul A, 1974. "Comments on the Favorable-Bet Theorem," Economic Inquiry, Oxford University Press, vol. 12(3), pages 345-55, September.
Samuelson, Paul A; Swamy, S, 1974. "Invariant Economic Index Numbers and Canonical Duality: Survey and Synthesis," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 64(4), pages 566-93, September.
Samuelson, Paul A; 1973. "Proof That Properly Discounted Present Values of Assets Vibrate Randomly," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 4(2), pages 369-374, Autumn.
Samuelson, Paul A, 1973. "Samuelson's "Reply on Marxian Matters."," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 11(1), pages 64-68, March.
Samuelson, Paul A, 1973. ""Samuelson and Marx": Reply," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 11(4), pages 1367, December.
Samuelson, Paul A, 1973. "Relative Shares and Elasticities Simplified: Comment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 63(4), pages 770-71, September.
Samuelson, Paul A., 1972. "The general saddlepoint property of optimal-control motions," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 102-120, August.
Samuelson, Paul A;1972. "Samuelson on the Neoclassical Dichotomy: A Reply," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 5(2), pages 283-92, May.
Samuelson, Paul A, 1972. "The Economics of Marx: An Ecumenical Reply," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 10(1), pages 51-57, March.
Samuelson, Paul A, 1972. "The Consumer Does Benefit From Feasible Price Stability: Rejoinder," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 86(3), pages 500-503, August.
Samuelson, Paul A, 1970. "Professor Samuelson on Free Enterprise and Economic Inefficiency: Reply," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 84(2), pages 341-45, May.
Samuelson, Paul A, 1970. "The Fundamental Approximation Theorem of Portfolio Analysis in terms of Means, Variances, and Higher Moments," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 37(4), pages 537-42, October.
Samuelson, Paul A, 1970. "Reflections on Recent Federal Reserve Policy," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 2(1), pages 33-44, February.
Paul A. Samuelson, 1969. "Nonoptimality of Money Holding under Laissez Faire," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 2(2), pages 303-308, May.
Samuelson, Paul A; 1969. "Lifetime Portfolio Selection by Dynamic Stochastic Programming," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 51(3), pages 239-46, August.
Samuelson, Paul A; 1964. "Tax Deductibility of Economic Depreciation to Insure Invariant Valuations," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 72, pages 604.
Samuelson, Paul A., 1959. "Consumption-Loan Interest and Money: Reply," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 67, pages 518.
Samuelson, Paul A., 1958. "An Exact Consumption-Loan Model of Interest with or without the Social Contrivance of Money," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 66, pages 467.
Holt, C, C; P. A. Samuelson, 1946. "The Graphic Depiction of Elasticity of Demand," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 54, pages 354.
Samuelson, Paul A. 1934. "A Synthesis of the Principle of Acceleration and the Multiplier," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 47, pages 786.