Foundations of Economic Analysis is a book by Paul A. Samuelson published in 1947 (Enlarged ed., 1983) by Harvard University Press. It sought to demonstrate a common mathematical structure underlying multiple branches of economics from two basic principles: maximizing behavior of agents (such as of utility by consumers and profits by firms) and stability of equilibrium as to economic systems (such as markets or economies). Among other contributions, it advanced the theory of index numbers and generalized welfare economics. It is especially known for definitively stating and formalizing qualitative and quantitative versions of the "comparative statics" method for calculating how a change in any parameter (say, a change in tax rates) affects an economic system. One of its key insights about comparative statics, called the correspondence principle, states that stability of equilibrium implies testable predictions about how the equilibrium changes when parameters are changed.
Read more about Foundations Of Economic Analysis: Introduction, Topical Outline, Methods and Analysis, Appendices, Enlarged Edition, Assessments
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... Kenneth Arrow (1983) describes Foundations as "the only example I know of a doctoral dissertation that is a treatise, perhaps I should say of a treatise that has so much originality in every part that it is ... book "drastically redirected the advanced study of economics toward greater and more productive use of mathematics." Notwithstanding the important work of Arrow, Kotaro Suzumura (1987) affirms the Bergson-Samuelson ...
... a small number of analogous methods, thus providing "a general theory of economic theories." It moved mathematics out the of appendices (as in John R ... Hicks's Value and Capital) and helped change how standard economic analysis across subjects could be done with the same mathematical methods ...
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