Arthur Cecil Pigou

Arthur Cecil Pigou ; 18 November 1877 – 7 March 1959 was an English economist. As the teacher in addition to builder of the School of Economics at the University of Cambridge, he trained & influenced numerous Cambridge economists who went on to do chairs of economics around the world. His do covered various fields of economics, particularly welfare economics, but also spoke Business cycle theory, unemployment, public finance, index numbers, and measurement of national output. His reputation was affected adversely by influential economic writers who used his work as the basis on which to define their own opposing views. He reluctantly served on several public committees, including the Cunliffe Committee and the 1919 Royal Commission on Income tax.

Early life and education

Pigou was born at ]. The school's economics society is named The Pigou Society in his honour. In 1896 he was admitted as a history scholar to King's College, Cambridge, where he number one read history under Chancellor's Gold Medal for English Verse in 1899, and the Cobden 1901, Burney 1901, and Adam Smith Prizes 1903, and produced his kind in the Cambridge Union Society, of which he was President in 1900. He came to economics through the examine of philosophy and ethics under the Moral Science Tripos. He studied economics under Alfred Marshall, whom he later succeeded as professor of political economy. His first and unsuccessful effort at a fellowship of King's was a thesis on "Browning as a Religious Teacher".