Edwin Robert Anderson Seligman

Seligman, Edwin Robert Anderson 

Born Apr. 25, 1861, in New York; died July 18, 1939, in Lake Placid, N.Y. American economist.

Seligman studied at Columbia University, where he taught from 1885 to 1931. He was the founder and president of the American Economic Association (1902–04) and the editor in chief of the Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences (vols. 1–15, 1930–35).

Seligman’s overall viewpoint was eclectic. Although he shared certain ideas of the historic school of political economy, including a critical attitude toward the system of economic liberalism and a proclivity for defending protectionism as a condition for developing new industrial sectors, he endeavored to apply the analysis of the Austrian school to social problems, extending E. von Böhm-Bawerk’s concept of “marginal pairs of sellers and buyers” to social groups or “marginal classes.” Seligman agreed with J. B. Clark’s views on value and distribution.

Seligman’s works on taxation, in which he established the theoretical principles for a progressive income tax, as well as his work on finances and economic history, have enjoyed great popularity.

WORKS

The Economic Interpretation of History, 2nd ed. New York, 1907.
Studies in Public Finance. New York, 1925.
In Russian translation:
Osnovy politicheskoi ekonomii. St. Petersburg, 1908.
Ocherkipo teorii oblozheniia. Petrograd, 1924.

REFERENCE

Seligman, B. Osnovnye techeniia sovremennoi ekonomicheskoi mysli. Moscow, 1968. (Translated from English.)

I. T. LASHCHINSKII