Pigou, Arthur Cecil

Pigou, Arthur Cecil (pĭ`g), 1877–1959, British economist, grad. King's College, Cambridge. He was a lecturer at University College, London, and at Cambridge. He was professor of political economy at Cambridge from 1908 to 1943. He served as a member of the committee on currency and foreign exchange (1918) and of the royal commission on income tax (1919). He was a leading exponent of the theory that economic waste due to unemployment, poor health, and poor housing is a responsibility of society, which should bear the costs. Among his many works are Wealth and Welfare (1912), The Economics of Welfare (1920), The Political Economy of War (1921; new ed. 1941), The Theory of Unemployment (1933), Socialism versus Capitalism (1937), and Income: An Introduction to Economics (1946).