Paul Samuelson

Economist Samuelson, Nobel laureate, dead at 94

By POLLY ANDERSON, Associated Press Writer Polly Anderson, Associated Press Writer – Sun Dec 13, 12:50 pm ET

NEW YORK – Economist Paul Samuelson, who won a Nobel prize for his effort to bring mathematical analysis into economics, helped shape tax policy in the Kennedy administration and wrote a textbook read by millions of college students, died Sunday. He was 94.

Samuelson, who taught for decades at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, died at his home in Belmont, Mass., the school said in a statement announcing his death.

President Barack Obama's chief economic adviser, Lawrence Summers, is his nephew.

In 1970, Samuelson became just the second person, and first American, to win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, created in 1968 by the Central Bank of Sweden. The other Nobels have been awarded since 1901.

The award citation said Samuelson "has done more than any other contemporary economist to raise the level of scientific analysis in economic theory."

Source: Yahoo News - Full article at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091213/ap_on_re_us/us_obit_samuelson