Re: query: Frank Ramsey

["J. Barkley Rosser, Jr." <rosserjb@xxxxxxx>]

      Frank Ramsey was a mathematical growth
theorist and philosopher at Cambridge who died
in his 20s in the 1920s.  He was the first to posit
a growth theory model with an infinite time horizon,
I believe.  His "Mathematical Theory of Saving" is
very influential in growth theory.
       He is also famous for arguing on ethical grounds
that discount rates should be zero.
       Offhand, I am not sure what a "Ramseyite" approach
would be, but I suggest that it involves infinite horizon
optimal growth models.   Ramsey was very influential]
on Keynes and even people like Wittgenstein, but that
side of him does not appear in his most famous paper
(I think it appeared in the Economic Journal).
Barkley Rosser
-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Devine <jdevine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tuesday, February 27, 2001 12:17 PM
>Subject: [PEN-L:8480] query: Frank Ramsey


>Yesterday, I received an e-mail advertising a macroeconomics textbook that
>was based on the ideas of Frank Ramsey. It wasn't Keynesian or monetarist,
>but Ramseyite (to paraphrase the blurb). Does anyone know anything about
>Ramsey and his ideas? It sounds like he totally ignored the factor of
>uncertainty in making decisions about the future, but I don't know anything
>about him.
>
>Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxx &  http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
>
>