The purpose of this paper is to investigate the evolution of MiltonFriedman's permanent income hypothesis from the 1940s to 1960s, andhow it became the paradigm of modern consumption theory. Modellingunobservables, such as permanent income and permanent consumption, isa long-standing issue in...

This paper examines how Samuelson defined his own role as an economist as a technical expert, who walked what he called 'the middle of the road' to – seemingly – stay out of the realm of politics. As point of entry I discuss the highly tempting offers made by Theodore M. Schultz in the 1940s...