THE TLS REVIEW OF
Frank Ramsey: A sheer excess of powers notes that:
"Economists remember him as the person who introduced the idea of an optimal taxation rate, a rate that maximizes social benefit while at the same time minimizing distortions in market behaviour. He also introduced the idea of an optimal savings rate, a rate that maximizes benefit for both current and future generations. Among economists, the term “Ramsey problem” is still used to refer to the problem of trying to predict what price a public monopoly should charge to maximize social welfare, something Ramsey defined as the sum of both consumer and producer surplus...
Mathematicians remember Ramsey as one of the first to define probabilities in terms of subjective degrees of belief, rather than as objective relations between propositions.
Ramsey’s definition opened…"
A can of worms whose lid the syndics of the IPCC probability and carbon taxation criteria have thus far been unable to replace.
