The intellectual contribution of Arthur Cecil Pigou (1877–1959) to economics has been enduring, particularly through his development of welfare economics and his insights into externalities. Pigou’s work laid the foundations for modern public economics, especially the study of how government intervention can address market failures and improve social welfare. His thinking, often referred to as Pigovian or Pigou economics, emerged from a period of transition in economic theory, as the discipline moved away from the classical preoccupation with production and distribution towards the neoclassical analysis of welfare and efficiency.
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