The Narrow National and Cosmopolitan Interest

Abstract

In Paul Samuelson’s well-known introductory textbook, Economics, the three central questions of any economy are described as follows: What? How? and For Whom? More specifically, What should be produced in the economy? How within the given technology should it be produced, and with what combination of factor inputs (such as land, labor, capital)? And how should output be distributed? In short, who does what to whom and who gets paid for it?