Senior, Nassau

Senior, Nassau, 1790–1864, English economist. A graduate of Oxford, he was called there in 1825 to fill the first chair of political economy in England. In An Outline of the Science of Political Economy (1836) he sought to carry classical economic principles closer to scientific formulation. He also maintained that capital is a productive factor and that interest and profit accrue to the capitalist as a result of his “abstinence” (i.e., saving). Senior served on several commissions to investigate social problems and helped produce the report that was the basis for the poor-law amendment of 1834.

See studies by M. Bowley (1937, repr. 1967) and S. L. Levy (new ed. 1970).

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