Vilfredo Pareto
| Vilfredo Pareto | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
15 July 1848 Paris, France |
| Died | 19 August 1923 (aged 75) Céligny, Switzerland |
| Nationality | Italian |
| Institutions | University of Lausanne |
| Field |
Microeconomics Socioeconomics |
| School or tradition |
Lausanne School |
| Alma mater | Technical School for Engineers |
| Influences | |
| Influenced | |
| Contributions |
Pareto index Pareto chart Pareto's law Pareto efficiency Pareto distribution Pareto principle |
| Signature | |
 |
|
Vilfredo Federico Damaso Pareto (born Wilfried Fritz Pareto; Italian: [vilˈfreːdo paˈreːto]; 15 July 1848 – 19 August 1923) was an Italian engineer, sociologist, economist, political scientist, and philosopher, now also known for the 80/20 rule, named after him as the Pareto principle. He made several important contributions to economics, particularly in the study of income distribution and in the analysis of individuals' choices. He was also responsible for popularising the use of the term "elite" in social analysis.
He introduced the concept of Pareto efficiency and helped develop the field of microeconomics. He was also the first to discover that income follows a Pareto distribution, which is a power law probability distribution. The Pareto principle was named after him, and it was built on observations of his such as that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by about 20% of the population. He also contributed to the fields of sociology and mathematics, according to the mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot and Richard L. Hudson:
"His legacy as an economist was profound. Partly because of him, the field evolved from a branch of moral philosophy as practised by Adam Smith into a data intensive field of scientific research and mathematical equations. His books look more like modern economics than most other texts of that day: tables of statistics from across the world and ages, rows of integral signs and equations, intricate charts and graphs."
...
Wikipedia