Musgrave, Richard Abel (1910–2007)

German-born US economist. His book The Theory of Public Finance (1959) provided a definitive text that incorporates the economics of public finance into economic theory as a whole.

Born in Konigstein, Germany, Musgrave emigrated to the USA in 1933. He took his PhD at Harvard in 1937 and was a professor there 1937–41 and 1965–81, as well as several other universities. He also served as a consultant to the US government, as well as the governments of Bolivia, Burma (now Myanmar), Colombia, Chile, South Korea, and Taiwan, on fiscal policy and taxation.