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Well, it seems that we have two questions.  One is the use of the term 
"external economies" in the positive sense and that of "externality" 
which allows for the negative sense that is so central to discussions in 
environmental economics.  We have now seen, thanks to Ross Emmett, that 
the former dates back at least to Marshall. 
 
Dan Bromley argues that the latter should be credited to Francis Bator in 
his articles of 1957 and 1958.  I would say that his papers certainly lay 
out the full panoply of the use of the term in the manner that it is now 
used, and thus clearly deserves much recognition. 
 
I do note that in his 1958 REStat paper, Samuelson uses the term in its 
negative sense, stating on p. 334, "Yet it is surprising that Pigou, who 
above all welfare economists has reminded us of external diseconomies of 
the smoke nuisance type, should in his brief discussion of expenditure 
theory have left this externality element almost completely implicit." 
Needless to say, Bator's 1957 paper beat this into print.  But then, 
Samuelson's paper was based on a 1955 talk.  Did that appear in the Papers 
and Proceedings anybody? If not, it may boil down to whether the first 
draft of Bator's paper predated the first draft of Samuelson's 1955 talk, 
presuming the latter did include this use of the term "externality." 
 
Thanks again to all who have contributed to this discussion. 
 
Barkley Rosser  
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