The earliest example of "deadweight loss" in JSTOR is not as early as Hotelling. It is Paul A. Samuelson, "The Transfer Problem and Transport Costs: The Terms of Trade When Impediments are Absent," /The Economic Journal/, Vol. 62, No. 246 (Jun., 1952), pp. 278-304. "Dead loss" shows up as earlier as 1887, but not in the sense of deadweight loss. The following might be the earliest relevant JSTOR example, but I have not read it carefully: C. F. Bickerdike, "The Theory of Incipient Taxes," /The Economic Journal/, Vol. 16, No. 64 (Dec., 1906), pp. 529-535 Kevin Hoover Rojhat Berdan Avsar wrote: > ----------------- HES POSTING ----------------- > Dear all, > > I was wondering if anybody knows the origin of the term "deadweight loss". I was able to track it down to Hotelling's 1938 Econometrica paper as "dead loss". Is anybody familiar with any previous record of the term? > > Thanks, > > Rojhat Berdan Avsar > ----------------- FOOTER TO HES POSTING ----------------- > [log in to unmask] > http://eh.net/mailman/listinfo/hes > -- ************************************************************** KEVIN D. HOOVER Professor of Economics and Philosophy Duke University E-mail [log in to unmask] Webpage www.econ.duke.edu/~kdh9/ Economics: primary address Department of Economics 213 Social Sciences Building Box 90097 Duke University Durham, North Carolina 27708-0097 Telephone (919) 660-1876 Fax (919) 684-8974 Philosophy Department of Philosophy 201 West Duke Building Duke University Box 90743 Durham, North Carolina 27708-0743 Telephone. (919) 660-2425 Fax (919) 660-3060 *************************************************************** ***************************************************************