Edwin Robert Anderson Seligman (1861–1939), was an American economist who spent his entire academic career at Columbia University in New York City. Seligman is best remembered for his pioneering work involving taxation and public finance. His principles for a progressive federal income tax were adopted by Congress after the passage of the Sixteenth Amendment.^[1] A prolific scholar and teacher, his students had great influence on the fiscal architecture of postcolonial nations.^[2] He served as an influential founding member of the American Economics Association.^[1]

Edwin Seligman was born April 25, 1861, in New York City, the son of the banker Joseph Seligman. He was tutored by Horatio Alger and had a broad facility for languages.^[1]

Seligman attended Columbia University at fourteen and graduated in 1879 with an AB^[1][3] Seligman continued his studies in Europe, attending courses for three years at the universities of Berlin, Heidelberg, Geneva, and Paris.^[4] He earned his MA and LLB degrees in 1885 and successfully defended a PhD in 1885.^[3] He later was awarded a LL.D. in 1904.

Seligman spent his entire academic career at Columbia University, first joining as a lecturer in 1885.^[3] He was made an adjunct professor of political economy in 1888.^[4] He became the first McVickar Professor of Political Economy at the same university in 1904, a position which he occupied until 1931.^[3]

Seligman's academic work dealt largely with matters of taxation and public finance, and he was regarded as a leading proponent of the progressive income tax.^[5][3] He also taught courses at Columbia in the field of economic history.^[3]

From 1886 Seligman was one of the editors of the Political Science Quarterly. He also edited Columbia's series in history, economics, and public law from 1890.

Seligman was a founder of the American Economic Association and served as president of that organization from 1902 to 1904.^[3] He was also a key figure behind the formation of the American Association of University Professors, serving as that group's president from 1919 to 1920.^[3]

Seligman dedicated a great deal of effort to the question of public finance during World War I and was a prominent advocate of the establishment of a progressive income tax as a basis for the funding of government operations.

Although a proponent of the economic interpretation of history, commonly associated with Marxism, Seligman was an opponent of socialism and appeared in public debates opposing prominent radical figures during the early 1920s, including such figures as Scott Nearing and Harry Waton.^[6]

Seligman's later academic work revolved around questions of tax policy and consumer finance.

Among his students was B.R. Ambedkar, the Chief architect of Indian Constitution and first Law and Justice minister of India.^[7]

Seligman's teaching career ended in 1931.

Edwin Seligman died July 18, 1939. His beliefs were highly influential with Charles A. Beard, who was an academic colleague at Columbia.^[8][9] In particular, Seligman's economic viewpoints to history helped inform Beard's work An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States.^[10] As a mentor to fiscal experts including Carl Shoup, Seligman's ideas also guided post-World War II tax reform.^[11]