Frederick the Great, who had summoned Euler from St. Petersburg to Berlin to organize the Academy of Science, often asked his advise on technical matters concerning pension funds or life annuities, even if Euler’s memoirs on this theme were all published after his return to Russia. In particular, Euler wrote one work on a widows’ pension fund, which responded to a problem that was greatly felt in the North of Europe in the second half of the eighteenth century. A similar problem involved Lagrange, when the Prussian state decided to re-establish an insurance institute for widows. In the present paper an inedited memoir by Lagrange on this subject is presented: it belongs to a German tradition of actuarial studies which, from 1760 on, saw an extensive output of works by Euler, the republication, in 1761, of The Divine Order by Süssmilch, as well as works by Lambert, Seyberth and Kritter.
Euler, Lagrange and life insurance
BORGATO, Maria Teresa
2008
Abstract
Frederick the Great, who had summoned Euler from St. Petersburg to Berlin to organize the Academy of Science, often asked his advise on technical matters concerning pension funds or life annuities, even if Euler’s memoirs on this theme were all published after his return to Russia. In particular, Euler wrote one work on a widows’ pension fund, which responded to a problem that was greatly felt in the North of Europe in the second half of the eighteenth century. A similar problem involved Lagrange, when the Prussian state decided to re-establish an insurance institute for widows. In the present paper an inedited memoir by Lagrange on this subject is presented: it belongs to a German tradition of actuarial studies which, from 1760 on, saw an extensive output of works by Euler, the republication, in 1761, of The Divine Order by Süssmilch, as well as works by Lambert, Seyberth and Kritter.I documenti in SFERA sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
