Entangled Economists

Erwin Dekker

doi:10.23941/ejpe.v12i2.451

Abstract

It is 50 years since the first Nobel Prize in economics was awarded to Jan Tinbergen and Ragnar Frisch. This article analyzes the collaborations between these pioneers of econometrics which spanned four decades and various subfields in economics, based on records of their correspondence. It is demonstrated that, while Frisch was largely responsible for theoretical breakthroughs, Tinbergen was responsible for making them public and popularizing them. This is especially relevant for understanding the development of econometric models in the 1950s, decision models of the 1950s, and subsequent work on utility measurement. This division of labor is analyzed in relation to the goals they pursued in their research and their respective perfectionistic (Frisch) and pragmatic (Tinbergen) approaches to economic science. Both men shared a sense of deep social responsibility, but differences in their personalities and approaches to science generated important differences in scientific recognition and policy influence. Although they are both widely remembered for helping to turn economics into a quantitative empirical science, this article shows that they were motivated by separate personal and political goals which shaped their scientific approaches.

Highlights

It is not infrequent that the Nobel Prize in economics is awarded to a duo
In no other instance did the Prize go to two individuals whose professional careers so closely overlapped as that of the first winners Ragnar Frisch and Jan Tinbergen
The opening sentence was bold: “In between mathematics, statistics, and economics, we find a new discipline which for lack of a better name, may be called econometrics” (Frisch 1926b, 2)

Summary

INTRODUCTION

It is not infrequent that the Nobel Prize in economics is awarded to a duo. On some occasions, the two laureates may share little else than their field of research. During the 1930’s, the two made seminal contributions to an endogenous theory of the cycle, and Tinbergen’s report for the League of Nations, with its macro-econometric model of the United States, was designed in close conversation with the work of Frisch After the war, both men led important economic policy institutes. In 1969, they were both awarded the first Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, popularly known as the Nobel Prize in Economics, for their work on the business cycle in the 1930s If it had not been for a broken thighbone that prevented Ragnar Frisch from attending the ceremony, it would have been the crowning achievement of a lifelong collaboration and entangled career. It aims to illustrate how, through their different personalities, they came to occupy quite different positions later in their careers.

ECONOMETRIC ENDEAVORS

INTERNATIONAL INTERESTS

ALTERNATIVE ASPIRATIONS