Jack Hirshleifer (August 26, 1925 – July 26, 2005) was an
American economist
An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social science discipline of economics.
The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this field there are ...
and long-time professor at the
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California S ...
.
He received a
B.S.
A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years.
The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...
from
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
in 1945 and a
Ph.D.
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
in 1950. He worked at the
RAND Corporation in
Santa Monica
Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to i ...
from 1949 to 1955. He then taught at the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...
from 1955 to 1960, and at UCLA until 2001. Hirshleifer was well known for his work on
uncertainty
Uncertainty refers to epistemic situations involving imperfect or unknown information. It applies to predictions of future events, to physical measurements that are already made, or to the unknown. Uncertainty arises in partially observable ...
and
information
Information is an abstract concept that refers to that which has the power to inform. At the most fundamental level information pertains to the interpretation of that which may be sensed. Any natural process that is not completely random ...
in economics, the economic analysis of
conflict
Conflict may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Films
* ''Conflict'' (1921 film), an American silent film directed by Stuart Paton
* ''Conflict'' (1936 film), an American boxing film starring John Wayne
* ''Conflict'' (1937 film) ...
, and
bioeconomics. His undergraduate textbook, ''Price Theory and Applications'', went into seven editions. A 1958 article by Hirshleifer began the triumphant comeback of
Irving Fisher's theory of capital and interest, now deemed canonical. While at Rand Corporation, Hirshleifer wrote a report which tore apart the Department of Water and Power's feasibility report for the
Oroville Dam
Oroville Dam is an earthfill embankment dam on the Feather River east of the city of Oroville, California, in the Sierra Nevada foothills east of the Sacramento Valley. At 770 feet (235 m) high, it is the tallest dam in the U.S. and ser ...
, noting among other things that the report failed to include the cost of building the dam. The dam ended up being built. (Cadillac Desert, Chapter 10).
Bibliography
* Hirshleifer, Jack (1970). ''Investment, Interest, and Capital'', Prentice/Hall International
* Hirshleifer, Jack (June 1973). "Exchange Theory: The Missing Chapter." ''Western Economic Journal'' (Economic Inquiry) 11: 129-146
* Hirshleifer, Jack (1976). ''Price Theory and Applications'', Prentice/Hall International
* Hirshleifer, Jack (January 1983). "From weakest-link to best-shot: The voluntary provision of public goods", ''Public Choice'', Vol. 41, Number 3, pp. 371–386.
* Hirshleifer, Jack (1994). ''The Analytics of Uncertainty and Information''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
* Hirshleifer, Jack (2001). ''The dark side of the force: economic foundations of conflict theory''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
External links
Biography at New School web pageObituary
1925 births
2005 deaths
Deaths from prostate cancer
Harvard University alumni
University of Chicago faculty
University of California, Los Angeles faculty
Information economists
21st-century American economists
20th-century American economists
Fellows of the Econometric Society
Distinguished Fellows of the American Economic Association
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