James Alfred Field (May 26, 1880 – July 16, 1927Frank Moore Colby, Allen Leon Churchill, Herbert Treadwell Wade (1928) ''The New international year book.'' p. 286) was an American economist and Professor of Political Economy at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

, known as one of the proponents of

institutional economics Institutional economics focuses on understanding the role of the Sociocultural evolution, evolutionary process and the role of institutions in shaping Economy, economic Human behavior, behavior. Its original focus lay in Thorstein Veblen's instin ...

Malcolm Rutherford (2011). ''The Institutionalist Movement in American Economics.'' p. 126-151 and as demographer, who contributed to the theory of population and its history.

Life and work

Born in Milton, Massachusetts, Field obtained his MS in economics at Harvard University in 1903, and continued to do post-graduate work at Harvard and at the

University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative o ...

. Field started his academic career in 1903 as assistant in economics at Harvard University, and became Austin teaching fellow in economics for a year, and instructor in 1906 to 1908. From 1906 to 1908 he was also instructor in economics at Radcliffe College. In 1908 he started at the

as instructor in economics, and was promoted assistant professor in 1910, associate professor in 1913, and full professor in 1918 until his death in 1927. In the year 1923-24 he was also dean of the College of Arts and Literature. Field was also known as founding president of the Illinois Birth Control League,''Population in Perspective,'' 1968, p. 448 and associate editor of the ''

Journal of Political Economy The ''Journal of Political Economy'' is a monthly peer-reviewed academic journal published by the University of Chicago Press. Established by James Laurence Laughlin in 1892, it covers both theoretical and empirical economics. In the past, the ...

,'' and during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

was special investigator for the

Council of National Defense The Council of National Defense was a United States organization formed during World War I to coordinate resources and industry in support of the war effort, including the coordination of transportation, industrial and farm production, financial s ...

in its division of

statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ''wikt:Statistik#German, Statistik'', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of ...

. He was elected fellow of the American Statistical Association.

Work

Field came into prominence in the years from 1913 to 1919, when he was involved with professor of Economics

Leon C. Marshall Leon Carroll Marshall (March 15, 1879 – March 1966) was an American economist, Professor of Political Economy and fourth dean of the Booth School of Business from 1909 to 1924, Professor at the Law School of the Johns Hopkins University, and ...

and the economic historian Chester W. Wright in "attempts to move economics instruction away from the 'rigorous drill in orthodox theory' or the 'straight-jacket of conventional theory' to a method of instruction emphasizing the development of economic institutions, inquiry into current problems and issues, and fostering of creativity and originality (field 1917). To this end, they produced a book of readings to supplement the usual texts (Marshall, Wright, and Field 1913)."Malcolm Rutherford (2011). ''The Institutionalist Movement in American Economics.'' p. 132

''Essays on population, and other papers,'' 1931

In a 1931 review of
Essays on population, and other papers...
in ''The Eugenics Review''

Norman E. Himes Norman Edwin Himes (1899–1949) was an American sociologist and economist and Professor at Colgate University, known for his work on the medical history of contraception. Himes obtained his PhD from Harvard University in 1932. After graduati ...

(1899-1949), wrote:

THIS volume, by one of the greatest demographers America has produced, is a notable contribution to population thought and its history. An original, meticulously accurate scholar, Field has, unfortunately, been little known to European, and especially to Continental scholars. It is a great service, therefore, that one of his students should collect his more important scattered papers and notes, and edit them so ably. The solidity of the volume is matched by a felicity of literary presentation rarely found among economic writers; a combination especially refreshing in this day in America when, with growing numbers in our colleges, almost every underpaid professor becomes the hack author of a dull, poorly-written text-book.
The range of topics is wide. Part I contains twelve essays on eugenics, birth control, and Malthusianism, the treatment being essentially historical and critical. Part II collects three papers on economics and statistics, while Part III is a catalogue of the author's library on population. Since the Dictionary of American Biography has failed to include the career of Field, it is fitting that the editor has added a short biography together with a distinctive photograph of the author.Himes, Norman E.
Essays on population and other papers by James Alfred Field, together with material from his notes and lectures compiled and edited by Helen Fisher Hohman, with a foreword by James Bonar, LL. D.
''The Eugenics Review'' 23.3 (1931): 258-261.

And more specific about its content:

I have always felt-perhaps there is a personal bias-that Essay III on "The Early Propagandist Movement in English Population Theory" was the best paper Field ever published. I know of no finer example of historico-economic research in the English language, no matter what tests are applied. Though Professor Graham Wallas deserves credit also, it is not an ungenerous distinction to say that Field was the first scholar to appraise in full measure Francis Place's efforts for birth control at the beginning of the last century. Much of the Place correspondence which Dr. Stopes has upon various occasions claimed to have " discovered " was known to, and used by, Field.
Essays IV, V, and IX are specifically on eugenics. They are Galtonian in idealism; but the author is mindful of the numerous difficulties. The article reprinted from the Quarterly Journal of Economics is an excellent historical and critical review of euge-nical literature produced up to the time of publication (1911). Regrettably, the author never followed it up.

Selected publications

Marshall, Leon Carroll Leon Carroll Marshall (March 15, 1879 – March 1966) was an American economist, Professor of Political Economy and fourth dean of the Booth School of Business from 1909 to 1924, Professor at the Law School of the Johns Hopkins University, and ...

Chester Whitney Wright Chester Whitney Wright (1879–1966) was an American economic historian, and Professor at the University of Chicago, known for his works on the economic history of the United States. Biography Wright studied at the Harvard University, where he ...

, and James Alfred Field.
Outlines of Economics Developed in a Series of Problems
'' University of Chicago Press, 1910, 1911, 1912. * Field, James Alfred;

;

Wright, Chester Whitney Chester Whitney Wright (1879–1966) was an American economic historian, and Professor at the University of Chicago, known for his works on the economic history of the United States. Biography Wright studied at the Harvard University, where he ...

.
Materials For the Study of Elementary Economics
', University of Chicago Press, 1913. * Field, James Alfred.
Essays on population, and other papers
'' No. 1. Richard s Barnes & Co, 1931.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Field, James Alfred 1880 births 1927 deaths American business theorists University of Chicago alumni Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Radcliffe College faculty University of Chicago faculty People from Milton, Massachusetts Economists from Massachusetts 20th-century American economists