James Ball (15 July 1933 – 15 January 2018) was an English economist, a principal of the

London Business School London Business School (LBS) is a business school and a constituent college of the federal University of London. LBS was founded in 1964 and awards post-graduate degrees (Master's degrees in management and finance, MBA and PhD). Its motto is " ...

(LBS) in 1972–1984 and a leader in the field of

econometric model Econometric models are statistical models used in econometrics. An econometric model specifies the statistical relationship that is believed to hold between the various economic quantities pertaining to a particular economic phenomenon. An econometr ...

ling.

Work

Ball was co-creator with

Lawrence Klein Lawrence Robert Klein (September 14, 1920 – October 20, 2013) was an American economist. For his work in creating computer models to forecast economic trends in the field of econometrics in the Department of Economics at the University of Penn ...

of the Oxford Econometric Model, which led to an "explosion" of macroeconometric forecasting. He was a senior lecturer at

Manchester University , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

and Terry Burns was his research assistant.

Other positions

Ball joined the LBS in 1964 as a professor of economics after recruitment by

Harold Rose Harold Bernard Rose (27 March 1900 – May 1990) was an English football player and manager. Playing career Rose, who played as a centre half, played in the Football League for Reading and Bristol Rovers. He also played for Reading Liberal C ...

, emeritus professor of finance. According to the LBS Professor of Management Practice in Accounting, Sir Andrew Likierman, Ball's presence as the "king of forecasting" there greatly changed the reputation of business schools in the UK in the 1970s. Ball also launched the country's first Executive MBA program of its kind in 1982 and fund-raised for the development of the Plowden building at the LBS London Campus. Ball was a trustee of ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Econo ...

'' newspaper. He also served on the

Board of Governors A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organi ...

of the

Centre for Economic Policy Research The Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) is an independent, non‐partisan, pan‐European non‐profit organisation. Its mission is to enhance the quality of policy decisions through providing policy‐relevant research, based soundly in e ...

, and as the Chairman of

Legal & General Legal & General Group plc, commonly known as Legal & General, is a British multinational financial services and asset management company headquartered in London, England. Its products and services include investment management, lifetime mortg ...

Group in 1979–1994.

Honours and awards

In June 1984 Ball was awarded a knighthood in the Queen's Birthday Honours. In 1994, the book ''Money, Inflation and Employment: Essays in Honour of James Ball'' was published to mark his contribution to the field of econometric modelling. Ball died on 15 January 2018, aged 84.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ball, James 1933 births 2018 deaths 20th-century British economists Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Knights Bachelor Academics of London Business School University of Pennsylvania alumni Alumni of the University of Oxford Econometricians Fellows of the Econometric Society