Robert Summers (June 22, 1922 – April 17, 2012) was an American economist and professor at the
University of Pennsylvania, where he taught from 1960. A widely cited early work by Summers is on the small-sample statistical properties of alternate
regression
Regression or regressions may refer to:
Science
* Marine regression, coastal advance due to falling sea level, the opposite of marine transgression
* Regression (medicine), a characteristic of diseases to express lighter symptoms or less extent ( ...
estimators where analytical measures are unavailable.
Summers received his Ph.D. from
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
.
He was part of a team at Penn that developed estimates of national income and output across countries which adjust GDP and components for
purchasing power parity
Purchasing power parity (PPP) is the measurement of prices in different countries that uses the prices of specific goods to compare the absolute purchasing power of the countries' currency, currencies. PPP is effectively the ratio of the price of ...
in the cost of goods and services among different countries, later termed the
Penn World Table The Penn World Table (PWT) is a set of national-accounts data developed and maintained by scholars at the University of California, Davis and thGroningen Growth Development Centreof the University of Groningen to measure real GDP across countries a ...
. This yielded large, systematic differences from the common method of using only international
exchange rates to convert national products to a common currency. For that work, Summers and
Alan Heston
Alan W. Heston (born 1934 in Portland, Oregon) is an American economist best known for his collaborative work with fellow economist Robert Summers and the development of the Penn World Table (PWT).
Education and early life
Heston was born October ...
were recognized as
American Economic Association
The American Economic Association (AEA) is a learned society in the field of economics. It publishes several peer-reviewed journals acknowledged in business and academia. There are some 23,000 members.
History and Constitution
The AEA was esta ...
Distinguished Fellows for 1998.
Prior to joining the Penn faculty, Summers was on the faculty at
Yale University.
Robert Summers was married to
Anita Summers. Their son is
Lawrence Summers. Robert Summers' brother was
Paul Samuelson. (Their older brother Harold, a lawyer, changed his name to Summers in his youth, and Robert did the same.
) Lawrence Summers also is a noted economist, as were Samuelson, Anita Summers, and her brother
Kenneth Arrow.
See also
*
Penn effect
References
External links
"Robert Summers: American Economics Association Distinguished Fellow Citation, 1998"*
Mark Blaug and Howard R. Vane (2003).
''Who's Who in Economics'' pp. 811–812.
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Summers, Robert
1922 births
2012 deaths
20th-century American Jews
21st-century American Jews
American economists
Distinguished Fellows of the American Economic Association
Fellows of the Econometric Society
Stanford University alumni
University of Pennsylvania faculty
Yale University faculty