Werner Zvi Hirsch (June 10, 1920 – July 10, 2009) was a German-born American economist. Born in small-town Germany, Hirsch emigrated to

Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine ( ar, فلسطين الانتدابية '; he, פָּלֶשְׂתִּינָה (א״י) ', where "E.Y." indicates ''’Eretz Yiśrā’ēl'', the Land of Israel) was a geopolitical entity established between 1920 and 1948 ...

(later known as

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

) to escape the Nazis in the late 1930s, where he attended the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He emigrated to the United States in 1946 and received a PhD in economics from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

in 1949. He was a professor of economics 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 ...

(UCLA) from 1963 to 1990. He was an expert on urban economics and higher education policy.

Early life

Werner Hirsch was born on June 10, 1920, in

Linz am Rhein Linz am Rhein (in English ''Linz on the Rhine'') is a municipality in the district of Neuwied, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated on the right bank of the river Rhine near Remagen, approx. 25 km southeast of Bonn and has about ...

, Germany. Due to the rise of antisemitic

National Socialism Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Naz ...

in Germany, Hirsch and his family moved to

Haifa Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...

(now known as

) in 1936. He took the middle name "Zvi" in Israel. Hirsch attended the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He emigrated to the United States in 1946 and earned a bachelor's degree from the

in 1947. He earned a PhD in economics from Berkeley in 1949.

Career

Hirsch worked at Berkeley from 1949 to 1951. He was an economist at the

Brookings Institution The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in e ...

in 1952. He taught economics at the

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...

from 1953 to 1962. Hirsch became a professor of economics at the

in 1963. He served as the first director of the Institute of Government and Public Affairs at UCLA. He retired from UCLA in 1990. Meanwhile, he worked for the RAND Corporation, the

Kerner Commission The National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, known as the Kerner Commission after its chair, Governor Otto Kerner Jr. of Illinois, was an 11-member Presidential Commission established in July 1967 by President Lyndon B. Johnson in to i ...

, the

United States Congress Joint Economic Committee The Joint Economic Committee (JEC) is one of four standing joint committees of the U.S. Congress. The committee was established as a part of the Employment Act of 1946, which deemed the committee responsible for reporting the current economic c ...

, the

United States Department of Housing and Urban Development The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It administers federal housing and urban development laws. It is headed by the Secretary of Housing and Ur ...

, the Internal Revenue Service, and the

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...

. Meanwhile, with

Luc E. Weber Luc E. Weber (born 18 September 1941) is the Rector Emeritus of the University of Geneva and the President of the Glion Colloquium. Biography Luc E. Weber received a PhD in Economics and Business from the University of Lausanne. From 1975 to 200 ...

, Hirsch was the co-founder of the

Glion Colloquium The Glion Colloquium is a think-tank on higher education. It holds a forum every second year in Glion, Switzerland to consider the role of the world's leading higher education institutions in addressing emerging challenges and opportunities. For ins ...

, a think tank on higher education which published many books about higher education policy. Hirsch endowed the Werner Z. Hirsch Award in Representational Drawing in the Department of Art at UCLA.

Personal life and death

Hirsch married Hilde Emma Zwiren, known as Esther, whom he met in Israel. They resided in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, where he died of pancreatic cancer, aged 89, on July 10, 2009.

Works

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hirsch, Werner Z. 1920 births 2009 deaths Writers from Rhineland-Palatinate Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to Mandatory Palestine 20th-century American economists Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni Washington University in St. Louis faculty University of California, Los Angeles faculty Deaths from pancreatic cancer in California Mandatory Palestine emigrants to the United States Jewish American economists