Avner Offer
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Avner Offer (born 1944) is an economic historian who held the
Chichele Professorship The Chichele Professorships are statutory professorships at the University of Oxford named in honour of Henry Chichele (also spelt Chicheley or Checheley, although the spelling of the academic position is consistently "Chichele"), an Archbishop of ...
in
Economic history Economic history is the study of history using methodological tools from economics or with a special attention to economic phenomena. Research is conducted using a combination of historical methods, statistical methods and the Applied economics ...
at the
University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...
,
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
. He is an Emeritus Fellow of
All Souls College All Souls College (official name: The College of All Souls of the Faithful Departed, of Oxford) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Unique to All Souls, all of its members automatically become fellows (i.e., full me ...
, Oxford, and a fellow of the
British Academy The British Academy for the Promotion of Historical, Philosophical and Philological Studies is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the sa ...
. He has published on
international political economy International political economy (IPE) is the study of how politics shapes the global economy and how the global economy shapes politics. A key focus in IPE is on the power of different actors such as nation states, international organizations and ...
, law, the
First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
and
land tenure In Common law#History, common law systems, land tenure, from the French verb "" means "to hold", is the legal regime in which land "owned" by an individual is possessed by someone else who is said to "hold" the land, based on an agreement betw ...
. During the 1990s and 2000s, Offer's main interest was in post-war economic growth, particularly in developed societies, and the challenges that affluence presents to well being. His most recent work is on the strife between neoclassical economics and social democracy, each of them vying to shape the post-war decades. Apart from his academic work, he has published a memoir of the Six Day War in Israel.


Biography

He was born on 15 May 1944 in
Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine was a British Empire, British geopolitical entity that existed between 1920 and 1948 in the Palestine (region), region of Palestine, and after 1922, under the terms of the League of Nations's Mandate for Palestine. After ...
, the son of Zvi and Ivriyah Offer, and was educated at the Western Valley school in the
Yifat Yifat (, more accurately romanized as "Yif'at") is a kibbutz in Galilee, northern Israel. Located adjacent to the town Migdal HaEmek and short distances from the cities of Afula and Nazareth. It falls under the jurisdiction of Jezreel Valley Re ...
kibbutz. He studied at the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...
, graduating B.A. in 1973. At
St Antony's College, Oxford St Antony's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1950 as the result of the gift of French merchant Sir Antonin Besse of Aden, St Antony's specialises in international relations, economics, politic ...
and
Merton College Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 1260s when Walter de Merton, chancellor ...
he graduated M.A. 1976 and D.Phil. in 1979. Offer has worked at the
University of York The University of York (abbreviated as or ''York'' for Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a public Collegiate university, collegiate research university in York, England. Established in 1963, the university has expanded to more than thir ...
, the
Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...
, and the University of Oxford, with research fellowships at the
University of Southampton The University of Southampton (abbreviated as ''Soton'' in post-nominal letters) is a public university, public research university in Southampton, England. Southampton is a founding member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universit ...
, the
University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...
,
Rutgers University Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's C ...
and
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
. He was a Professorial Fellow at
Nuffield College, Oxford Nuffield College () is one of the Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is a graduate college specialising in the social sciences, particularly economics, politics and sociology. N ...
, between 1992 and 2000.


Works

Offer's book of 2006, ''The Challenge of Affluence: Self-Control and Well-Being in the United States and Britain since 1950'', represents to some extent a challenge to
Neoclassical economics Neoclassical economics is an approach to economics in which the production, consumption, and valuation (pricing) of goods and services are observed as driven by the supply and demand model. According to this line of thought, the value of a go ...
. Through it he argues that "well-being" has in fact lagged behind the increasing affluence of western societies: that "affluence breeds impatience, and impatience undermines well-being...the paradox of affluence and its challenge is that the flow of new rewards can undermine the capacity to enjoy them."The Challenge of Affluence: Self-control and Well-being in the USA and Britain since 1950. (Oxford, 2006) The central concepts are therefore future discount,
bounded rationality Bounded rationality is the idea that rationality is limited when individuals decision-making, make decisions, and under these limitations, rational individuals will select a decision that is satisficing, satisfactory rather than optimal. Limitat ...
, and
myopia Myopia, also known as near-sightedness and short-sightedness, is an eye condition where light from distant objects focuses in front of, instead of on, the retina. As a result, distant objects appear blurry, while close objects appear normal. ...
. In the 2016 ''The Nobel Factor: The Prize in Economics, Social Democracy, and the Market Turn'', he argues the
Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, officially the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel (), commonly referred to as the Nobel Prize in Economics(), is an award in the field of economic sciences adminis ...
has disproportionately been awarded to proponents of the neoclassical school. According to the book's thesis, the Nobel Prize provides a halo of scientific authority but its committee has underrepresented social democracy as a school of economic thought.


Selected publications

* ''Property and Politics 1870–1914: Landownership, Law, Ideology and Urban Development in England''. (Cambridge, 1981, ) 464pp. * ''The First World War: An Agrarian Interpretation''. (Oxford, 1990, ) 472pp. * "The British empire, 1870–1914: a waste of money?", ''Economic History Review''. Vol 46, 2 (1992) pp. 215–238 * (with S. Bowden), "Household Appliances and the Use of Time in the U.S.A., and Britain since the 1920s", ''Economic History Review'', second series. Vol 47, 4 (1994) * "Between the gift and the market: The economy of regard", ''
The Economic History Review ''The Economic History Review'' is a peer-reviewed history journal published quarterly by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the Economic History Society. It was established in 1927 by Eileen Power and is currently edited by Sara Horrell, Jaime Reis a ...
''. Vol 50, 3 (1997) pp. 450–476 * "Costs and Benefits, Prosperity and Security, 1870–1914" in ''Oxford History of the British Empire'', vol. 3, The Nineteenth Century (ed. A. Porter), (Oxford, 1999) pp. 690–711 * ''Why is the Public Sector so large in Market Societies? The Political Economy of Prudence in the UK, c. 1870–2000''. (Oxford, 2003, ) 46pp. * ''The Challenge of Affluence: Self-control and Well-being in the USA and Britain since 1950''. (Oxford, 2006, ) 472pp. * "Obesity Under Affluence varies by Welfare Regimes: The Effect of Fast Food, Insecurity and Inequality", ''Economics and Human Biology''. Vol. 8, (2010), pp. 297–308 (with Rachey Pechey and Stanley Ulijaszek) * ''The Nobel Factor: The Prize in Economics, Social Democracy, and the Market Turn'' (Princeton, 2016, ), 323 pp. (with Gabriel Söderberg). * ''Burn Mark: A Photographic Memoir of the Six-Day War'' (Oxford, 2014, ). * ''Understanding the Private-Public Divide: Markets, Governments, and Time Horizons'' (Cambridge), 227 pp.


Family

Offer married in 1966 Leah Koshet; the couple have two children, a son and a daughter.


References


External links


Avner Offer's website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Offer, Avner 1944 births Living people British historians British economic historians Historians of World War I Chichele Professors of Economic History Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford Fellows of the British Academy Fellows of Nuffield College, Oxford