Henri (Hans) Theil (October 13, 1924 – August 20, 2000) was a Dutch

econometrician Econometrics is the application of statistical methods to economic data in order to give empirical content to economic relationships. M. Hashem Pesaran (1987). "Econometrics," '' The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics'', v. 2, p. 8 p. 8 ...

and professor at the Netherlands School of Economics in Rotterdam, known for his contributions to the field of

econometrics Econometrics is the application of Statistics, statistical methods to economic data in order to give Empirical evidence, empirical content to economic relationships.M. Hashem Pesaran (1987). "Econometrics," ''The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of ...

Biography

Born in Amsterdam, Theil started to study mathematics and physics at

Utrecht University Utrecht University (UU; nl, Universiteit Utrecht, formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2018, it had an enrollme ...

in 1942. Later in World War II he was arrested and was imprisoned in

Vught Vught () is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and a town in the southern Netherlands, and lies just south of the industrial and administrative centre of 's-Hertogenbosch. Many commuters live in the municipality, and the town of Vugh ...

. After the war he started to study economics at the Gemeente-Universiteit Amsterdam, where in 1951 he received his PhD under

Pieter Hennipman Pieter Hennipman (12 September 1911 – 3 July 1994) was a Dutch economist, Professor of Economics at the University of Amsterdam, who is considered the "leading Dutch economist of the post-war period." Biography Born in Leiden, Hennipman rece ...

.Raj, Baldev. "Henri Theil’s Biography and his Contributions to Economics and Econometrics: An Overview." Henri Theil’s Contributions to Economics and Econometrics. Springer Netherlands, 1992. 3–16. After graduation Theil started working as researcher for the

Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis The Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis ( nl, Centraal Planbureau, CPB, literal translation: Central Planning Bureau) is a part of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy of the Netherlands. Its goal is to deliver economic analysis and ...

under

Jan Tinbergen Jan Tinbergen (; ; 12 April 19039 June 1994) was a Dutch economist who was awarded the first Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1969, which he shared with Ragnar Frisch for having developed and applied dynamic models for the analysis of ...

. In 1953 he was appointed Professor of Econometrics at the Netherlands School of Economics as successor of

. Here he founded the

Econometric Institute Econometric Institute (Dutch ''Econometrisch Instituut'') at the Erasmus University Rotterdam is a leading research institute in the fields of econometrics and management science in the Netherlands. The Institute offers advanced education in econom ...

in 1956, which he directed for ten years and was then succeeded by Jan Sandee. He also wrote ''Principles of Econometrics''. In 1966 he moved to the United States, where he was appointed Professor of Econometrics and director of the Center for Mathematical Studies in Business and Economics 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 ...

. He also taught at the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

. Theil was awarded honorary degrees by the University of Chicago in 1964, by the

Vrije Universiteit Brussel The Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) () is a Dutch and English-speaking research university located in Brussels, Belgium.The Vrije Universiteit Brussel is one of the five universities officially recognised by the Flemish Community, Flemish gov ...

in 1973 and by the

Erasmus University Rotterdam Erasmus University Rotterdam (abbreviated as ''EUR'', nl, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam ) is a public research university located in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The university is named after Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, a 15th-century humanist ...

in 1983. In 1968 he was elected as a

Fellow of the American Statistical Association Like many other academic professional societies, the American Statistical Association (ASA) uses the title of Fellow of the American Statistical Association as its highest honorary grade of membership. The number of new fellows per year is limited ...

. In 1980 he became correspondent of the

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences ( nl, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, abbreviated: KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed ...

Work

Theil is best known for his invention of the widely used two-stage least squares (2SLS) method in 1953. This estimation technique greatly simplified estimation of simultaneous equation models of the economy and came into widespread use for this purpose. He is also known for the

Theil index The Theil index is a statistic primarily used to measure economic inequality and other economic phenomena, though it has also been used to measure racial segregation. The Theil index ''T''T is the same as redundancy in information theory which is ...

, a measure of

entropy Entropy is a scientific concept, as well as a measurable physical property, that is most commonly associated with a state of disorder, randomness, or uncertainty. The term and the concept are used in diverse fields, from classical thermodynam ...

, which belongs to the class of

Kolm KOLM (1520 AM, "1520 The Ticket") is a sports formatted radio station in Rochester, Minnesota, and is owned by Townsquare Media. KOLM derives a portion of its programming from CBS Sports Radio. On August 30, 2013, a deal was announced in which ...

-Indices and is used as an inequity indicator in econometrics. Cowell, Frank A. (2002, 2003):
Theil, Inequality and the Structure of Income Distribution
', London School of Economics and Political Sciences He is also responsible for the

Theil–Sen estimator In non-parametric statistics, the Theil–Sen estimator is a method for robustly fitting a line to sample points in the plane ( simple linear regression) by choosing the median of the slopes of all lines through pairs of points. It has also b ...

for

robust regression In robust statistics, robust regression seeks to overcome some limitations of traditional regression analysis. A regression analysis models the relationship between one or more independent variables and a dependent variable. Standard types of ...

. Theil's archives are kept at

Hope College Hope College is a private Christian liberal arts college in Holland, Michigan. It was originally opened in 1851 as the Pioneer School by Dutch immigrants four years after the community was first settled. The first freshman college class matricul ...

Publications

Theil published a series of books and numerous articles. Books: * Theil, H. (1954), "Linear aggregation of economic relations. Amsterdam.'' North-Holland Publishing Company. * Theil, H. (1958), ''Economic forecasts and policy''. Assisted by J.S. Cramer, H. Moerman, and A. Russchen. * * Theil, H. (1965), ''Operations research and quantitative economics.'' With John C. G. Boot and

Teun Kloek Teunis (Teun) Kloek (born 1934) is a Dutch economist and Emeritus Professor of Econometrics at the Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam. His research interests centered on econometric methods and their applications, especially nonparametric and robust ...

* Theil, H. (1966), ''Applied economic forecasting''. With G.A.C. Beerens, C.B. Tilanus, and C.G. De Leeuw . Vol. 4. Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing Company. * Theil, H. (1967), ''Economics and information theory''. Vol. 7. Amsterdam: North-Holland. * Theil, H. (1971), ''Principles of Econometrics''. Vol. 1. New York: Wiley. * Theil, H. (1972), ''Statistical decomposition analysis: With applications in the social and administrative sciences.'' Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing Company. * Theil, H. (1989), ''International evidence on consumption patterns.'' With Ching-Fan Chung and James L. Seale. ;About Theil * Baldev Raj, J. Koerts eds. (1992) ''Henri Theil's Contributions to Economics and Econometrics: Econometric theory and methodology. Vol. I''. Springer. *

References

External links

Prof.dr. Henri Theil overleden
(in Dutch) {{DEFAULTSORT:Theil, Henri 1924 births 2000 deaths Econometricians Scientists from Amsterdam University of Amsterdam alumni Erasmus University Rotterdam faculty University of Florida faculty Fellows of the Econometric Society Presidents of the Econometric Society 20th-century Dutch economists Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellows of the American Statistical Association

Biography

Work

Publications

See also

References

External links