Richard A. Musgrave
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Richard Abel Musgrave (December 14, 1910 – January 15, 2007) was an American
economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...
of German heritage.Peter Mieszkowski, updated by the editors, 2008. "Musgrave, Richard Abel (1910–2007)," ''
The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics ''The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics'' (2018), 3rd ed., is a twenty-volume reference work on economics published by Palgrave Macmillan. It contains around 3,000 entries, including many classic essays from the original Inglis Palgrave Diction ...
'', 2nd Edition
Abstract.
/ref> His most cited work is ''The Theory of Public Finance'' (1959), described as "the first English-language
treatise A treatise is a formal and systematic written discourse on some subject, generally longer and treating it in greater depth than an essay, and more concerned with investigating or exposing the principles of the subject and its conclusions."Treat ...
in the field," and "a major contribution to public finance thought."


Biography


Early life

Musgrave was born in
Königstein im Taunus Königstein im Taunus () is a health spa and lies on the thickly wooded slopes of the Taunus in Hesse, Germany. The town is part of the Frankfurt Rhein-Main urban area. Owing to its advantageous location for both scenery and transport on the edg ...
, Germany, into the family of a writer and translator Curt Abel Musgrave, a chemist by profession. His paternal grandfather (professor of linguistics at the Berlin Humboldt Institute
Carl Abel Carl Abel (25 November 1837 – 26 November 1906) was a German comparative philologist from Berlin who wrote ''Linguistic Essays'' in 1880. Abel also acted as Ilchester lecturer on comparative lexicography at the University of Oxford and as ...
) and maternal grandmother were
Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
but converted to Christianity. He turned from the field of literature, with an interest in becoming a stage director, to philosophy and economics at the Universities of
Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
and
Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...
(Diplom-Volkswirt, 1933), then at
Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
(Ph.D., 1937). After that, he spent four years as a research economist at the
Federal Reserve The Federal Reserve System (often shortened to the Federal Reserve, or simply the Fed) is the central banking system of the United States of America. It was created on December 23, 1913, with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, after a ...
and taught at several American
universities A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...
, including the
University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
where he worked on his treatise from 1951 to 1959. He served as an advisor to the US government and returned to Harvard in 1965 as H. H. Burbank professor of Political Economy in the faculty of Arts and Sciences and the Law School. He was also editor of the ''
Quarterly Journal of Economics ''The Quarterly Journal of Economics'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by the Oxford University Press for the Harvard University Department of Economics. Its current editors-in-chief are Robert J. Barro, Lawrence F. Katz, Nathan N ...
''. His book ''The Theory of Public Finance'' (1959) remains a leading theoretical work. ''Public Finance in Theory and Practice'' (1973), co-authored with his wife, Peggy Brewer Musgrave, was a leading textbook for many years.


Career in economics

Martin Feldstein is quoted in the ''New York Times'' obituary (Jan 20, 2007) "Richard Musgrave transformed economics in the 1950s and 1960s from a descriptive and institutional subject to one that used the tools of Microeconomics and Keynesian Macroeconomics to understand the effect of taxes." Musgrave published his seminal paper, "Voluntary Exchange Theory of Public Economy" in the ''Quarterly Journal of Economics'' in 1939.
Paul Samuelson Paul Anthony Samuelson (May 15, 1915 – December 13, 2009) was an American economist who was the first American to win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. When awarding the prize in 1970, the Swedish Royal Academies stated that he "h ...
would later convert this from a positive theory to a
normative theory Normative generally means relating to an evaluative standard. Normativity is the phenomenon in human societies of designating some actions or outcomes as good, desirable, or permissible, and others as bad, undesirable, or impermissible. A norm in ...
. It is from the 1939 paper "Voluntary Exchange Theory of Public Economy" that 'The Musgrave Three-Function Framework' originates. This framework is the suggestion that government activity should be separated into three functions or "branches," macroeconomic stabilization,
income redistribution Redistribution of income and wealth is the transfer of income and wealth (including physical property) from some individuals to others through a social mechanism such as taxation, welfare, public services, land reform, monetary policies, confisc ...
and resource allocation. The stabilization branch is to assure the achievement of high employment and price stability, the distribution branch is to achieve an equitable distribution of income, and the allocation branch is to see that resources are used efficiently. This conceptual division of the responsibilities of government allows us to narrow the scope of inquiry into tax assignment, by indicating which of the three functions are most appropriately assigned to various levels of government. The remainder of this section focuses on the implications of the three-branch framework for the assignment of revenue sources among levels of government, especially the assignment between the central government and second-tier governments. In his paper, "A Multiple Theory of Budget Determination," published in ''
FinanzArchiv FinanzArchiv (Public Finance Analysis) is an international academic journal of economics published quarterly by Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, Germany. The journal publishes high quality papers in all fields of public finance, such as taxation, public ...
'' 1957, Musgrave introduced the economic concept of
merit good The economics concept of a merit good, originated by Richard Musgrave (economist), Richard Musgrave (1957, 1959), is a Good (economics and accounting), commodity which is judged that an individual or society should have on the basis of some concept ...
(and later,
de-merit good In economics, a demerit good is "a good or service whose consumption is considered unhealthy, degrading, or otherwise socially undesirable due to the perceived negative effects on the consumers themselves"; it could be over-consumed if left to mark ...
). The concept has been extensively discussed elsewhere and been quite controversial in economic theory. His background in the
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
,
Austrian Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen, see Austrian nationality law * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ...
, Italian and Swedish schools of
political economy Political economy is the study of how Macroeconomics, economic systems (e.g. Marketplace, markets and Economy, national economies) and Politics, political systems (e.g. law, Institution, institutions, government) are linked. Widely studied ph ...
plus the uniquely German contribution of Finanzwissenschaft, or fiscal sociology, gave him a unique position to make a contribution to postwar government finance theory.


Accolades

Musgrave was elected a Fellow in American Academy of Arts and Sciences, honorary member of the National Tax Association, and honorary President of the Institute of Public Finance (1978). Awarded the Frank E Seidman award in Political Economy (1981), honorary doctorates from Alleghany college, University of Heidelberg, University of Milan, University of Michigan, and the University of Munich, he was a professor
emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...
at Harvard until his death, and an adjunct Professor at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Musgrave was designated a Distinguished Fellow by the American Economic Association in 1978, along with
William S. Vickrey William Spencer Vickrey (21 June 1914 – 11 October 1996) was a Canadian-American professor of economics and Nobel Laureate. Vickrey was awarded the 1996 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with James Mirrlees for their research into the ec ...
. An accompanying statement referred to him as "the undisputed father of modern Industrial Organization Economics." The
International Institute of Public Finance The International Institute of Public Finance, or IIPF, is a global organization of economists specializing in public finance. It was founded in Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population o ...
created an award in 2003 to commemorate the work conducted by Richard and his wife.


Personal

He died on January 15, 2007, in
Santa Cruz, California Santa Cruz (Spanish for "Holy Cross") is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, in Northern California. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 62,956. Situated on the northern edge of Monterey Bay, Santa Cruz is a pop ...
.


Selected works


Description
and chapter-previe
links.
* *
Abstract.


Notes


External links


Richard A. Musgrave Papers at Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton UniversityWorks by or about Richard Musgrave
on
FRASER Fraser may refer to: Places Antarctica * Fraser Point, South Orkney Islands Australia * Fraser, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb in the Canberra district of Belconnen * Division of Fraser (Australian Capital Territory), a former federal ele ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Musgrave, Richard 1910 births 2007 deaths Harvard University alumni German emigrants to the United States 20th-century American economists German economists Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences University of Michigan faculty Distinguished Fellows of the American Economic Association American people of German-Jewish descent