James Tobin
Keynesian economist, Nobel laureate, and architect of the Tobin tax.
He was born on March 5, 1918 in Champaign, Illinois to a social worker mother and a father who became sports information director for the University of Illinois.[1] James Tobin, who died on March 11, 2002 at age 84, was awarded the 1981 Nobel Prize in economics.[1] At Yale University, Tobin held the title of Sterling Professor Emeritus of Economics.[1]
Quick Facts
- School of thought
- Neo-Keynesian economics
- Born
- 5 March 1918
- Birthplace
- Champaign, Illinois, U.S.
- Died
- 11 March 2002
- Place of death
- New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.
- Institution
- Yale University; Cowles Commission
- Field
- Macroeconomics
- Alma mater
- Harvard University
Facts from the source article.
Life and work
He enlisted in the Navy following the attack on Pearl Harbor.[1] After serving four years on the U.S.S. Kearny, Tobin returned to Harvard to earn his doctorate.[1] He formally retired from Yale in 1988 but continued to write.[2] A national scholarship allowed Tobin to begin his studies at Harvard College in 1935.[3]
Tobin's academic degrees from Harvard were a bachelor's in 1939, a master's the following year, and a Ph.D. in 1947.[1] After moving to Yale University in 1950, Tobin spent the remainder of his professional life there.[4] During the years 1961–62, Tobin was a member of John F. Kennedy's Council of Economic Advisers.[5] In 1981, Tobin received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics.[6]
What the cited sources add
The Yale News obituary notes that Tobin was described by Paul Samuelson as "the archetype of a late-twentieth-century American scholar"[1] William Brainard, a colleague and former student, said of Tobin's theory course: "It was abstract, but Jim never let you lose sight that the ultimate reason for studying theory was to make the world a better place"[1] The Royal Swedish Academy of Science cited Tobin's "creative and extensive work on the analysis of financial markets and their relations to expenditure decisions, employment, production and prices"[1] The Academy also noted that "few economic researchers of today could be said to have gained so many followers or exerted such influence on contemporary research"[1]
Tobin's 1971 proposal for a foreign currency exchange tax became known as the "Tobin tax".[1]
References
- "Professor, Presidential Adviser and Nobel Laureate James Tobin Dies Yale News", news.yale.edu, 2002-03-12. facts only, no text reused. news.yale.edu
- Wikipedia, "James Tobin" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Vane, "The Nobel Memorial Laureates in Economics: An Introduction to Their Careers and Main Published Works", Edward Elgar Publishing, 2005, p. 121 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "James Tobin" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Solow Robert, "James Tobin", Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 2004 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "James Tobin" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Nobel Prize-winning economist James Tobin dies at 84", Yale Bulletin & Calendar, 15 March 2002 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "James Tobin" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: James Tobin's CV at the Cowles Foundation's website (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "James Tobin" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "James Tobin", American Academy of Arts & Sciences; "APS Member History", search.amphilsoc.org; "James Tobin", www.nasonline.org (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article James Tobin (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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