Abba P Lerner

Abraham (Abba) Ptachya Lerner (also Abba Psachia Lerner; 28 October 1903 – 27 October 1982) was a Russian-born British economist. Lerner was born on 28 October 1903 in Bessarabia (Russian Empire). He grew up in a Jewish family, which emigrated to Great Britain when Lerner was three years old. Lerner grew up in London's East End, and from age sixteen, he worked as a machinist, a teacher in Hebrew schools, and as an entrepreneur.

Contents

• Abba P Lerner on gold money and wages
• Activities
• Personal life
• References

He entered the London School of Economics in 1929 where he would study under Friedrich Hayek. A six-month stay at Cambridge in 1934–1935 brought him into contact with John Maynard Keynes. In 1937, Lerner emigrated to the United States. While in the United States, Lerner befriended his intellectual opponents Milton Friedman and Barry Goldwater.

Lerner never stayed at one institution long, serving on the faculties of nearly a dozen universities and accepting over twenty visiting appointments. Lerner was sixty-two when he was given a professorship at the University of California, Berkeley in 1965, and left after reaching mandatory retirement age six years later. During his time there, Lerner criticized the unrest caused by the student Free Speech Movement as a threat to academic freedom.

Although Lerner never received the Sveriges Riksbank's Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, he has been recognized as one of the greatest economists of his era. Fundamental economic "concepts, theorems and rules" were derived and/or furthered by Lerner's work throughout his academic career.