Nationality Canadian Name Jacob Viner | Role Economist | |
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School or tradition Chicago School of Economics Books The Customs Union Iss, Cost curves and supply cu, Essays on the intellectu, The role of providence in the soc, Canada's balance of internatio Similar People Milton Friedman, Gottfried Haberler, Douglas Irwin, Quincy Wright, Stanley Hornbeck | ||
Chicago Leaders in the 1930s
Jacob Viner (; May 3, 1892 – September 12, 1970) was a Canadian economist and is considered with Frank Knight and Henry Simons to be one of the "inspiring" mentors of the early Chicago School of Economics in the 1930s: he was one of the leading figures of the Chicago faculty.
Contents
- Chicago Leaders in the 1930s
- 4 theory of custom union FTA Eco Integration common mkt and economic union int Trade part 4
- Early life
- Academic career
- Public service
- Economics
- Atomic bomb
- Major publications
- References
#4- theory of custom union, FTA, Eco. Integration, common mkt and economic union-int. Trade part-4
Early life
Viner was born to a Jewish family in 1892 in Montreal, Quebec, to Romanian immigrant parents. He earned his undergraduate degree at McGill University in 1914. He received a PhD at Harvard University, where he wrote his dissertation, under the renowned international trade economist Frank W. Taussig.
Academic career
Viner was a professor at the University of Chicago from 1916 to 1917 and from 1919 to 1946. At various times, Viner also taught at Stanford and Yale Universities and twice went to the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland. In 1946 he left for Princeton University, where he remained until his retirement, in 1960. He was also a member of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton from 1947 to 1948 and a permanent member there from 1950 to 1970.
As a professor, Viner had a reputation as being extremely tough, and many students were terrified by the prospect of studying under him. To his friends and family, however, he was known to be wise, witty, and kind. Nobel laureate Milton Friedman studied under Viner while he was at the University of Chicago.
Public service
Viner played a role in government, most notably as an advisor to Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr. during the administration of Franklin Roosevelt. During World War II, he served as co-rapporteur to the economic and financial group of the Council on Foreign Relations' "War and Peace Studies" project, along with Harvard economist Alvin Hansen.
Economics
Viner was a noted opponent of John Maynard Keynes during the Great Depression. While he agreed with the policies of government spending pushed by Keynes, Viner argued that Keynes's analysis was flawed and would not stand in the long run.
Known for his enduring economic modeling of the firm, including the long- and the short-run cost curves, his work is still used today.
Viner is further known for having added the terms "trade creation" and "trade diversion" to the canon of economics in 1950. He also made important contributions to the theory of international trade and to the history of economic thought. While he was at Chicago, Viner co-edited the Journal of Political Economy with Frank Knight.
His most influential work, Studies in the Theory of International Trade (1937), discusses the history of economic thought and is a source for much of the knowledge of the Bullionist controversy in 19th-century Britain.
Atomic bomb
Viner spoke at the Conference on Atomic Energy Control in 1945, stating "that the atomic bomb was the cheapest way yet devised of killing human beings" and that atomic bombs "will be peacemaking in effect," perhaps making him the founder of nuclear deterrence.