Nationality United States Role Economist | Name James Duesenberry | |
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School or tradition Neo-Keynesian economics Influences John Maynard KeynesMichal KaleckiJohn HicksPaul Samuelson Died October 5, 2009, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States Books Income, Saving, and the Theory of Consumer Behavior Influenced by John Maynard Keynes, Michal Kalecki, Sir John Richard Hicks, Paul Samuelson | ||
James Duesenberry's Demonstration Effect & Ratchet Effect
James Stemble Duesenberry (July 18, 1918 – October 5, 2009) was an American economist. He made a significant contribution to the Keynesian analysis of income and employment with his 1949 doctoral thesis Income, Saving and the Theory of Consumer Behavior. Kenneth Arrow believed that it offered "one of the most significant contributions of the postwar period to our understanding of economic behavior". His theory, however, later disappeared from standard textbooks, although some, such as Robert H. Frank, argue that it outperforms the alternative theories that displaced it in the 1950s.
Duesenberry attended the University of Michigan, where he earned his Bachelor of Arts in 1939, his Master of Arts in 1941, and his Doctor of Philosophy in 1948. He served as professor of economics at Harvard University from 1955–1989.