Jacob Marschak - Biography

Jacob Marschak (born: 23 July 1898 Kiev, Imperial Russia, now capital of Ukraine; died: 27 July 1977 Los Angeles, U.S.) was an American economist of Ukrainian Jewish origin.

Life

Jakob Marschak (until 1933 Jakob) was born in Kiev as a son of a jeweller. During his studies he joined the social democratic party (Menshevik, particularly the Menshevik International caucus). In 1918 he was the minister for labor in the Soviet republic Terek, then he emigrated to Germany, where he studied in Berlin and Heidelberg.

From 1922 till 1926 he was a journalist and in 1928 he joined the new Kiel Institut für Weltwirtschaft. Since he could not become a full professor because of his Jewish origin, he emigrated again to England, where he went to Oxford to teach at the Oxford Institute of Statistics, which was funded by the Rockefeller Foundation. Because of that he could move again to the USA. Here he taught at New School for Social Research. Then in 1943 he went to University of Chicago, where he led the Cowles Commission. He followed the Commission's move to Yale and then became emeritus at University of California. Dr Marschak was fluent in approximately one dozen languages. Shortly before he was due to become president of the American Economic Association, he died from a stroke.

UCLA sponsors the recurring Jacob Marschak Interdisciplinary Colloquium on Mathematics in the Behavior Sciences.

Major publications

• "Wirtschaftsrechnung und Gemeinwirtschaft", 1923, Archiv für Sozialwissenschaft
• "Der Neue Mittelstand" with E. Lederer, 1926, in Grundriss der Nationalökonomik (trans. "The New Middle Class", 1937, WPA)
• "Das Kaufkraft-Argument in der Lohnpolitik", 1930, Magazin der Wirtschaft.
• Die Lohndiskussion, 1930.
• Elastizität der Nachfrage, 1931.
• "Annual Survey of Statistical Information", 1933, Econometrica.
• The New Middle Class, with Emil Lederer, 1937.
• "Money and the Theory of Assets", 1938, Econometrica.
• "Assets, Prices and Monetary Theory", with H. Makower, 1938, Economica.
• "A Discussion on Methods in Economics", 1941, JPE.
• "Random Simultaneous Equations and the Theory of Production", with W.H. Andrews, 1944-5, Econometrica.
• "A Cross-Section of Business Cycle Discussion", 1945, AER.
• "Von Neumann's and Morgenstern's New Approach to Static Economics", 1946, JPE.
• "Mathematics for Economists", 1947, Econometrica.
• "Statistical Inference from Non-Experimental Observation: An Economic Example", 1949, Proceedings of the International Statistical Conference
• "The Role of Liquidity under Complete and Incomplete Information", 1949, AER.
• "Rational Behavior, Uncertain Prospects and Measurable Utility", 1950, Econometrica.
• "The Rationale of the Demand for Money and of `Money Illusion'", 1950, Metroeconomica
• "Optimal Inventory Policy", with K.J. Arrow and T. Harris, 1951, Econometrica
• "Why "Should" Statisticians and Businessmen Maximize Moral Expectation?", 1951, Proceedings of the Second Berkeley Symposium
• "Three Lectures on Probability in the Social Sciences", 1954.
• "Towards an Economic Theory of Organization and Information", 1954, in Thrall et al., editors, Decision Processes.
• "Note on Some Proposed Decision Criteria", with Roy Radner, 1954, in Thrall et al., editors, Decision Processes.
• "Elements for a Theory of Teams", 1955, Management Science
• "Experimental Tests of a Stochastic Decision Theory" with D. Davidson, 1959, in Churchman and Ratoosh, editors, Measurement Definitions and Theories
• "Efficient and Viable Organizational Forms", 1959, in Modern Organization Theory
• "An Identity in Arithmetic", with H.D. Block, 1959, Bulletin of the AMS
• "Random Orderings and Stochastic Theories of Responses" with H.D. Block, 1960, in Contributions to Probability and Statistics
• "Remarks on the Economics of Information" 1960, in Contributions to Scientific Research in Management
• "Theory of an Efficient Several-Person Firm" 1960, in General Systems
• "Binary-Choice Constraints and Random Utility Indicators", 1960, in Arrow, Karlin and Suppes, editors, Mathematical Methods in the Social Sciences.
• "Economics of Inquiring, Communicating, Deciding", 1968, AER.
• "Economics and Information Systems", 1971, in Intriligator, editor, Frontiers of Quantitative Economics.
• Economic Theory of Teams, with Roy Radner, 1972.
• Economic Information, Decision and Prediction, 1974.

Honours

• 1946 President of the Econometric Society
• 1963 Honorary Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society
• 1967 Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association

External links

• Biography at HET
• Biography at Yale