It had been twenty-five years since the Cowles Commission had left Chicago and in 1980 the economics department was divided and tensions were high.
The old literary school was breaking up as the mathematical approach was becoming more popular. This had a lot to do with Milton Friedman’s success in his battle with Kenyes. Among many things, he wrote the book Capitalism and Freedom and did a ten-part television series titled Free to Choose. (You can watch each one-hour part here on YouTube. (Extra credit for the first person to watch all ten videos and give a written summary to Professor Tufte on Monday morning. j/k) Chicago also hired its first “cutting-edge mathematical economist” in 1971, William Brock, but he left for University of Wisconsin as these tensions escalated in the economic department.
However, there was also a rise of labor economists. This list of economists can be found on page 205 and they were theorist and econometricians who looked in particular markets rather than the whole economy.
B for Tom. Kenyes?
ReplyDeleteI probably would give extra credit for that ... but I'd be stepping on Joe Baker's toes :o
Buz Brock is still a demigod in growth research. He had a fascinating paper come out last year showing how the Solow growth model predicts that aggregate pollution should peak before an economy reaches its steady state. That's a common enough observation (it's why China is more polluted than the U.S.) called the environmental Kuznets curve that has not had a firm theoretical foundation.