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"Colander, David" <[log in to unmask]>
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I am working on an AEA calendar of economists 
that will be based on George Stigler's calendar 
for those of you who remember it. Each of the 
economists listed will have a short bio with them 
on the calendar. I attach the bios below. If 
anyone notices any mistake or problem on a bio, 
could you send me an email letting me know.

I recognize that there are many different things 
that could be said about each, and I'm not 
looking for discussions of nuances, but I would 
like to hear from you if anything looks definitely wrong or misleading.

Many thanks,



David Colander


Thorstein Veblen (July 30, 1857 – August 3, 1929) 
studied under John Bates Clark as an 
undergraduate at Carleton College. As a founder 
of the institutional economics movement, he 
developed an evolutionary theory of economics 
driven by the human instincts of emulation and 
predation, and coined the term “conspicuous 
consumption.” His writings include Theory of the 
Leisure Class (1899), The Engineers and the Price 
System (1921), and "Why is Economics Not an 
Evolutionary Science?" (1898). When offered the 
presidency of the AEA, he declined.

Alfred Marshall (July 26, 1842--July 13, 1924) 
was a British economist, whose famous textbook 
combined older classical school ideas with 
marginalist economics, forming the foundation of 
traditional micro economic analysis. He saw 
supply and demand as an “engine of analysis” to 
be used in conjunction with an intuitive 
understanding of the economy. His most important 
writing is Principles of Economics (1890) which 
went through numerous editions while popularizing 
the partial equilibrium supply/demand framework.

Friedrich August von Hayek (May 8, 1899 – March 
23, 1992) was an Austrian economist and 
philosopher who envisioned the economy as a 
complex system. He believed that economic 
analysis had to go far beyond analytic models to 
be useful, and was an eloquent defender of 
laissez-faire capitalism. His writings include 
The Road to Serfdom (1944) and Law, Legislation 
and Liberty (1973, 1976, and 1979). He was 
awarded the 1974 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics.

Milton Friedman (July 31, 1912 – November 16, 
2006) was a University of Chicago economist who 
advocated the advantages of free competitive 
markets and helped develop monetarism. He was 
influential in conceptualizing the permanent 
income hypothesis, the natural rate of 
unemployment, and positive economics. His 
writings include A Monetary History of the United 
States (with Anna Schwartz) (1971) and Capitalism 
and Freedom (1962). He was awarded the 1951 John 
Bates Clark Medal, and the 1976 Nobel Memorial 
Prize in Economics. He was president of the AEA in 1967.

Irving Fisher (February 27, 1867 – April 29, 
1947) was a Yale mathematical economist who 
contributed to the quantity theory of money, 
capital theory, interest rate theory, and index 
number theory. He promoted the distinction 
between real and nominal interest rates, and 
developed the concept of money illusion. His 
writings include Mathematical Investigations in 
the Theory of Value and Prices (1892), The Making 
of Index Numbers (1922), and The Theory of 
Interest (1930). He was president of the AEA in 1918.

George Joseph Stigler (January 17, 1911 – 
December 1, 1991) was a University of Chicago 
economist who developed search theory, and avidly 
criticized government regulation, arguing that 
people use regulation for personal gain rather 
than for the general good. His writings include 
"Information in the Labor Market" (1962), The 
Citizen and the State: Essays on Economic 
Regulation (1975), and The Theory of Price 
(1942). He was a founder of the Mont Pelerin 
Society, and won the 1982 Nobel Memorial Prize in 
Economics. He was president of the AEA in 1964.

Richard Theodore Ely (April 13, 1854 – October 4, 
1943), a University of Wisconsin economist, was 
one of the founders of the American Economic 
Association, which was spawned by progressive 
American economists who tended to support the 
German historical school’s approach to activist 
government policy.  His writings include Labor 
Movement in America (1886) and Monopolies and 
Trusts 1900). He was secretary of the AEA from 
1885 to 1892, and president from 1900 to 1901.

Joan Robinson (October 31, 1903 – August 5, 1983 
) was a British economist who made wide-ranging 
and provocative contributions to economic theory. 
Her early work was on economic theory and 
imperfect competition, but she later wrote about 
capital theory, Marxist economics, growth theory 
and macroeconomics. Her writings include The 
Economics of Imperfect Competition (1933), in 
which she coined the term monopsony, and 
Accumulation of Capital (1956), which expands Keynesianism into the long-run.

Joseph Schumpeter (February 8, 1883 – January 8, 
1950) was a Harvard economist whose work 
emphasized the role of entrepreneurship, business 
cycles, and economic development. Originally at 
the University of Bonn, he was one of many émigré 
economists who strengthened and fundamentally 
changed the American economics profession. His 
writings include the classic Capitalism, 
Socialism and Democracy (1942) and History of 
Economic Analysis, (published posthumously in 
1954, edited by Elisabeth Boody Schumpeter).

John von Neumann (December 28, 1903 – February 8, 
1957) was a Princeton mathematician who made 
significant contributions to mathematics, 
physics, and operations research, as well as to 
economics. Together with Oskar Morgenstern, von 
Neumann pioneered game theory, which he saw as 
the mathematics of social science, developing the 
famous minimax strategy and inventing backward 
induction. He co-authored, with Oskar 
Morgenstern, the classic Theory of Games and Economic Behavior (1944).

Francis Edgeworth (February 8, 1845 – February 
13, 1926) was a British mathematical economist 
who made significant contributions to 
neoclassical economic theory and statistical 
work. He introduced indifference curves and of 
course contributed to the famous Edgeworth-Bowley 
box. He was the founding editor of The Economic 
Journal in 1891, and continued as editor for 35 
years. In his most famous book, Mathematical 
Psychics: An Essay on the Application of 
Mathematics to the Moral Sciences (1881), he 
developed a precursor to the economic theory of “the core.”

Karl Marx (May 5, 1818 – March 14, 1883) was a 
philosopher and political economist who used 
classical economic theory to critique capitalism. 
He argued that markets alienate individuals from 
their true selves, and that capitalists extract 
surplus value from human labor. His ideas have 
inspired many to advocate for revolutionary 
political change aimed at upsetting capitalism 
and reducing the gap in wealth enjoyed by the 
rich and the poor. His writings include Das 
Kapital (1867), Economic and Philosophical 
Manuscripts of 1844 (1932), and Manifesto of the 
Communist Party (with Friedrick Engles) (1848).

John Maynard Keynes (June 5, 1883 – April 21, 
1946) was a British economist whose work during 
the Great Depression significantly influenced 
government policy toward business cycles, and led 
to a separate field of macroeconomics.  He 
emphasized the complexity and uncertainty 
inherent in the aggregate economy, and advocated 
a pragmatic rather than dogmatic approach to 
policy. Among his major writings are: The 
Economic Consequences of the Peace (1919), The 
Treatise on Money (1930), and The General Theory 
of Employment, Interest, and Money (1936).

David Ricardo (April 18, 1772 – September 11, 
1823) systematized classical economics and 
introduced formal modeling to economics. He 
became interested in economics after reading The 
Wealth of Nations at age 27. He was a member of 
the British Parliament and an avid opponent of 
protectionism. His fundamental contribution to 
economics is the theory of comparative advantage, 
which he described in On the Principles of 
Political Economy and Taxation (1817). Ricardo 
also developed the concept of economic rent.

John Stuart Mill (May 20, 1806 – May 8, 1873) was 
a British economist who addressed the limits of 
the power that can be legitimately exercised by 
society over individuals in his treatise On 
Liberty (1859). He argued that individuals should 
retain liberty unless their actions cause 
negative externalities. His Principles of 
Political Economy (1848) was the standard text in 
economics at Oxford until 1919, when it was 
replaced by Marshall’s Principles. While a member 
of the British Parliament from 1865 to 1868, Mill 
was the first MP to call for giving women the right to vote.

Adam Smith (June 5, 1723 – July 17, 1790]) was a 
Scottish economist and philosopher who developed 
a theory of moral sentiments, and explained how 
rational self-interest and competition lead to 
economic prosperity. He wrote The Theory of Moral 
Sentiments (1759), in which he first describes 
“the invisible hand,” and An Inquiry into the 
Nature and Wealth of Nations (1776), where that 
invisible hand, rather than their benevolence, is 
said to guide the self-interest of “the butcher, 
the brewer, or the baker” to serve society’s 
broad interests. Smith is also famous for 
recognizing the value of the division of labor.

Thomas Malthus (February 13, 1766 – December 23, 
1834 was a British economist who argued that 
absent checks from misery, vice, or moral 
restraint (sexual abstinence), a geometrically 
growing population would outstrip an 
arithmetically expanding food supply, eventually 
leading to catastrophic famine. In later writing, 
however, he deviated from such predictions. His 
work on population dynamics influenced Darwin and 
led to what became known as the Malthusian 
Doctrine that predicted decreasing standards of 
living. His magnum opus is An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798).

Leon Walras (December 16, 1834 - January 5, 1910) 
was a French economist whose work contributed to 
both the marginalist revolution and the creation 
of general equilibrium theory. He developed a 
theory of marginal utility three years later, but 
independently of William Stanley Jevons and Carl 
Menger.  His most important work is Elements of 
Pure Economics, (1874, 1877), in which he 
developed the first comprehensive mathematical 
analysis of general economic equilibrium.
   

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