Jacob Marschak was an American economist of Ukrainian

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

 Jewish origin.

Life

Jakob Marschak (until 1933 Jakob) was born in Kiev

Kiev

Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....

 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

Terek

The Terek River is a major river in the Northern Caucasus, flowing through Georgia and Russia into the Caspian Sea. It rises in Georgia near the juncture of the The Greater Caucasus Mountain Range and the Khokh Range, to the southwest of Mount Kazbek, then flows north through North Ossetia and...

, then he emigrated to Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, where he studied in Berlin and Heidelberg

Heidelberg

-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...

.

From 1922 till 1926 he was a journalist and in 1928 he joined the new Kiel

Kiel

Kiel is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 238,049 .Kiel is approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula, and the southwestern shore of the...

 Institut für Weltwirtschaft. Since he could not become a full professor because of his Jewish origin, he emigrated again to England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, where he went to Oxford

Oxford

The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...

 to teach at the Oxford Institute of Statistics, which was funded by the Rockefeller Foundation

Rockefeller Foundation

The Rockefeller Foundation is a prominent philanthropic organization and private foundation based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The preeminent institution established by the six-generation Rockefeller family, it was founded by John D. Rockefeller , along with his son John D. Rockefeller, Jr...

. 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

University of Chicago

The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...

, where he led the Cowles Commission. He followed the Commission's move to Yale and then became emeritus

Emeritus

Emeritus is a post-positive adjective that is used to designate a retired professor, bishop, or other professional or as a title. The female equivalent emerita is also sometimes used.-History:...

 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

American Economic Association

The American Economic Association, or AEA, is a learned society in the field of economics, headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. It publishes one of the most prestigious academic journals in economics: the American Economic Review...

, 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
  Econometric Society
  The Econometric Society is an international society for the advancement of economic theory in its relation with statistics and mathematics. It was founded on December 29, 1930 at the Stalton Hotel in Cleveland, Ohio....
  
  
• 1963 Honorary Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society
  Royal Statistical Society
  The Royal Statistical Society is a learned society for statistics and a professional body for statisticians in the UK.-History:It was founded in 1834 as the Statistical Society of London , though a perhaps unrelated London Statistical Society was in existence at least as early as 1824...
  
  
• 1967 Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association
  American Economic Association
  The American Economic Association, or AEA, is a learned society in the field of economics, headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. It publishes one of the most prestigious academic journals in economics: the American Economic Review...
  
  

External links

• Biography at HET
• Biography at Yale