Jan Tinbergen
Jan Tinbergen (
The Hague,
April 12,
1903 –
June 9,
1994 The Hague),
Dutch economist, was awarded the first
Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel in
1969, which he shared with
Ragnar Frisch for having developed and applied dynamic models for the analysis of economic processes.
Tinbergen studied
mathematics and
physics at the
University of Leiden under
Paul Ehrenfest. In 1929 he earned his PhD with his thesis entitled
"Minimumproblemen in de natuurkunde en de economie" (Minimisation problems in Physics and Economics). From
1929 till
1945 he worked, in addition to his professorship at
Erasmus University Rotterdam, for the
Dutch statistical office. He was also consultant to the
League of Nations. From
1945 till
1955 he served as the first director of the
Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis. Jan Tinbergen was a member of the
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Science and of the
International Academy of Science.
Tinbergen became know for his 'Tinbergen Norm', which states that if the difference between the lowest and highest income in a company exceeds a rate of 1:5, that will not help the company and may indeed be counterproductive.
Tinbergen developed the first national comprehensive
macroeconomic model, which he first built for the
Netherlands and later applied to the
United States and the
United Kingdom after
World War II.
His younger brothers
Nikolaas and
Luuk were important ornithologists, and Nikolaas won the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Tinbergen founded the Econometric Institute at the
Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam.
Tinbergen's work was later built on by
Lawrence Klein, contributing to another
Nobel Prize in Economics.
Centralization and decentralization in economic policy. - Westport, CT : Greenwood, 1981. - ISBN 0-313-23077-3
Der Dialog Nord-Süd : Informationen zur Entwicklungspolitik. - Frankfurt/M. : Europ. Verlagsanst., 1977
The dynamics of business cycles : a study in economic fluctuations. - Chicago, Ill. : Univ. Pr., 1974. - ISBN 0-226-80418-6
Economic policy : principles and design. - Amsterdam : North-Holland, 1978. - ISBN 0-7204-3129-8
*Rompzy, Eric van:
Jan Tinbergen. - Antwerpen : NBH, 1974
*
List of economists*
List of economics consultancies and think tanks*
TINBERGEN, Jan in:
Biografisch Woordenboek van het Socialisme en de Arbeidersbeweging in Nederland*
Jan Tinbergen (1903-1994) Koninklijke Bibliotheek
*
Jan Tinbergen*
Jan Tinbergen College (Dutch website)
