William Jack Baumol (born February 26, 1922) is an American economist. He is a professor of
economics at
New York University and is also affiliated with
Princeton University. Baumol has written extensively about
labor market and other economic factors that affect the economy. He also made valuable contributions to the
history of economic thought. He is among the most influential economists in the world according to
IDEAS/RePEc. He was elected a Fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1971.
Research
Among his better-known contributions are the theory of
contestable markets, the
Baumol-Tobin model of
transactions demand for money,
Baumol's cost disease, which discusses the rising costs associated with service industries, and
Pigou taxes. His research on
environmental economics recognized the fundamental role of
non-convexities in causing
market failures.
Entrepreneurship
In 2003, Baumol received the
Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research "[f]or his persistent effort to give the entrepreneur a key role in mainstream economic theory, for his theoretical and empirical studies of the nature of entrepreneurship, and for his analysis of the importance of institutions and incentives for the allocation of entrepreneurship."
The 2006 Annual Meetings of the American Economic Association held a special session in his name, and honoring his many years of work, where 12 papers on entrepreneurship were presented.
The British magazine, The Economist published an article about William Baumol and his lifelong work to develop a place in economic theory for the entrepreneur (March 11, 2006, pp 68), much of which owes its genesis to Joseph Schumpeter. They note that traditional microeconomic theory holds a place for 'prices' and 'firms' but not for that (seemingly) important engine of innovation, the entrepreneur. Baumol is given credit for helping to remedy this shortcoming: "Thanks to Mr. Baumol's own painstaking efforts, economists now have a bit more room for entrepreneurs in their theories."
Textbooks
Baumol has written several textbooks in economics, including an introductory textbook with
Alan Blinder. His economics textbook on
operations research was internationally used:
In the 1960s and 1970s, nearly every economics department offered a course in operations research methods in economics, and the usual textbook used was Economic theory and operatons analysis by W. J. Baumol An entire generation of economics students was familiar with this book ....
Professional and philanthropic interests
Baumol is a trustee of
Economists for Peace and Security. Baumol is known for his interests in the economics of art, including the economics of art galleries that rely on private philanthropy.
Major publications
"Community Indifference", 1946, RES
"A Community Indifference Map: A construction", 1949, RES.
"A Formalization of Mr. Harrod's Model", 1949, EJ.
"The Analogy between Producer and Consumer Equilibrium Analysis", with Helen Makower, 1950, Economica.
Economic Dynamics, with R. Turvey, 1951.
"The Transaction Demand for Cash: An inventory-theoretic approach", 1952, QJE.
"The Classical Monetary Theory: The outcome of the discussion", with G.S. Becker, 1952, Economica.
Welfare Economics and the Theory of the State, 1952.
"Firms with Limited Money Capital", 1953, Kyklos.
Economic Processes and Policies, with L.V. Chandler, 1954.
"More on the Multiplier Effect of a Balanced Budget", with M.H. Peston, 1955, AER.
"Acceleration without Magnification", 1956, AER.
"Variety in Retailing", with E.A. Ide, 1956 Management Science.
"Speculation, Profitability and Stability", 1957, REStat.
"Activity Analysis in One Lesson", 1958, AER.
"On the Theory of Oligopoly", 1958, Economica.
"Topology of Second Order Linear Difference Equations with Constant Coefficients", 1958, Econometrica.
"The Cardinal Utility which is Ordinal", 1958, EJ.
Business Behavior, Value and Growth, 1959.
"Integer Programming and Pricing", with R.E. Gomory, 1960, Econometrica.
Economic Theory and Operations Analysis, 1961.
"What Can Economic Theory Contribute to Managerial Economics?", 1961, AER.
"Pitfalls in Contracyclical Policies: Some tools and results", 1961, REStat.
"The Theory of Expansion of the Firm", 1962, AER.
"Stocks, Flows and Monetary Theory", 1962, QJE.
"An Expected Gain-Confidence Limit Criterion for Portfolio Selection", 1963, Management Science.
"Rules of Thumb and Optimally Imperfect Decisions", with R. E. Quandt, 1964, American Economic Review, 54, p. 23-46
"Decomposition, Pricing for Decentralization and External Economics", with T.Fabian, 1964, Management Science.
"On the Performing Arts: the anatomy of their economic problems", with W.G. Bowen, 1965, AER.
"Investment and Discount Rates Under Capital Rationing", with R.E.Quandt, 1965, EJ.
"Informed Judgement, Rigorous Theory and Public Policy", 1965, Southern EJ.
The Stock Market and Economic Efficiency, 1965.
Performing Arts: the economic dilemma, 1966.
"The Ricardo Effect in Point-Input, Point-Output Case", 1966, Essays in Mathematical Economics in Honor of Oskar Morgenstern.
"Macroeconomics of Unbalanced Growth: The anatomy of urban crisis", 1967, AER.
"Calculation of Optimal Product and Retailer Characteristics", 1967, JPE.
"The Firm's Optimal Debt-Equity Combination and the Cost of Capital", with B.G. Malkiel, 1967, QJE.
"Error Produced by Linearization in Mathematical Programming", with R. Bushnell, 1967, Econometrica.
"The Dual of Nonlinear Programming and its Economic Interpretation", with M.L.Balinski, 1968, RES.
"Entrepreneurship in Economic Theory", 1968, May, American Economic Review
"On the Social Rate of Discount", 1968, AER.
"On the Discount Rate for Public Projects", 1969, Analysis and Evaluation of Public Expenditures.
"Input Choices and Rate-of-Return Regulation: An overview of the discussion", with A.K.Klevorick, 1970, Bell JE.
"Optimal Departures from Marginal Cost Pricing", with D.F. Bradford, 1970, AER.
"The Economics of Athenian Drama", 1971, QJE.
Environmental protection, International Spillovers and Trade, 1971.
"On the Economics of the Theatre in Renaissance London" with Mary Oates, 1972, Swedish JE.
"The Dynamics of Urban Problems and its Policy Implications", 1972, in Preston and Corry, editors, Essays in Honor of Lord Robbins.
"Taxation and the Control of Externalities", 1972, AER.
"Detrimental Externalities and Non-Convexity of the Production Set", with D.F. Bradford, 1972, Economica.
"The Transformation of Values: What Marx 'Really' Meant", 1974, JEL.
The Theory of Environmental Policy, with W.E.Oates, 1975.
Economics, Environmental Policy and Quality of Life, with W.E.Oates and S.A. Batey Blackman 1979.
Contestable Markets and the Theory of Industry Structure, with J.C. Panzar and R.D. Wilig, 1982
"Contestable Markets: An Uprising in the Theory of Industry Structure", 1982, "AER".
Microtheory: Applications and origins, 1986
Superfairness: Application and theory, with D. Fischer, 1986
"The Optimal Cash Balance Proposition: Maurice Allais' Priority", with J. Tobin, 1989, JEL
Productivity and American Leadership: The long view, with S.A. Batey Blackman and E.N. Wolff, 1989.
Entrepreneurship: Productive, Unproductive and Destructive, Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 98(3), pp. 893–921, 1990
Perfect Markets and Easy Virtue: Business ethics and the invisible hand, with S.A. Batey Blackman, 1992
Entrepreneurship, Management and the Structure of Profit, 1993.
The Free Market Innovation Machine: Analyzing the Growth Miracle of Capitalism, 2002.
Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism, and the Economics of Growth and Prosperity, co-authored with Robert Litan and Carl J. Schramm, 2007
Positions and Awards
William Baumol was President of the American Economic Association for 1981.
1953 Fellow, Econometric Society
1957-58 Guggenheim Fellow
1960-70 Trustee, Rider College
1965 Honorary LL.D, Rider College (Trustee Emeritus)
1965-66 Ford Faculty Fellowship
1970 Honorary Fellow, London School of Economics
1971 Honorary Doctorate, Stockholm School of Economics
1973 Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, Knox College
1973 Honorary Doctorate, University of Basel
1975 John R. Commons Award, Omicron Delta Epsilon
1975 Townsend Harris Medal, Alumni Association of the City College of New York
1982 Distinguished Fellow, American Economic Association
1984 Distinguished Member, Economic Association of Puerto Rico
1986 Winner, Assoc. of American Publishers Award for Best Book in Business, Management and Economics, Superfairness: Applications and Theory
1987 Recipient, Frank E. Seidman Distinguished Award in Political Economy
1988 Joseph Douglas Green 1895 Professor of Economics, Princeton University
1989 Winner, Assoc. of Am. Publishers Annual Awards for Excellence in Publishing, Honorable Mention in Social Sciences, Productivity and American Leadership: The Long View
1992 Recipient, First Senior Scholar in the Arts and Sciences Award, New York University
1996 Honorary Degree, University of Limburg, Maastricht, Holland
1996 Honorary Professorship, University of Belgrano, Buenos Aires, Argentina
2003 Winner of the Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research, the Swedish Entrepreneurship Forum (Entreprenörskapsforum), the Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN) and the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth (Tillväxtverket), Stockholm, Sweden
See also
Baumol-Tobin model
References
External links
Baumol home page
IDEAS/RePEc
Entrepreneurship: Productive, Unproductive, and Destructive
The discrimination of blacks has increased the number of jazz composers - An interview with William Baumol published in the Czech weekly Respekt and daily Blisty in 2003
Category:1922 births
Category:Living people
Category:American economists
Category:Environmental economists
Category:Historians of economic thought
Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Category:Fellows of the Econometric Society
Category:Cultural economics
Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
Category:New York University faculty
Category:Guggenheim Fellows
Category:Neo-Keynesian economists