Ragnar A.K. Frisch, 1895-1973.
![Photo of R. Frisch from Econometrica](https://cruel.org/econthought/profiles/image/frisch3.gif)
The Norwegian economist Ragnar Anton Kittil Frisch was the lord of economic nomenclature. He coined many of the words and phrases we are now familiar with in economics, such as "macroeconomics", "econometrics" and "flow-input, point-output", "impulse and propagation", etc. Some of his novel words did not really catch on (e.g. "passus coefficient", "polypoly", the "pari-passu law", etc.), but that hardly deterred him. At any rate, Frisch was in an excellent position to be master wordsmith: he also helped create the very fields he littered with his nomenclature.
Born 1895 in Oslo, the only son of a silversmith, Frisch was expected to follow his father's trade and took positive steps in that direction, e.g. an apprenticeship, a journeyman year. He studied economics at the University of Oslo (graduating in 1919), but he remained involved in his father's silversmithy. After a couple of years studying in Paris and England, Frisch returned to lecture at Oslo in 1924, becoming assistant professor in 1925.
Frisch research on economic theory and statistics yielded his famous 1926 paper on consumer theory (followed up by his 1932 book) which set in motion the axiomatization of consumer demand and set forth the possibility of empirically measuring marginal utility. It was here, incidentally, where the term "econometric" was first used.
Another of Frisch's idiosyncratic claims to fame was his meticulousness and great reluctance to publish; despite the great popularity and dissemination of his working papers and monographs. In the 1920s, he began lecturing on production theory, constructing in the process much of the formal Neoclassical theory of production. His classnotes of the 1920s were eventually published in a 1965 book -- long after his contributions had made their way into the theoretical canon. His dissertation (1927) on time series and statistics were also distributed widely in monograph form. Work done during the war on the computation of elasticities was only published in 1959. Finally, there is the famous "macrodynamic/time series" research program that he worked on -- and famously announced in his famous 1933 Cassel festschrift -- which was never quite finished and so never published.
In 1927, he left for a Rockefeller Foundation trip to the United States, meeting the leading mathematical economists of the day. He made a particularly strong impression of Irving Fisher and, together with Charles Roos, they began planning the formation of the Econometric Society.
Soon after Frisch returned in 1928, his father died, leaving the family business in his hands. He made the conscious decision to press ahead with his economics work, delegating much of the management of the silversmithy to others. In 1930, on Fisher's invitation, Frisch left for the United States to spend a couple of years at Yale and Minnesota. It was a quite fruitful sojourn: Frisch not only produced several excellent papers and monographs, he also set the Econometric Society in motion.
Frisch returned to Oslo in 1931. In 1932, he founded the Rockefeller-funded Institute of Economics at the University of Oslo. It was this time he put the finishing touches on his American work and, with his student, Trygve Haavelmo, went off in search of the macrodynamic grail. He also began his job as a highly influential Editor-in-Chief of Econometrica, a position he would hold from 1933 until 1955. He was imprisoned for a year by the Nazis during the war. He stayed remained at Oslo for much of the rest of his life.
Frisch's impact on economics has been substantial. His 1926 paper helped set the axiomatic-deductive Neo-Walrasian research programme in motion. His formalization of production theory (1965) has already been mentioned. Frisch's work on econometrics - particularly on time series (1927) and linear regression analysis (e.g. 1934) - was to be a fundamental contribution to the later Cowles approach to econometrics. His 1933 work on impulse-propagation business cycles, (together with that of Slutsky) was to prove the organizing principle behind much of modern New Classical real business cycle theory. He also contributed much to large decision models for government planning. Justifiably, Ragnar Frisch shared the first Nobel Memorial Prize in 1969 with Jan Tinbergen.
Major works of Ragnar A. Frisch
- "Sur un problème d'économie pure", 1926, Norsk Matematisk Forenings Skrifter(reprinted in Metroeconomica, 1957.)
- Analysis of Statistical Time Series, 1927 - unpublished
- "Changing Harmonics and Other General Types of Components in Empirical Series", 1928, Skandinavisk Aktuaritidskrift
- "Correlation and the Scatter of Statistical Variables", 1929, Nordic Statistical Journal
- "The Interrelation between Capital Formation and Consumer-Taking", 1931, JPE
- "A Method of Decomposing an Empirical Series into its Cyclical and Progressive Components", 1931, JASA
- "Statistical Correlation and the Theory of Cluster Types", with B.D. Mudgett, 1931, JASA
- "Einige Punkte einer Preistheorie mit Boden und Arbeit als Produktionsfaktoren, 1932, Zeitschrift f・ National(゚ konomie
- New Methods of Measuring Marginal Utility, 1932.
- "Propagation and Impulse Problems in Dynamic Economics", 1933, in Economic Essays in Honor of Gustav Cassel.
- "Pitfalls in the Statistical Construction of Demand and Supply Curves", 1933, Ver(゚ ffentlichungen der Frankfurter Gesellschaft fur Konjukturforschung
- "Monopoly, Polypoly: The concept of force in the economy", 1933, Nationalokonomisk Tidskrift (reprinted 1951, International Economic Papers).
- "Partial Time Regressions as Compared with Individual Trends", with F.V. Waugh, 1933, Econometrica
- Statistical Confluence Analysis by Means of Complete Regression Systems, 1934.
- Circulation Planning: Proposal for a National Organization of a Commodity and Service Exchange", 1934, Econometrica
- "More Pitfalls in Demand and Supply Curve Analysis", 1934, QJE
- "The Characteristic Solutions of a Mixed Difference and Differential Equation Occurring in Economic Dynamics", with H. Holme, 1935, Econometrica
- "Annual Survey of General Economic Theory: The Problem of Index Numbers", 1936, Econometrica
- "Note on the Term "Econometrics"", 1936, Econometrica,
- "On the Notion of Equilibrium and Disequilibrium", 1936, Econometrica
- "Statistical versus Theoretical Relations in Economic Macrodynamics", 1938, League of Nations - memorandum.
- "A Note on Error in Time Series", 1939, QJE
- "Alfred Marshall's Theory of Value", 1950, EJ
- "A Complete Scheme for Computing All Direct and Cross Demand Elasticities in a Model With Many Sectors", 1959, Econometrica
- "Dynamic Utility", 1964, Econometrica
- Theory of Production, 1965.
- Economic Planning Studies, 1976.
- "Statics and Dynamics in Economic Theory", 1992, SCED
Resources on Ragnar Frisch
- HET Pages: the Neoclassical Theory of Production, Axioms of Consumption, Shock-Based Theories of the Cycle, Extensions to Multiplier-Accelerator Models
- Autobiography of Ragnar Frisch at Nobel site.
- Press release of Nobel award (1969).
- Ragnar Frisch webpage at Oslo Univ.
- Another Oslo webpage on Frisch.
- History of Dept. of Economics, at Oslo Univ.
- The Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research at Oslo Univ.
- "A Turning Point in the Development of Norwegian Economics" by Olav Bjerkholt
- Econometrics and Economic Theory in the 20th Century: The Ragnar Frisch Centennial Symposium, 1998, Steinar Storm, editor, at ElectricPress.com.
- "Introduction" by Steinar Storm
- "Ragnar Frisch and the University of Oslo" by Jens C. Andvig and Thore Thonstad
- "Ragnar Frisch and the Foundation of the Econometric Society andEconometrica" by Olav Bjerkholt
- "The Contributions of Ragnar Frisch to Economics and Econometrics" by John S. Chipman
- "Consumer Demand and Interpersonal Allocations: Engel, Slutsky, and Frisch" by Richard Blundell
- "Production Functions: The Search for Identification" by Zvi Griliches and Jacques Mairesse
- "Investment and Growth" by Dale Jorgenson
- "Evaluating the Welfare State" by James Heckman
- "Frisch, Hotelling, and the Marginal-Cost Pricing Controversy" by Jean-Jacques Laffont
- "Scientific Explanation in Econometrics" by Bernt Stigum
- "Frisch's Vision and Explanation of the Trade-Cycle Phenomenon: His Connections with Wicksell, Akerman, and Schumpeter" by Bjorn Thalberg
- Ragnar Frisch's Conception of the Business Cycle" by Lawrence Klein
- "Business Cycles: Real Facts or Fallacies?" by Gunnar Bardsen, Paul Fisher and Ragnar Nymoen
- "The Influence of Ragnar Frisch on Macroeconomic Planning and Policy in Norway" by Peter Jakob Bjerve
- "How Frisch Saw in the 1960s the Contribution of Economists to Development Planning" by Edmond Malinvaud
- Frisch Page at Great Norwegians
- Frisch entry at Britannica.com
- Frisch page at Britannica Guide to the Nobel Prizes
- Frisch Page at Nobel Prize Internet Archive
- Frisch Page at Laura Forgette
2 Comments:
マクロ経済とミクロ経済との二分法を最初に考案したのは、ノルウェーの経済学者ラグナル・フリッシュ
Problems and Methods of Econometrics: The Poincare Lectures of Ragnar Frisch 1933 (Routledge Studies in the History of Economics) 1st Edition, Kindle版
Ragnar Frisch (著), Olav Bjerkholt (編集), Ariane Dupont-Kieffer (編集)
https://www.amazon.co.jp/Problems-Methods-Econometrics-Routledge-Economics-ebook/dp/B002F53LT0/
HTTPS://WWW.BOOKDEPOSITORY.COM/PROBLEMS-METHODS-ECONOMETRICS-RAGNAR-FRISCH/9780415745352
Another point necessary to mention, is the difference between what one may call microcosmic change and macrocosmic change. We can for example think about the separate
individuals in a population, or we can think about the population in its entirety. The first
point of view is microcosmic and the latter is macrocosmic. Likewise we can think of the
individual objects making up the stock of capital or we can think about the capital stock in
its entirety. In a population each individual is born, lives and dies. That is very much a changing
phenomenon. Nevertheless, during that time the population itself can be stationary.
Similarly, we can have a stock of capital which remains stationary, while the individual objects
making up the stock change. In the two cases, the phenomenon is stationary from a
macrocosmic point of view, but changing from a microcosmic point of view. So much for the
distinction between stationary and changing phenomena.
以下、進化する経済学の実証分析2016,73頁より孫引き
「景気循環を分析する際、 われわれは分析をミクロ動学(micro-dynamics) とマクロ動学
(macro-dynamics)に分ける必要がある。ミクロ動学分析では、巨大な経済の中の一要素を詳
細に分析するが、その際、経済の他の側面は所与となる。…ミクロ動学分析とは、要するに、
ある特定の市場や特定の消費者がどのように変化していくかを描写するものである。
一方、マクロ動学とは経済全体がどのように変動していくかを分析する。その際、細かな要
素は捨象せざるを得ない。……やろうと思えば、経済を構成する全商品、全消費者、全企業等
ありとあらゆる要素を組み込んだ動学モデルを構築することは可能である。しかしながら、そ
のような試みにはほとんど価値がない。なぜなら、そのようなモデルでは、経済のどの部分の
変動が大きく、何が景気に先行し、何が遅行するのか、等の景気循環分析にとり重要な問題を
明らかにすることができないからである(Frisch 1933, pp.2-3,阿部修人訳)」
https://www.sv.uio.no/econ/om/tall-og-fakta/nobelprisvinnere/ragnar-frisch/published-scientific-work/PPIP%5B1%5D.pdf
Frisch, Ragnar (1933). "Propagation problems and impulse problems in dynamic economics". Economic Essays in Honour of Gustav Cassel: 171–205.
コメントを投稿
<< Home