- Zvi Griliches
Infobox_Scientist
name = Zvi Griliches
caption =
birth_date = birth date|1930|9|12|mf=y
birth_place =Kaunas ,Lithuania
death_date = death date and age|1999|4|11|1930|9|12|df=y or
death date and age|1999|11|4|1930|9|12|df=y
death_place =Cambridge, Massachusetts , U.S.
nationality =
field =Economics
work_institution =Harvard University 1969-99University of Chicago 1956-69
alma_mater =University of Chicago UC Berkeley
doctoral_advisor =Arnold Harberger Theodore Schultz
doctoral_students =Robert Barro Gary Chamberlain G.S. Maddala
known_for = Theoretical and appliedeconometrics
prizes =John Bates Clark Medal 1965Hirsh Zvi Griliches (12 September 1930 – 11 April or 4 November 1999) [ [http://post.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/zgrilich/default.htm Zvi Griliches' homepage] ] was an
economist atHarvard University . He was born inKaunas ,Lithuania in an assimilatedJewish family that spoke Russian at home. DuringWorld War II he was sent to theDachau concentration camp . In 1947 he emigrated to Palestine, where he served in the pre-stateIsraeli army , learnedHebrew , passed high school equivalence exam, and studied for a year atHebrew University . He then moved to the United States, where he earned aB.S. in Agricultural Economics from theUniversity of California, Berkeley , and then a Ph.D. in Economics at theUniversity of Chicago .The works by Zvi Griliches mostly concerned the
economics oftechnological change , including empirical studies ofdiffusion of innovations and the role of R & D, patents, and education.In his classic 1957 Ph.D. dissertation, "Hybrid Corn: An Exploration in the Economics of Technological Change", published as an article in the October 1957 issue of
Econometrica , Griliches demonstrated that the penetration of corn seeds followed thelogistic curve . It was found later through multiple examples byEdwin Mansfield and other researchers that this is a general rule fortechnological change /diffusion of innovations . The dissertation was one of the first scientific works that treated the development of new technology as an economic phenomenon. Previously, economists had treated it as exogenous.Most innovations either make production more efficient, or improve the quality of goods. The analysis of measurement of the impact of innovations on economics led Griliches to his fundamental studies of
economic growth ,productivity ,production function ,consumption function , measurements of economicinput andoutput , hedonic prices, and their reflection in price indices.Griliches also published important works of
econometrics , includingdistributed lags (time series ) andaggregation . He was particularly interested in the measurements of hidden variables.Griliches served as the President of the Econometric Society in 1975, and as the President of the American Economic Association in 1993. From 1969 to 1977 he was one of editors of the journal "
Econometrica ". He served on theStigler Commission in 1961 and theBoskin Commission in 1996, both of which were convened by theUnited States Senate to evaluate the measurement ofinflation .In 1965, Zvi Griliches won the prestigious
John Bates Clark Medal . He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1965 and to the National Academy of Sciences in 1975. He was also elected Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association, Fellow of the Econometric Society, Fellow of the American Statistical Association, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Fellow of the American Agricultural Economics Association.The [http://www.neaman.org.il/Neaman/data_centers/dc_issues_list.asp Zvi Griliches Research Data Center] was established in his memory at the Samuel Neaman Institute for Advanced Studies in Science and Technology in Israel. The [http://www.eerc.ru/default.aspx?id=68 Zvi Griliches Excellence Award] was established by the Economics Education and Research Consortium (EERC) in Russia and other former Soviet Union countries.
References
* [http://cba.unomaha.edu/faculty/adiamond/web/DiamondPDFs/GrilProofs.pdf Diamond, Arthur M., Jr. "Zvi Griliches's Contributions to the Economics of Technology and Growth." "Economics of Innovation and New Technology" 13, no. 4 (June 2004): 365–97.]
Notes
External links
* [http://post.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/zgrilich/default.htm Zvi Griliches' homepage]
* [http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2003/02.27/16-mm.html Obituary published in the "Harvard Gazette"]
* [http://news.ucanr.org/newsstorymain.cfm?story=174 Obituary on the University of California website]
* [http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/biomems/zgriliches.pdf A Biographical Memoir by Marc Nerlove]
* [http://siepr.stanford.edu/papers/pdf/02-45.pdf Zvi Griliches on Diffusion, Lags and Productivity Growth …Connecting the Dots by Paul A. David]
* [http://www.tau.ac.il/~manuel/pdfs/memorial%20Zvi%20w%20Ernie%20final.pdf In Memoriam: Zvi Griliches, 1930-1999 by Manuel Trajtenberg and Ernst R. Berndt]
* [http://people.bu.edu/cockburn/tree_of_zvi_4_generations.pdf A tree of Zvi Griliches's students, postpocs, coauthors, and their students]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.