Jan Tinbergen

Infobox Scientist
name = Jan Tinbergen

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image_size = 180px
birth_date = birth date|1903|4|12|mf=y
birth_place = The Hague
death_date = death date and age|1994|6|9|1903|4|12|mf=y
death_place = The Hague
nationality = Netherlands
field = Economics
work_institution = Erasmus University
alma_mater = Leiden University
doctoral_advisor = Paul Ehrenfest
doctoral_students = Tjalling Koopmans
known_for = First national macroeconomic model
prizes = Nobel Prize in Economics (1969)

Jan Tinbergen (The Hague, April 12, 1903ndash 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 was a founding trustee of Economists for Peace and Security.

Biography

Jan Tinbergen was the eldest of five children of Dirk Cornelis Tinbergen and Jeannette van Eek. His brother Niko would also win a Nobel Prize (for physiology, in 1973) for his work in ethology, while his youngest brother Luuk would become a famous ornithologist. Tinbergen studied mathematics and physics at the University of Leiden under Paul Ehrenfest. In 1929 he earned his PhD degree at this university 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. In 1956 he founded the Econometric Institute at the Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam together with Henri Theil, who also was his successor in Rotterdam. The Tinbergen Institute was named in his honour.

Work

Tinbergen became known 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.

Tinbergen's work was later built on by Lawrence Klein, contributing to another Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.

Literature

*"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

ee also

*List of economists

External links

*
* [http://www.iisg.nl/bwsa/bios/tinbergen.html TINBERGEN, Jan] in: "Biografisch Woordenboek van het Socialisme en de Arbeidersbeweging in Nederland"
* [http://www.kb.nl/hkc/nobel/jtinbergen/jtinbergen.html Jan Tinbergen (1903-1994)] Koninklijke Bibliotheek
* [http://www.nobel-winners.com/Economics/jan_tinbergen.html Jan Tinbergen]
* [http://jantinbergencollege.nl/ Jan Tinbergen College] (Dutch website)
* [http://ideas.repec.org/e/pti4.html IDEAS/RePEc]

Persondata
NAME=Tinbergen, Jan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Dutch economist
DATE OF BIRTH=April 12 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH=The Hague
DATE OF DEATH=June 9 1994
PLACE OF DEATH=The Hague