Max O. Lorenz

Max Otto Lorenz (September 19, 1876 in Burlington, Iowa – July 1, 1959 in Sunnyvale, California) was an American economist who developed the Lorenz curve in 1905 to describe income inequalities. He published this paper while a doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His doctorate (1906) was on 'The Economic Theory of Railroad Rates' and made no reference to perhaps his most famous paper.

He was active in both publishing and teaching and was at various times employed by the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Bureau of Railway Economics, the U.S. Bureau of Statistics and the U.S. Interstate Commerce Commission.

He was married to his wife Nellie, and he fathered 3 sons: Fred, Roger, and Julian Lorenz.

The term Lorenz curve seems first to have been used in 1912 in a textbook The Elements of Statistical Method.

References

• Lorenz, M. O. (1905). Methods of measuring the concentration of wealth Publications of the American Statistical Association. Vol. 9 (New Series, No. 70) 209-219.

• Richard T. Ely, Adams, Thomas A. Adams, Max O. Lorenz, and Allyn Young (1908). Outlines of Economics. New York: Macmillan.

• King, W.I. (1912). The Elements of Statistical Method. New York: Macmillan.

• A discussion of generalised Lorenz curves: [1]^{[dead link]}

• Some history of economists from the University of Wisconsin–Madison school around John R. Commons: [2]^{[dead link]}

• Christian Kleiber and Samuel Kotz (2003) (pdf). Statistical Size Distributions in Economics and Actuarial Sciences. Wiley. pp. 263. doi:10.1002/0471457175. ISBN 9780471150640. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/book/10.1002/0471457175. Retrieved 2011-03-14. 

Persondata
Name	Lorenz, Max O.
Alternative names	Lorenz, Max Otto
Short description	Married to wife Nellie. 3 sons Fred, Roger, and Julian Lorenz.
Date of birth	September 19, 1876
Place of birth	Burlington (Iowa)
Date of death	July 1, 1959
Place of death	Sunnyvale (California)