Background
HARBERGER, Arnold Carl was born in 1924 in Newark, New Jersey, United States of America.
HARBERGER, Arnold Carl was born in 1924 in Newark, New Jersey, United States of America.
Master of Arts (International Relations), Doctor of Philosophy University Chicago, 1947, 1950. Honorary DHC University Tucuman, 1979.
Research Assistant, Cowles Commission Research Economics, 1949. Assistant Professor Political Economics, Johns Hopkins University,
1949-1953. Association Professor, Professor of Economics, University Chicago, 1953-1959, 1959-1976.
Visiting Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass., USA Center International Studies, New Delhi, 1961-1962, Harvard University,
1971-1972, Princeton University, 1973-1974, University of California, Los Angeles, Calif., United States of America, 1983-1984. Gustavus F. and Ann
M. Swift Distinguished Service Professor of Economics, University Chicago, since 1977. Professor of Economics, University of California, Los Angeles, Calif., United States of America, since 1984.
Editorial Boards, American Economic Review, 1959-1961, Journal of Economic Literature, 1969-1970.
Arnold C. Harberger is a United States economist. Harberger's Triangle, widely used in welfare economics, is named after him.
Harberger's PhD thesis, written under Lloyd Metzler, was on international macroeconomic theory, but his academic reputation is primarily based on his work in public finance, the economics of taxation. Harberger was awarded a honorary degree at Universidad Francisco Marroquin.
Harberger (1962) is the classic economic analysis of the corporate income tax. Harberger's key insight was to see that the classic Heckscher-Ohlin model of international trade with tariffs could be recast as a general equilibrium model for one country with two sectors, one made up of incorporated firms subject to the corporate income tax, and the other sector consisting of unincorporated firms. Harberger's work spawned a whole literature using trade theory to address questions in public finance.
Harberger triangles are used to calculate the efficiency costs of taxes, government regulations, monopolistic practices, and various other market distortions. Prior to the publication of Arnold Harberger’s papers, economists very rarely estimated deadweight losses; such estimation is now common, the literature having expanded manyfold since the 1960s. Critical evaluation of deadweight loss estimates led to new theories of rent-seeking and other inefficiencies of economies with multiple distortions. Harberger’s analysis of the general equilibrium incidence of the corporate income tax was the foundation of subsequent research on corporate taxation, as well as providing the basis for subsequent general equilibrium analysis of the incidence of other taxes. Harberger’s contributions to the literature on project evaluation, economic development, international trade, and the likely directions of desirable tax reforms likewise advance their respective fields. What unifies this work is that the theoretical development is innovative and insightful, while remaining resolutely practical. Furthermore, these papers helped to transform the analysis of applied problems by using general equilibrium approaches to answer what had previously been cast as partial equilibrium problems.
An implication of Harberger's analysis is that the corporate income tax lowers the steady state capital-labor ratio, and hence real GDP per capita and the standard of living. While Harberger's analysis has become more or less canonical in academic economics, Harberger has distanced himself from it in recent years.
A number of Harberger's students were Latin Americans who became high level civil servants in their native countries after they became dictatorships, especially Chile and Argentina. Harberger acquired a considerable consulting practice as an economic adviser to Latin America. He is widely acknowledged as being a great supporter of his students and has championed them in their careers.
Harberger is married to a Chilean and speaks fluent Spanish.
Top Ten Lessons from the Research Career of Arnold Harberge: Lesson 10.Economics is a practical subject, and the economy as it exists is worthy of study. Lesson 9. It is OK to make reasonable simplifying assumptions in order to develop theories. Lesson 8.Data analysis does not have to be complicated in order to be informative and influential. Lesson 7. Important magnitudes need to be measured, even if it is challenging to do so and the obstacles are daunting. Lesson 6. Any function can be approximated by a Taylor series, and this approximation can be very useful. Lesson 5. Normative questions can be usefully analyzed without an explicit social welfare function. Lesson 4. Distortions are everywhere. Lesson 3. The economy is in general equilibrium. Lesson 2. The economist can make a difference. Lesson 1. Simple, powerful ideas rule the world.
United States Social Science Research Council, United Kingdom or United States of America Faculty Research Fellow, 1951-1953, 1954-1955. Guggenheim Foundation Fellow, 1958. Ford Foundation Faculty Research Fellow,
1968-1969.
Fellow, Econometric Society, American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Member, Executive Committee, American Economic Association, 1970-1972.
(Toward More Sustainable Infrastructure: Project Evaluatio...)
(These essays by the distinguished economist Arnold C. Har...)
The princi
pal influences on my graduate education came, in alphabetical order, from Friedman (price theory), Marschak (macro-theory), Metzler (international trade) and T. W. Schultz (policy economics). My first major paper applied macro-theory model-building to the problem of currency devaluation. Shortly after receiving my degree I joined the staff of Truman’s President's Materials Policy Commission.
There I made one of the earliest ‘general equilibrium’ sets of long-term projections for the United States economy, ultimately projecting (in 1951-1952) the United States demand (under specified assumptions) for all major mineral-type raw materials for the year
1974. That exercise further stimulated an already strong interest in policy economics.
When I moved to Chicago in 1953, my major teaching area became public finance, and there ensued a substantial series of writings in this area. On the tax side, my interest concentrated on the applied welfare economic aspects of taxation, and on tax incidence theory.
On the expenditure side, it focussed on project evaluation. In nearly all this work a general-equilibrium focus was maintained, but in the tradition of trade theory (Metzler), of relatively simple macro models (Marschak), and of interacting micro markets (Friedman), not in the n-equation, nunknown Walrasian tradition. In my early incidence work I ‘brought’ tradetype general equilibrium models into public finance.
In my project evaluation and much tax work I focussed on analysing the costs and benefits of particular policies, projects or other actions, given the presence of a set of preexisting distortions (taxes, subsidies, externalities, etc.). My policy and welfare interests also carried me into much work in and on developing countries — including the study of inflation and of trade and exchange-rate policies. Perhaps my greatest professional pride is the group of 400 or more graduate students from developing countries, in whose training and subsequent development as professionals, scholars, educators and policy-makers, I may have played an important role.
Econometric Society
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Economic Association (executive committee 1970-72, vice president 1992, president-elect 1996, president 1997, distinguished fellow 1999)
1970 - 1972
Western Economic Association (vice president 1987-88, president 1989-90)
1987 - 1988
Royal Economic Society
National Tax Association (Holland medal 2001)
Society of Benefit Cost Analysis
2008 - 2009
National Academy of Sciences
born 1960
