David Novick

Background

David Novick was born on September 19, 1906 in Easton, Pennsylvania, United States.

Education

Novick received his Bachelor of Philosophy degree in 1929 from Brown University, and his Master of Arts degree in 1930 from Lafayette College, as well as doing graduate study at New York University.

Career

David Novick began his career as an instructor in economics at New York University. He became an economist for the U.S. Tariff Commission in Washington, DC, in 1934-1941, moving to the War Production Board, as a controller, director of the Programming and Statistics Bureau, and director of the Demobilization Bureau. He joined the RAND Corporation in 1949, serving as head of cost analysis through 1968, then as a member of the Research Council there through 1970. He was also president of David Novick Association, Santa Monica, from 1961. In addition, David was a visiting professor of economics at the University of Puerto Rico and served as a special advisor and consultant to the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee from 1937-1940.

Novick's first book (with Melvin Anshen and W. C. Truppner) was Wartime Production Controls, which was followed by at least eight more monographs on various economic topics. He also wrote or edited numerous pamphlets on military economics published by the RAND Corporation during the 1980s. The last of these was The Beginning of Military Cost Analysis, 1950-196. He also contributed to numerous anthologies in the field.

Achievements

• David Novick made impressive contributions to the way society should approach the allocation of public resources. He is widely recognized for working on such prominent issues as cost analysis and the Planning, Programming, and Budgeting System while at RAND and for performing important work before and after his time at RAND. In 1947 he received a Social Science Research Council grant-in-aid.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Program Budgeting

    (The book begins with a discussion of the government decis...)

    1965
  • Wartime Production Controls 1949
  • A World of Scarcities 1976
  • Current Practice in Program Budgeting 1973
  • Program Budgeting 1965

Membership

David Novick was a member of the American Economics Association, the American Statistical Society, and the American Arbitration Association.

Personality

Novick is remembered for his growing interest in the economics of the horse breeding and racing industry, which he kept independent from his work at RAND. An Economic Study of Harness Horse Racing was an outgrowth of his avocation, as were articles he contributed to The Blood-Horse, a magazine devoted to thoroughbred horse racing and breeding.

Interests

• horse breeding and racing industry