Harold Hotelling

Background

Hotelling, Harold was born on September 29, 1895 in Fulda, Minnesota, United States. Son of Clair Alberta and Lucy Amelia (Rawson) Hotelling.

Education

Bachelor of Arts, Univercity Washington, 1919, Master of Science, 1921. Student of University Chicago, summer 1920. Doctor of Philosophy., Princeton, 1924, Doctor of Laws, 1955.

Science D. (honorary), University Rochester, 1963.

Career

Hotelling has a crucial place in the growth of mathematical economics; several areas of active research were influenced by his economics papers. While at the University of Washington, he was encouraged to switch from pure mathematics toward mathematical economics by the famous mathematician Eric Temple Bell. Later, at Columbia University (where during 1933-34 he taught Milton Friedman statistics) in the '40s, Hotelling in turn encouraged young Kenneth Arrow to switch from mathematics and statistics applied to actuarial studies towards more general applications of mathematics in general economic theory. Hotelling is the eponym of Hotelling's law, Hotelling's lemma, and Hotelling's rule in economics.

In addition to his teaching, writing, and professional activities, Hotelling served on the editorial boards of the Annals of Mathematical Statistics and the American Journal of Economics and Sociology. He was elected president of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and the Econometric Society. He was also elected Fellow of the American Statistical Association in 1937 and served as its vice president in 1941.

Achievements

• Distinguished Fellow, American Economic Association. President, Econometric Society, 1936-1937.

Works

• article

  • A General Mathematical Theory of Depreciation", 1925, Journal of ASA

  • Differential Equations Subject to Error", 1927, Journal of ASA

  • Review of R. A. Fisher's Statistical Methods for Rearch Workers,1927. Journal of ASA

  • Applications of the Theory of Error to the Interpretation of Trends", with H. Working, 1929, Journal of ASA

  • Stability in Competition", 1929, EJ

  • The Economics of Exhaustible Resources", 1931, JPE

  • The Generalization of Student's Ratio", 1931, Annals of Mathematical Statistics

  • Edgeworth's Taxation Paradox and the Nature of Supply and Demand Functions", 1932, JPE

  • Analysis of a Complex of Statistical Variables with Principal Components",1933, Journal of Educational Psychology

  • Demand Functions with Limited Budgets", 1935, Econometrica

  • The most predictable criterion", 1935, Journal of Educational Psychology

  • Relation Between Two Sets of Variates", 1936, Biometrika

  • Rank Correlation and Tests of Significance Involving no Assumption of Normality", in "American Mathematical Statistics", 1936 (coauthor M. R. Pabst)

  • The General Welfare in Relation to Problems of Taxation and of Railway and Utility Rates", 1938, Econometrica

  • A generalized T-Test and measure of multivariate dispersion", Proceedings Second Berkeley Symposium of Mathematical Statistics and Probability, 1951

  • Hotelling, Harold (1988). "Golden Oldies: Classic Articles from the World of Statistics and Probability: 'The Place of Statistics in the University'

• book

  • Hotelling, Harold (1988). "Golden Oldies: Classic Articles from the World of Statistics and Probability: 'The Teaching of Statistics'"

• Other Work

  • The Black Book of Edgeworthstown and Other Edgeworth Memories 1585-1817

    (The Black Book of Edgeworthstown and Other Edgeworth Memo...)

Politics

In his 1929 paper entitled “Stability in Competition,” Harold Hotelling suggested that political candidates’ platforms seem to converge during majoritarian elections. Hotelling compared political elections to businesses in the private sector. He postulated that just as there is not a striking difference between salesmen's products, so, too, there is not a stark contrast between politicians' platforms. This is because politicians, just like salesmen with consumers, seek to capture the majority of voters. Duncan Black, in his 1948 paper titled “On the Rationale of Group Decision-making,” a work on majority voting, made the theorem and its assumptions explicit. Black wrote that he saw a large gap in economic theory concerning how voting determines the outcome of decisions, including political decisions. Black’s paper thus began the long line of research that was to follow on how economics can explain voting systems.

Views

social philosoph

Quotations: "He, who doesn't conduct research, cannot teach others"

Membership

Fellow Econometric Society (president 1936-1937. Member Social Science. Club: U. North Carolina Faculty (president 1963-1964).

Former associate editor Annals of Mathematics Statistics, Econometrica.

Interests

• Science, electricity reading.

• Philosophers & Thinkers

  Socrates

• Sport & Clubs

  Football

• Music & Bands

  Classic

Connections

Married Floy Tracy, December 27, 1920 (deceased.; married second, Susanna Porter Edmondson, June 14, 1934. Children: Eric Bell, Muriel (Mistress).

Father:

Clair Alberta Hotelling

Mother:

Lucy Amelia Rawson

Spouse:

Susanna Porter Edmondson

Wife:

Floy Tracy

Son:

Eric Bell Hotelling

Partner:

Muriel (Mrs Hotelling)