Background
Muth, John Fraser was born on September 27, 1930 in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Son of Merlin Arthur and Margaret Fraser (Ferris) Muth.
Muth, John Fraser was born on September 27, 1930 in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Son of Merlin Arthur and Margaret Fraser (Ferris) Muth.
British Standards Institution.E., Washington University, St. Louis, 1952. Master of Science, Carnegie-Mellon University, 1954. Doctor of Philosophy, Carnegie-Mellon University, 1962.
Senior Research Fellow, Assistant Professor, Association Professor, Carnegie-Mellon University,
64. Professor Management, Michigan State University, 1964-1969. Visiting Lector, University Chicago, 1957-1958, Cowles Foundation, Yale University, 1961-1962.
Professor Production Management, School Business, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, United States of America, since 1969.
Author: (with others) Planning Production, Inventories, and Work Force, 1960, (with G. K. Groff) Operations Management: Analysis for Decision, 1972. Editor: (with G. L. Thompson) Industrial Scheduling, 1963, (with G. K. Groff) Operations Management: Selected Readings, 1969. Contributor articles to professional journals.
Although my interests are primarily in production management and operations research, certain fundamental concepts in economics have interested me for a long time. The first of these concerns expectations modelling. Various naive hypotheses had generally been used in dynamic models through the 1950s, contrasting with rational, optimising hypotheses used for static equilibrium analysis.
As a modelling tool, rational expectations, or some variation thereof, has potential relevance in a number of applied areas of economic analysis. The second concerns the use of search theory and the statistical theory of extreme values to explain technological change, human learning, manufacturing progress functions, production and cost functions. This is a tool capable of explaining phenomena, such as productivity improvement, that classical theory is incapable of dealing with.
A final area is the logical analysis of theories purporting to explain human behaviour in the context of organisations. This area uses standard tools of
economic analysis in an unusual context, and has additional significance in understanding performance incentives.
Fellow Econometric Society.