Background
Rapping, Leonard Allen was born on April 16, 1934. Son of Joseph and Rose (Scharfin) Rapping.
Rapping, Leonard Allen was born on April 16, 1934. Son of Joseph and Rose (Scharfin) Rapping.
Bachelor of Arts University of California, Los Angeles, Calif., United States of America, 1956. Master of Arts, Doctor of Philosophy University Chicago, 1958, 1961.
Research economist Northwestern Transportation Center, Evanston, Illinois, 1959—1960, Rand Corporation, Santa Monica, California, 1961. Professor economics Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, 1962—1973, University Massachusetts, Amherst, since 1974. Distinguished visiting professor University Nevada, Las Vegas, 1978.
Visiting professor Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts, 1984, 1987, University Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana, 1985—1986. Consultant government agency Federal Railroad Administration, 1980. Member highway research board National Academy of Sciences, Washington, 1972, director technical-employment panel, 1985—1986.
Co-author: The Economic Value of the United States Merchant Marine, 1961, International Reorganization and American Economic Policy, 1988. Contributor articles to professional journals & monographs.
Initially, I empirically investigated collective bargaining and technological processes in merchant shipping and shipbuilding. This industry-specific research was followed by a more general econometric analysis of labour markets. Union wage effectiveness, monopoly wage effects and racial discrimination were investigated in the context of competitive, equilibrium, labour market models.
This micro-foundation facilitated later macro research into the theoretical and empirical basis of aggregate labour supply and business cycles. Again assuming continuously clearing, competitive labour markets, the determination of aggregate real wages, employment and inflation were studied.
The drift of my interests from narrower to broader issues continued. Abandoning the closed economy assumption, my attention turned to global forces and their impact on domestic inflation, employment and associated public and private institutions.
Having abandoned the idea that variations in economic activity can be explained in traditional business-cycle terms I turned to a structural approach to this problem. Global economic, political and military events constrain domestic economic policy and force the restructuring of domestic economic institutions. The associated research agenda is to identity these global forces as well as the process whereby domestic institutions adapt.
Member of American Economic Association, American Economic Review (editorial board member 1973-1976), Phi Beta Kappa.
Married Elayne J. Antler, August 15, 1960 (divorced May 1973). Children: Alison, Jonathan. Married Judith Alt Wilson, September 12, 1980.