Career
He joined the faculty in 1937, received his Doctor of Philosophy in 1940, and retired in 1974 after a distinguished career of teaching and research. From 1931-1936, he worked in Washington District of Columbia with the Federal Farm Board, the Farm Cr Administration and the United States. Department of Agriculture. From 1940-1970, Doctor Parsons worked with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the Marshall Plan, the Ford Foundation, and the United States. Agency for International Development conducting research in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America, with a special focus on land tenure and land reform and their economic implementations.
As a UW–Madison student in 1929, Parsons was attracted by the ideas of institutional economist John R. Commons, and edited Commons’ The Economics of Collective Action published in 1950 by Macmillan after Commons died in 1945.