Background
Ragnar Nurkse was born on October 5, 1907 in Estonia. He was a son of William and Victoria (Clanman) Nurkse.
Ragnar Nurkse was born on October 5, 1907 in Estonia. He was a son of William and Victoria (Clanman) Nurkse.
Ragnar Nurske studied at the Law School and the economics department of the University of Tartu from 1926 to 1928.
After establishing a reputation in international finance, Ragnar Nurske turned in his last book to the problem of
development and, besides adding a new term (the ‘demonstration effect’) to the vocabulary of economists, was a powerful advocate of the ‘big push’ conception of development.
Nurkse served in the Financial Section and Economic Intelligence Service of the League of Nations from 1934 to 1945. In 1958, Ragnar Nurkse accepted a Professorship of Economics and the Director of International Finance Section position at Princeton University.
Ragnar Nurske was a member of the American Economics Association, the Academy Arts and Sciences, the Royal Economics Society, the Econometric Society, the Academy of Political Science.
On September 14, 1946 Ragnar Nurske married Harriet Berger.