Franklin M. Fisher | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1934-12-13)December 13, 1934 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | April 29, 2019(2019-04-29) (aged 84) Belmont, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Academic background | |
| Education | Harvard University (BA,PhD) |
| Doctoral advisor | John R. Meyer |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Industrial organization Microeconomics |
| Institutions | Massachusetts Institute of Technology National Bureau of Economic Research |
| Doctoral students | Stanley Fischer[1] Michael Rothschild[2] Vincent Crawford[3] Richard L. Schmalensee Charles F. Manski Mark J. Machina Douglas Bernheim[4] Michael Whinston Nancy Rose[5] Robert W. Vishny[6] Andrei Shleifer[7] |
| Notable ideas | Work in antitrust economics, industrial organization, microeconomics, and econometrics |
| Awards | John Bates Clark Medal (1973) |
Franklin Marvin Fisher (December 13, 1934 – April 29, 2019) was an American economist. He taught economics at theMassachusetts Institute of Technology from 1960 to 2004.
Fisher attendedHarvard University, where he was inducted intoPhi Beta Kappa in 1955 and received aBachelor of Arts degree (summa cum laude) in 1956, followed by aMaster's degree in 1957 and aPh.D. in Economics from Harvard in 1960.[8][9] His doctoral thesis was entitledA Priori Information and Time Series Analysis.[8]
Fisher married Ellen Paradise Fisher in 1958. They had three children and eight grandchildren.
He was Teaching Fellow at Harvard from 1956 to 1957, Junior Fellow of theSociety of Fellows at Harvard (1957–59), Assistant Professor of Economics at theUniversity of Chicago (1959–60), Assistant Professor of Economics at MIT (1960–62), Associate Professor of Economics at MIT (1962–65), and Professor of Economics at MIT from 1965 to 2004. He retired as the Jane Berkowitz Carlton and Dennis William Carlton Professor of Microeconomics, Emeritus at MIT. He was a director of theNational Bureau of Economic Research starting in 1989.[8]
Fisher's fields of specialization within economics wereindustrial organization,microeconomics, andeconometrics. He wrote extensively in the area of antitrust economics.[10] He served as an expert witness in matters involving antitrust, contract disputes, valuation, damages, and trademark infringement for many years. He was the chief economic witness forIBM in its antitrust confrontation with theUnited States Department of Justice, a case the Government dropped in 1982 after 13 years.[11] He served in a similar role on behalf of the United States Department of Justice in the case ofUnited States v. Microsoft.[10][11]
Fisher died on April 29, 2019, inBelmont, Massachusetts from complications of Alzheimer's disease. He was 84.[12]
Fisher was the author or co-author of hundreds of scholarly articles and many books.[8] He wrote books addressing antitrust issues. In 1983, he co-authoredFolded, Spindled and Mutilated: Economic Analysis and U.S. vs. IBM. The book is about the antitrust caseU.S. vs. IBM, in which Fisher was the lead expert economist for the defense.[13] In 1985, he editedAntitrust and Regulation: Essays in Memory of John J. McGowan, which contains original essays by economists and lawyers addressing important aspects of antitrust and regulation.[14]
He wrote a monograph sponsored by theEconometric Society on theeconomic theory ofgeneral equilibria anddisequilibria:
Fisher received theJohn Bates Clark Medal in 1973.[8] He had been a fellow of theEconometric Society since 1963, and from 1968 to 1977 he was the editor ofEconometrica, Society's journal. He was President of the Econometric Society in 1979. He was also a member of theAmerican Economic Association. He had been a fellow of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1969.[8]
