Jacob Viner (born May 3, 1892, Montreal—died Sept. 12, 1970,Princeton, N.J., U.S.) was a Canadian-born American economist who made major contributions to the theory ofcost and production, internationaleconomics, and the history of economics.

Viner graduated fromMcGill University (1914) and then immigrated to theUnited States, obtaining his Ph.D. fromHarvard University in 1922. He was a professor at theUniversity of Chicago (1925–46)—with which his name is particularly associated—andPrinceton University (1946–60), where he was emeritus after 1960. Early in his career he became associated with the economist FrankTaussig, who greatly influenced Viner’s theories oninternational trade.

These theories are embodied in three works in particular:Canada’s Balance of International Indebtedness (1924), a study ofbalance of payments adjustment;Studies in the Theory of International Trade(1937), a major work in the history of economic thought; andThe Customs Union Issue (1950), containing the now-familiar trade-creation/trade-diversion distinction. These works are regarded as classics in their field. Viner’s work on international trade covered the entire field from pure theory to policy. He was one of the greatest writers ineconomic history, combining erudition and critical acuteness to an extraordinary degree. But he was a highly competent theorist over a much wider field than international economics, and inThe Long View and the Short (1931) he made what many regard as a fundamental contribution to the theory of costs by clarifying the relationship between long- and short-run costs. This work presented his now-famous envelope cost curve.