Henry Schultz | |
|---|---|
| Born | Henry Schultz (1893-09-04)September 4, 1893 |
| Died | November 26, 1938(1938-11-26) (aged 45) |
| Alma mater | College of the City of New York Columbia University London School of Economics University College London |
| Spouse | Bertha Greenstein |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Econometrics |
| Institutions | United States Census Bureau United States Department of Labor University of Chicago |
| Doctoral advisor | Henry L. Moore |
| Doctoral students | Herbert A. Simon Theodore O. Yntema H. Gregg Lewis |
Henry Schultz (September 4, 1893 – November 26, 1938) was an American economist, statistician, and one of the founders ofeconometrics.Paul Samuelson named Schultz (along withHarry Gunnison Brown,Allyn Abbott Young,Henry Ludwell Moore,Frank Knight,Jacob Viner, andWesley Clair Mitchell) as one of the several "American saints in economics" born after 1860.[1]
Henry Schultz[2] was born on September 4, 1893, in a Polish Jewish family inSharkawshchyna,[3] in theRussian Empire (now part ofBelarus). " Schultz's family - father, mother (Rebecca Kissin) with their 2 sons - Henry and his brother Joseph moved to New York City in theUnited States. Henry Schultz completed his primary education, as well as undergraduate studies at theCollege of the City of New York, receiving a BA in 1916. For graduate work, Henry Schultz enrolled atColumbia University, but had to interrupt studies in 1917 because ofWorld War I. After the war he received a scholarship which enabled him to spend 1919 at theLondon School of Economics and theGalton Laboratory ofUniversity College London, where he had the opportunity to attendKarl Pearson's lectures on statistics.
After returning to the US, in 1920 Schultz married to Bertha Greenstein. In the future years, the couple had two daughters, Ruth and Jean. Schultz continued studying for his doctoral degree at Columbia, while at the same time conducting statistical work for the War Trade Board, theUnited States Census Bureau and theUnited States Department of Labor. He was awarded a PhD in economics from Columbia in 1925 with a thesis entitledEstimation ofDemand Curves, written under the supervision ofHenry L. Moore.
In 1926, Schultz went to theUniversity of Chicago, where he spent the rest of his career teaching and doing research. In 1930, he was one of the sixteen founding members of theEconometric Society.
Henry Schultz died on November 26, 1938, nearSan Diego, California, in a car accident that also killed his wife and his two daughters.
Led by his belief that economics needs rigorous quantitative study to become a science,[4] Henry Schultz was one of the founders of mathematical and statistical economics. His research was centered around a large program dedicated to the theory and estimation of privatedemand for goods functions, a project which started in the early 1920s, during his studies at the University of Chicago, and was completed shortly before his death with the publication of his book,The Theory and Measurement of Demand.
Schultz was the doctoral thesis advisor for several students at Chicago, notably 1978Nobel Prize in Economics winnerHerbert A. Simon[5] and futureCowles Commission directorTheodore O. Yntema.[6] Schultz also influencedMilton Friedman, who was his student and, for a year, his research assistant.[7]
Schultz started a mathematical economics school at the University of Chicago which, after his death, was in danger to disappear. This prompted the university to invite theCowles Commission, which had a research agenda focused on empirical economics, to move its headquarters there. As a result, the Commission moved to the University of Chicago in 1939 and Theodore O. Yntema, one of Schultz's students, was named as its new president.[8]
His namesake professorship at the University of Chicago, the Henry Schultz Distinguished Service Professor in Economics, is held by Nobel LaureateJames Heckman.
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