Tjalling C. Koopmans | |
|---|---|
 Koopmans in 1967 | |
| Born | (1910-08-28)August 28, 1910 |
| Died | February 26, 1985(1985-02-26) (aged 74) |
| Alma mater | University of Utrecht University of Leiden |
| Known for | Transport economics Hitchcock–Koopmans transportation problem Ramsey–Cass–Koopmans model Koopmans' theorem |
| Awards | Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (1975) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Economics,Physics |
| Institutions | University of Chicago |
| Doctoral advisor | Hans Kramers Jan Tinbergen |
| Doctoral students | Carl Christ Stanley Reiter Rolf Mantel [es] Guillermo Calvo |
Tjalling Charles Koopmans (August 28, 1910 – February 26, 1985) was aDutch-American mathematician and economist.[1][2] He was the joint winner withLeonid Kantorovich of the 1975Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his work on the theory of the optimum allocation of resources. Koopmans showed that on the basis of certain efficiency criteria, it is possible to make important deductions concerning optimum price systems.
Koopmans was born in's-Graveland,Netherlands. He began his university education at theUtrecht University at seventeen, specializing in mathematics. Three years later, in 1930, he switched to theoretical physics. In 1933, he metJan Tinbergen, the winner of the 1969 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics and moved toAmsterdam to studymathematical economics under him. In addition to mathematical economics, Koopmans extended his explorations toeconometrics andstatistics. In 1936, he graduated fromLeiden University with a PhD, under the direction ofHendrik Kramers. The title of the thesis was "Linear regression analysis of economic time series".[3] He also worked for theEconomic and Financial Organization of theLeague of Nations.[4]: 28
Koopmans moved to theUnited States in 1940. There, he worked for a while for a government body inWashington, D.C., where he published on theeconomics of transportation focusing on optimal routing, then moved toChicago where he joined a research body, theCowles Commission for Research in Economics, affiliated with theUniversity of Chicago. In 1946, he became anaturalized citizen of theUnited States, and in 1948, director of the Cowles Commission. Also in 1948, he was elected as aFellow of the American Statistical Association.[5] In 1950, he became a corresponding member of theRoyal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.[6] Rising hostile opposition to the Cowles Commission by the department of economics at University of Chicago during the 1950s led Koopmans to convince the Cowles family to move it toYale University in 1955 (where it was renamed theCowles Foundation). He continued to publish, on theeconomics of optimal growth and activity analysis.[7]
Koopmans's early works on theHartree-Fock theory of atomic and molecular structure are associated with theKoopmans' theorem, which is very well known inquantum chemistry.
Koopmans was awarded his Nobel memorial prize (jointly with Leonid Kantorovich) for his contributions to the field of resource allocation, specifically the theory of optimal use of resources. The work for which the prize was awarded focused on activity analysis, the study of interactions between the inputs and outputs ofproduction, and their relationship toeconomic efficiency andprices. Finally, the importance of the article by Koopmans (1942) deriving the distribution of the serial correlation coefficient was recognized byJohn von Neumann, and it later influenced the optimal tests for aunit root byJohn Denis Sargan andAlok Bhargava (Sargan and Bhargava, 1983).
Tjalling Charles Koopmans was a son of Sjoerd Koopmans and Wytske van der Zee; hismiddle name Charles was probably derived from hispatronymic "Sjoerds".[8]
One of Sjoerd Koopmans's sisters, Gatske Koopmans, and her husband Symon van der Meer were the paternal grandparents of Nobel Prize winnerSimon van der Meer.[9][10] Tjalling Koopmans and Simon van der Meer were thereforefirst cousins once removed.
Tjalling had two brothers, one of whom wastheologian Rev. DrJan Koopmans, who in 1940, early during theGerman occupation of the Netherlands, wrote the widely distributed pamphlet "Bijna te laat" ("Almost too late", 30,000 copies), warning about the future of the Jews under the Nazi regime.[11] In 1945, towards the end of the war, he witnessed an execution of hostages inAmsterdam from behind a window and was mortally wounded by a stray bullet.[12][13]
Koopmans married Truus Wanningen in October 1936. The couple had three children – a son, Henry, and two daughters, Anne and Helen.
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Laureate of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics 1975 Served alongside:Leonid Vitaliyevich Kantorovich | Succeeded by |
