Jacob Viner - Biography

Biography

Viner was born in 1892 in Montreal, Quebec to Romanian immigrant parents and earned his undergraduate degree at McGill University in 1914. His doctorate was earned at Harvard University, where he wrote his dissertation under Frank W. Taussig, the international trade economist. He was a professor at the University of Chicago from 1916 to 1917 and from 1919 to 1946. At various times Viner also taught at Stanford and Yale Universities and went twice to the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland. In 1946 he left for Princeton University, where he remained until his retirement in 1960.

Viner played a role in government, most notably as an advisor to Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, Jr. during the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. During World War II he served as co-rapporteur to the economic and financial group of the Council on Foreign Relations' War and Peace Studies project, along with Harvard economist Alvin Hansen.

At both Chicago and Princeton, Viner had a reputation as being one of the toughest professors, and many students were terrified by the prospect of studying under him. To his friends and family, however, he was known to be wise, witty and kind. Nobel laureate Milton Friedman studied under Viner while attending the University of Chicago.