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.

Chicago School of Economics
Part of a series on the
Movements Libertarianism Neoconservatism Neoliberalism Positive non-interventionism
Organizations Cato Institute George Mason University Library of Economics and Liberty Reason Foundation
Beliefs Consequentialist libertarianism Monetarism Neoclassical economics
People Gary Becker Ronald Coase Robert Fogel David Friedman Milton Friedman Rose Friedman Frank Knight Robert E. Lucas George Stigler Friedrich von Hayek (associated)
Theories Comparative advantage Consumer price index Economic growth Economic rationalism Efficient-market hypothesis Friedman rule Friedman's k-percent rule Game theory Gross domestic product Homo economicus International economics International finance International trade Laffer curve Monetary theory Public choice theory Quantity theory of money Rational agent Rational choice theory Rational expectations theory Symmetrical inflation target
Ideas Central banks Denationalization Deregulation Economic freedom Economic integration Economic interdependence Economic liberalization Exchange rate Fiat currency Foreign exchange reserves Free markets Free trade Globalization Inflation adjustment Inflation targeting Intellectual property Laissez-faire Marketization Negative income tax Open market operations Private property Privatization School vouchers Single market Tax cuts Tax reform
Related Topics Alter-globalization Anti-capitalism Anti-globalization Perspectives on Capitalism
Capitalism Portal Economics Portal Libertarianism Portal Politics Portal

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.

Famous quotes containing the word biography:

“In how few words, for instance, the Greeks would have told the story of Abelard and Heloise, making but a sentence of our classical dictionary.... We moderns, on the other hand, collect only the raw materials of biography and history, “memoirs to serve for a history,” which is but materials to serve for a mythology.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

“As we approached the log house,... the projecting ends of the logs lapping over each other irregularly several feet at the corners gave it a very rich and picturesque look, far removed from the meanness of weather-boards. It was a very spacious, low building, about eighty feet long, with many large apartments ... a style of architecture not described by Vitruvius, I suspect, though possibly hinted at in the biography of Orpheus.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)