Profile Major Works Resources

William J. Baumol, 1922-2017

Portrait of W.J. Baumol

Pioneering Neoclassical economist.

William J. Baumol was born in New York City, the son of Polish-Lithuanian immigrants.  His parents' Marxist proclivities introduced the young Baumol to economics at an early age.. William J. Baumol enrolled at City College (CUNY) in 1939, obtaining his B.A. in 1942.  In his memoirs, Baumol retrospectively credits his fellow students at CCNY, more than his teachers, for his education. 

After a brief stint in the US Department of Agriculture, Baumol enlisted in the US Army, serving in Europe during WWII.  After the war, and another brief stint at the USDA,  Baumol decided to pursue his graduate studies. He moved to London and enrolled in the LSE.  He fell in immediately with the Robbins circle and the "New Welfare economics" movement.   He was promptly employed as a lecturer at the LSE and contributed a couple of articles on community indifference curves to the RES.  Baumol obtained his Ph.D. from LSE in 1949, with a thesis on externalities (pub. 1952).  His LSE course notes on economic dynamics was turned into a book in 1951.

In 1949, Baumol moved back to the United States  to take up an appointment at Princeton University.  Baumol would remain at Princeton for the greater part of his career until reitrement in 1992.  Baumol also became associated with the C.V. Starr center at NYU.

 

 

  

top1.gif (924 bytes)Top

Major works of William J. Baumol

  • "Community Indifference", 1946, RES
  • "A Community Indifference Map: A construction", 1949, RES.
  • "A Formalization of Mr. Harrod's Model", 1949, EJ.
  • "The Analogy between Producer and Consumer Equilibrium Analysis", with Helen Makower, 1950, Economica.
  • Economic Dynamics, with R. Turvey, 1951.
  • "The Transaction Demand for Cash: An inventory-theoretic approach", 1952, QJE.
  • "The Classical Monetary Theory: The outcome of the discussion", with G.S. Becker, 1952, Economica.
  • Welfare Economics and the Theory of the State, 1952.
  • "Firms with Limited Money Capital", 1953, Kyklos.
  • Economic Processes and Policies, with L.V. Chandler, 1954.
  • "More on the Multiplier Effect of a Balanced Budgt", with M.H. Preston, 1955, AER.
  • "Acceleration without Magnification", 1956, AER.
  • "Variety in Retailing", with E.A. Ide, 1956 Management Science.
  • "Speculation, Profitability and Stability", 1957, REStat.
  • "Activity Analysis in One Lesson", 1958, AER.
  • "On the Theory of Oligopoly", 1958, Economica.
  • "Topology of Second Order Linear Difference Equations with Constant Coefficients", 1958, Econometrica.
  • "The Cardinal Utility which is Ordinal", 1958, EJ.
  • Business Behavior, Value and Growth, 1959.
  • "Integer Programming and Pricing", with R.E. Gomory, 1960, Econometrica.
  • Economic Theory and Operations Analysis, 1961.
  • "What Can Economic Theory Contribute to Managerial Economics?", 1961, AER.
  • "Pitfalls in Contracyclical Policies: Some tools and results", 1961, REStat.
  • "The Theory of Expansion of the Firm", 1962, AER.
  • "Stocks, Flows and Monetary Theory", 1962, QJE.
  • "An Expected Gain-Confidence Limit Criterion for Portfolio Selection", 1963, Management Science.
  • "Rules of Thumb and Optimally Imperfect Decisions", 1964, AER.
  • "Decomposition, Pricing for Decentralization and External Economics", with T.Fabian, 1964, Management Science.
  • "On the Performing Arts: the anatomy of their economic problems", with W.G. Bowen, 1965, AER.
  • "Investment and Discount Rates Under Capital Rationing", with R.E.Quandt, 1965, EJ.
  • "Informed Judgement, Rigorous Theory and Public Policy", 1965, Southern EJ.
  • The Stock Market and Economic Efficiency, 1965.
  • Performing Arts: the economic dilemma, 1966.
  • "The Ricardo Effect in Point-Input, Point-Output Case", 1966, Essays in Mathematical Economics in Honor of Oskar Morgenstern.
  • "Macroeconomics of Unbalanced Growth: The anatomy of urban crisis", 1967, AER.
  • "Calculation of Optimal Product and Retailer Characteristics", 1967, JPE.
  • "The Firm's Optimal Debt-Equity Combination and the Cost of Capital", with B.G. Malkiel, 1967, QJE.
  • "Error Produced by Linearization in Mathematical Programming", with R. Bushnell, 1967, Econometrica.
  • "The Dual of Nonlinear Programming and its Economic Interpretation", with M.L.Balinski, 1968, RES.
  • "Entrepreneurship in Economic Theory", 1968, AER.
  • "On the Social Rate of Discount", 1968, AER.
  • "On the Discount Rate for Public Projects", 1969, Analysis and Evaluation of Public Expenditures.
  • "Input Choices and Rate-of-Return Regulation: An overview of the discussion", with A.K.Klevorick, 1970, Bell JE. [cwls]
  • "Optimal Departures from Marginal Cost Pricing", with D.F. Bradford, 1970, AER.
  • "The Economics of Athenian Drama", 1971, QJE.
  • Environmental protection, International Spillovers and Trade, 1971.
  • "On the Economics of the Theatre in Renaissance London" with Mary Oates, 1972, Swedish JE.
  • "The Dynamics of Urban Problems and its Policy Implications", 1972, in Preston and Corry, editors, Essays in Honor of Lord Robbins.
  • "Taxation and the Control of Externalities", 1972, AER.
  • "Detrimental Externalities and Non-Convexity of the Production Set", with D.F. Bradford, 1972, Economica.
  • "The Transformation of Values: What Marx `Really' Meant", 1974, JEL.
  • The Theory of Environmental Policy, with W.E.Oates, 1975.
  • Economics, Environmental Policy and Quality of LIfe, with W.E.Oates and S.A. Batey Blackman 1979.
  • Contestable Markets and the Theory of Industry Structure, with J.C. Panzar and R.D. Wilig, 1982
  • "On Method in Economics a Century Earlier", 1985, AER.
  • Microetheory: Applications and origins, 1986
  • Superfairness: Application and theory, with D. Fischer, 1986
  • "The Optimal Cash Balance Proposition: Maurice Allais' Priority", with J. Tobin, 1989, JEL
  • Productivity and American Leadership: The long view, with S.A. Batey Blackman and E.N. Wolff, 1989.
  • "Entrepreneurship: Productive, unproductive and destructive", 1990, JPE [pdf]
  • Perfect Markets and Easy Virtue: Business ethics and the invisible hand, with S.A. Batey Blackman, 1992
  • Entrepreneurship, Management and the Structure of Profit, 1993.
  • "On the Pleasures and Gains of Collaboration", 1997, Amer Economist [ae]
HET

 
top1.gif (924 bytes)Top

Resources on William Baumol

 

 
top1.gif (924 bytes)Top
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All rights reserved, Gonçalo L. Fonseca