Ira B. Cross

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Ira Brown Cross, 1880-1977.

American Institutionalist labor economist at Berkeley.

Ira Brown Cross was born from Decatur, Illinois, a descendent of New England pilgrims. Ira B. Cross received his B.A. and MA. from Wisconsin in 1905/06 under the Institutionalist giant John R. Commons. While still a student, Cross became politically active, serving on the Wisconsin Tax Commission in 1905 and joining the Socialist Party in 1906.

Ira Cross received his Ph.D. from Stanford in 1909. Cross stayed on as professor at Stanford until 1914, when he moved across the bay to join the University of California Berkeley, becoming full professor in 1919.

Although best known as a labor economist, especially his monumental 1935 treatise, Ira Cross also taught money and banking courses at Berkeley until his retirement in 1951.

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Major Works of Ira B. Cross

"The Cooperative Store in the United States", 1906, Twelfth Biennial Report of Bureau of Labor and Industrial Statistics, Wisonsin, p.1
The Essentials of Socialism, 1912 [bk, av]
"Collective Bargaining and Trade Agreements in the Brewery, Metal, Teaming and Building Trades of San Francisco, California, 1918, UC Publications in Econ, p.233
Domestic and Foreign Exchange: theory and practice, 1923 [hth]
Financing an Empire: history of banking in California, 1927, 4 vols
Economics, 1931
Money and Banking, 1931
A History of the Labor Movement of California, 1935 [bk]

HET

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Resources on Ira Cross

Ira Cross entry at Calisphere
Guide to Ira Cross's California Labor Notes, 1815-1960 at OAC
"Portrait of an Economics Professor" audio interview with Ira B. Cross. [av]
Cross profile at Snac.

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