Profile Major Works Resources

Henry Schultz, 1893-1938.

Photo of H. Schultz

Born in Tsarist Russia, Henry Schultz came from a Polish family that emigrated to New York not long after his birth.  Shultz received his B.A. from City College, and went on to study at Columbia, under Henry L. Moore.  His studies were interrupted by the war and a sojourn in London.  Schultz only received his Ph.D. in 1926, by which time he was already an established scholar.  He joined the University of Chicago that same year (1926).

Henry Schultz was a leading Walrasian in the United States, a pioneer in the introduction of quantitative methods into economics and one of the prominent members of the early Chicago School before his sudden death. Indeed, it was tragic disappearance that induced the University of Chicago to invite the Cowles Commission as a "substitute" for Schultz.

Following Moore's lead, Schultz spent much of his short-lived career attempting to statistically estimate demand and supply functions for various products in all the multi-market complexity of Walras's general equilibrium system. His efforts are best captured in his two most famous studies (1928, 1938). His work on the application statistical methods to economic subjects laid much of the groundwork for later econometrics.  Shultz (1930) introduced "cobweb theorem" to explain commodity cycles.   

 

  

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Major works of Henry Schultz

  • "Elasticity of Demand and the Coefficient of Correlation", 1923, QJE
  • "The Statistical Measurement of the Elasticity of Demand for Beef" 1924, J of Farm Econ
  • "An Extension of the Method of Moments", 1925, JASA
  • "The Statistical Law of Demand as Illustrated by the Demand for Sugar", 1925, JPE
  • "Theoretical Considerations Relating to Supply", 1927, JPE.
  • "Cost of Production, Supply and Demand, and the Tariff", 1927, J of Farm Econ
  • "Mathematical Economics and the Quantitative Method", 1927, JPE.
  • Statistical Laws of Demand and Supply with Special Application to Sugar, 1928.
  • "Review of Bousquet's Vilfredo Pareto", 1928, JPE
  • "Rational Economics", 1928, AER
  • "Discussion of Working and Hotelling", 1929, JASA
  • "Marginal Productivity and the General Pricing Process", 1929, JPE
  • Der Sinn der statischen Nachfragecurven, 1930. (Trans. The Meaning of Statistical Demand Curves)
  • "The Standard Error of a Forecast from a Curve", 1930, JASA.
  • "The Italian School of Mathematical Economics", 1931, JPE
  • "Henry L. Moore's Contribution to the Statistical Law of Demand", 1931, in S.A. Rice, editor, Methods in Social Science.
  • "Review of G.C. Evans's Mathematical Introduction", 1931, JASA
  • "Hohe Korrelationkeoffizienten und ihre Bedeutung für das Studium der Nachfragcurven", 1932, Allgemeines statistiches archiv. 
  • "The Shifting Demand for Selected Agricultural Commodities, 1875-1929", 1932, J of Farm Econ.
  • "Marginal Productivity and the Lausanne School: Reply to Hicks", 1932, Economica.
  • "Frisch on the Measurement of Utility", 1933, JPE.
  • "Review of Marschak's Elastizitat der Nachfrage", 1933, WWA
  • "The Standard Error of the Coefficient of Elasticity of Demand", 1933, JASA.
  • "A Comparison of Elasticities of Demand Obtained by Different Methods", 1933, Econometrica.
  • "Interrelations of Demand", 1933, JPE.
  • "Über eine Methode zur Berechnung der Elastizität der Nachfrage und ihre Kritik durch Amoroso", 1934, ZfN
  • "Interrelations of Demand, Price and Income", 1935, JPE.
  • "Correct and Incorrect Methods of Determining the Effectiveness of the Tariff", 1935, J of Farm Econ
  • "Review of Leon Walras's Etudes", 1937, JPE.
  • "The Quantitative Method with Special Reference to Economic Inquiry", 1937, mimeo.
  • The Theory of Measurement of Demand, 1938.
  • "Mathematics in Economics" and "Statistics in Economics", 1938,  Cowles Fourth Annual Research Conference
  • "A Misunderstanding in Index-Number Theory: The true Konüs condition on cost-of-living index numbers and its limitations", 1939, Econometrica

 
HET

 
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Resources on Henry Schultz

  • O. Lange, F. McIntyre, T.O. Yntema, 1942, editors,  Studies in Mathematical Economics and Econometrics: In memory of Henry Schultz.  Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  • Schultz entry at Britannica
  • Wikipedia

 

 
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