Simon Kuznets 1901- 1985 was awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1971. The Nobel citation read:
"for his empirically founded interpretation of economic growth which has led to new and deepened insight into the economic and social structure and process of development"
Simon Kuznets Biograpy
Simon Kuznets was born in Russia in 1901, of Jewish parents, and came to the United States in 1922 to join his father who had left Russia for the United States before World War I. He studied in both Russia and later at Columbia University where he gained B.Sc. in 1923, M.A. in 1924, and a Ph.D. in 1926. It was here in Columbia that he met Wesley C. Mitchell who proved an important and significant academic friend.
Between (1925-1926) he spent a year and a half as Research Fellow of the Social Science Research Council, in work that led to monograph (1) listed in the bibliography below. Between 1927 and 1960 he worked as a member of the staff of the National Bureau of Economic Research. He investigated and worked mainly on national income and capital formation in the United State. As Chairman of the Social Science Research Council Committee on Economic Growth (1949-1968), he worked primarily on comparative quantitative analysis of economic growth of nations. Other, largely research-oriented, activities, included: Associate Director of the Bureau of Planning and Statistics and Director of Research, Planning Committee, War Production Board, 1944-1946; Chairman of the Falk Project for Economic Research in Israel, 1953-1963; member of the Board of Trustees and honorary chairman, Maurice Falk Institute for Economic Research in Israel, 1963 to date; and Chairman, Social Science Research Council Committee on the Economy of China, 1961-1970.
As Professor of Economics and Statistics, he taught at the University of Pennsylvania, part-time, 1931-1936, and full-time, 1936-1954;
Professor of Political Economy, at the Johns Hopkins University, 1954-1960; and Professor of Economics, Harvard University, 1960-1971.
Simon Kuznets was a member of
American Economic Association (president-1954);
American Statistical Association (president-1949);
Economic History Association (honorary member);
Econometric Society (fellow);
International Statistical Institute (member);
Royal Statistical Society of England (honorary fellow);
American Philosophical Society (member);
British Academy (corresponding fellow);
Royal Academy of Sweden (member).
His major publications in the field of economic growth included:
1. Secular Movements in Production and Prices, Houghton-Mifflin, Boston and New York, 1930
2."Long-Term Changes in the National Income of the United States of America since 1870", in Income and Wealth of the United States: Trends and Structure, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, Income and Wealth, Series II, Bowes & Bowes, Cambridge (England), 1951
3. "Quantitative Aspects of the Economic Growth of Nations", ten long papers published either in, or as supplement to, Economic Development and Cultural Change (University of Chicago Press), no. I in October, 1956, no. X in January, 1967.
4. Capital in the American Economy: Its Formation and Financing, Princeton University Press for the National Bureau of Economic Research, Princeton, 1961
5. Modern Economic Growth: Rate, Structure, and Spread, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1966
6. Economic Growth of Nations: Total Output and Production Structure, Harvard University Press, Cambridge (USA), 1971
Kuznets was also one of the earliest workers on development economics, in particular collecting and analyzing the empirical characteristics of developing countries. His major thesis, which argued that underdeveloped countries of today possess characteristics different from those that industrialized countries faced before they developed, helped put an end to the simplistic view that all countries went through the same "linear stages" in their history and launched the separate field of development economics - which now focused on the analysis of modern underdeveloped countries' distinct experiences.
Among his several discoveries which sparked important theoretical research programs was his discovery of the inverted U-shaped relation between income inequality and economic growth (1955, 1963); he also discovered the patterns in savings-income behavior which launched the Life-Cycle-Permanant-Income Hypothesis of Modigliani and Friedman.
Simon Kuznets died on July 8, 1985.
Source of Biography book series Les Prix Nobel/Nobel Lectures.
Simon Kuzents Biography at Economic Library