Jan Tinbergen

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The Dutch economist Jan Tinbergen (1903-1994) was a pioneer in the development of econometrics, linking statistics and mathematics to economic theory. He shared the Nobel Prize in 1969.

Jan Tinbergen was born in The Hague on April 12, 1903. He was educated at the University of Leiden, where he earned a doctoral degree in physics. In 1929 he joined the staff of the Central Bureau of Statistics, the economic planning unit of the Dutch government, where he remained until 1945, except for 1936-1938, when he served as a business-cycle research expert for the League of Nations. Beginning in 1933, he accepted a position as professor of development planning at the Netherlands School of Economics, Rotterdam, an institution he served for his entire academic career.

He became director of the Central Planning Bureau of the Dutch government, serving from 1945 to 1955. After that time, he became an advisor to various governments and international organizations, showing particular concern for the problems of underdeveloped countries.

Econometrics, where Tinbergen made his greatest contributions, consists of the application of statistical data and techniques to mathematical formulations of economic theory. It serves to test the hypotheses of economic theory and to estimate the implied interrelationships.

Tinbergen's early work reflects rather clearly the influence of his training in the physical sciences. As early as the 1930s he was publishing papers dealing with the construction of aggregative models of the economy in the form of systems of simultaneous dynamic equations. These were followed by studies of the measurement of the parameters of such models using statistical data. His first complete model was of the economy of the Netherlands. This model was followed by a similar study of the economy of the United States done for the League of Nations. Having constructed the model and statistically estimated the appropriate coefficients, he analyzed its cyclical properties through the solution to the corresponding system of difference equations. His work has served as the principal stimulus for the extensive model-building that has taken place throughout the world in recent years.

Following World War II, Tinbergen's work served as the basis for the use of model projections in the economic planning of the Dutch government. This occurred while he was director of the Central Planning Bureau. The Dutch government has led the world in the systematic use of econometric models in its planning, budgeting, and policy formulation. Many new contributions to the field of econometrics grew out of this activity, and many of the world's leading econometricians cut their professional teeth on the construction and maintenance of the Dutch models.

Among the more prominent of Tinbergen's contributions to econometrics are the introductions of the concepts of "targets" and "instruments." The "targets" are defined in terms of the policy maker's goals. For example, a given level of aggregate output might be a target. With the help of the model, this in turn would show what values of the "instruments" would lead to the achievement of that goal.

The process introduced by Tinbergen is virtually the inverse of the usual procedure in forecasting in which, for given values of the independent variables, the corresponding values of dependent variables are computed. He later extended these same concepts to secular growth models for underdeveloped countries. It might be noted that all of the major econometric models of the United States are in the tradition that began with Tinbergen's work.

Tinbergen wrote extensively on such important topics as the mathematical analysis of the business cycle, the theory of income distribution, the theory of economic growth, the measurement of elasticities of substitution, and the theory of economic development.

Tinbergen served as chairman of the United Nations Committee for Development Planning from 1965 to 1972, as he helped set up more than 20 economic institutes in many parts of the world, including Turkey, India and Chile. In 1969 he shared the Nobel Prize in economic science with Ragnar Frisch of Norway. They received the honor for their work in the development of mathematical models used in econometrics. Tinbergen retired from the Netherlands School of Economics in 1973, having served there for 40 years.

After that, he infrequently published new works on economic theory, including Income Distribution (1975), Warfare and Welfare (with others, 1987), and World Security and Equity (1990). During the 1980s, he urged the world's strong nations to do more for developing countries, saying in an interview, "Individual countries, with their limited resources, cannot stimulate the economy, but together they may succeed." He encouraged a stronger relationship between Europe and Japan, and criticized the U.S. for "standing pat, " rather than increasing aid to countries. In 1992, he received the Four Freedoms Award.

During his lifetime, Tinbergen received 20 honorary degrees from institutions worldwide. He died in The Netherlands on June 9, 1994. The Tinbergen Institute has been established in Rotterdam in his honor.

Further Reading

Tinbergen's work receives some mention in Edmund Whittaker, Schools and Streams of Economic Thought (1960), and in G. L. S. Shackle, The Years of High Theory: Invention and Tradition in Economic Thought, 1926-1939 (1967).

Jan Tinbergen
Born	April 12, 1903(1903-04-12) The Hague
Died	June 9, 1994 (aged 91) The Hague
Nationality	Netherlands
Fields	Economics
Institutions	Erasmus University
Alma mater	Leiden University
Doctoral advisor	Paul Ehrenfest
Doctoral students	Tjalling Koopmans
Known for	First national macroeconomic model
Notable awards	Nobel Prize in Economics (1969)

Jan Tinbergen (The Hague, April 12, 1903 – June 9, 1994 The Hague), Dutch economist, was awarded the first Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel during 1969, which he shared with Ragnar Frisch for having developed and applied dynamic models for the analysis of economic processes. Tinbergen was a founding trustee of Economists for Peace and Security.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Work 3 Literature 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

Biography

Jan Tinbergen was the eldest of five children of Dirk Cornelis Tinbergen and Jeannette van Eek. His brother Niko would also win a Nobel Prize (for physiology, during 1973) for his work in ethology, while his youngest brother Luuk would become a famous ornithologist. Tinbergen studied mathematics and physics at the University of Leiden under Paul Ehrenfest. During 1929 he earned his PhD degree at this university with his thesis entitled "Minimumproblemen in de natuurkunde en de economie" (Minimisation problems in Physics and Economics). From 1929 till 1945 he worked, in addition to his professorship at Erasmus University Rotterdam, for the Dutch statistical office. He was also consultant to the League of Nations. From 1945 till 1955 he served as the first director of the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis. Jan Tinbergen was a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Science and of the International Academy of Science. During 1956 he founded the Econometric Institute at the Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam together with Henri Theil, who also was his successor in Rotterdam. The Tinbergen Institute was named in his honour.

Work

Tinbergen became known for his 'Tinbergen Norm', which is the principle that, if the difference between the least and greatest income in a company exceeds a rate of 1:5, that will not help the company and may be counterproductive.

Tinbergen developed the first national comprehensive macroeconomic model, which he first developed for the Netherlands and later applied to the United States and the United Kingdom after World War II.

Tinbergen's work was later continued by Lawrence Klein, contributing to another Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. For his cultural contributions, he was given the Gouden Ganzenveer during 1985.^[1]

Literature

• Centralization and Decentralization in Economic Policy. Westport: Greenwood, 1981. ISBN 0-313-23077-3.
• Der Dialog Nord-Süd: Informationen zur Entwicklungspolitik. Frankfurt am Main: Europ. Verlagsanstalt, 1977.
• The dynamics of business cycles: A Study in Economic Fluctuations. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1974. ISBN 0-226-80418-6.
• Economic policy: Principles and Design. Amsterdam, 1978. ISBN 0-7204-3129-8.
• Rompzy, Eric van. Jan Tinbergen. Antwerpen: NBH, 1974.

See also

• List of economists

References

1. ^ "Laureaten De Gouden Ganzenveer vanaf 1955". Stichting De Gouden Ganzenveer. 2009. http://www.goudenganzenveer.nl/laureaten.html. Retrieved 2009-07-28. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jan Tinbergen

• O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Jan Tinbergen", MacTutor History of Mathematics archive .
• TINBERGEN, Jan in: Biografisch Woordenboek van het Socialisme en de Arbeidersbeweging in Nederland
• Jan Tinbergen (1903-1994) Koninklijke Bibliotheek
• Jan Tinbergen
• Jan Tinbergen College (Dutch website)
• IDEAS/RePEc

v • d • e Nobel Memorial Laureates in Economics Ragnar Frisch / Jan Tinbergen (1969) · Paul Samuelson (1970) · Simon Kuznets (1971) · John Hicks / Kenneth Arrow (1972) · Wassily Leontief (1973) · Gunnar Myrdal / Friedrich Hayek (1974) · Leonid Kantorovich / Tjalling Koopmans (1975) Complete roster · 1969–1975 · 1976–2000 · 2001–present

Persondata
NAME	Tinbergen, Jan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Dutch economist
DATE OF BIRTH	April 12, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH	The Hague
DATE OF DEATH	June 9, 1994
PLACE OF DEATH	The Hague

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