The Cowles Commission for Research in Economics is a economic research institute, founded in Colorado Springs by the businessman and economist Alfred Cowles in 1932. In 1939, the Cowles Commission moved to the University of Chicago under the directorship of Theodore O. Yntema. Jacob Marschak took over as director in 1943 until 1948, when it was passed over to Tjalling C. Koopmans. Rising hostile opposition to the Cowles Commission by the department of economics at University of Chicago during the 1950s led Koopmans to convince the Cowles family to move it to Yale University in 1955 (where it was renamed the Cowles Foundation). Economics (deriving from the Greek words οίκω [okos], house, and νέμω [nemo], rules hence household management) is the social science that studies the allocation of scarce resources to satisfy unlimited wants. ... A research institute is a establishment endowed for doing research. ... Colorado Springs is a middle-sized city, located just east of the geographic center of the state of Colorado in the United States. ... A businessman (sometimes businesswoman, female; or businessperson, gender neutral) is a generic term for a wide range of people engaged in profit-oriented enterprises, generally the management of a company. ... Paul Samuelson, Nobel Prize in Economics winner. ... 1932 (MCMXXXII) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link will take you to a full 1932 calendar). ... 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... The University of Chicago is a private university located principally in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. ... Jacob Marschak (* 23 July 1898 Kiev, Ukraine; † 27 July 1977 Los Angeles, USA) was an American economist of Ukrainian origin. ... 1943 (MCMXLIII) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1943 calendar). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Tjalling Charles Koopmans (August 28, 1910–February 26, 1985) was the joint winner, with Leonid Kantorovich, of the 1975 Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. ... The University of Chicago is a private university located principally in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. ... Yale redirects here. ... 1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

As its motto (Science is Measurement) indicates, the Cowles Commission was dedicated to the pursuit of linking economic theory to mathematics and statistics. Its main contributions to economics lie in its creation and consolidation of two important fields: general equilibrium theory and econometrics. A motto (from Italian) is a phrase or a short list of words meant formally to describe the general motivation or intention of an entity, social group, or organization. ... Economics is the social science studying production and consumption through measurable variables. ... Euclid, Greek mathematician, 3rd century BC, known today as the father of geometry; shown here in a detail of The School of Athens by Raphael. ... A graph of a bell curve in a normal distribution showing statistics used in educational assessment, comparing various grading methods. ... General Equilbrium (linear) supply and demand curves. ... Econometrics literally means economic measurement. It is a combination of mathematical economics and statistics. ...

The thrust of the Cowles approach was a specific, probabilistic framework in estimating simultaneous equations to model an economy. Its ultimate goal in doing so was to gain policy insight. The Cowles approach structured its models from a priori economic theory. One of its main contributions was in exposing the bias of ordinary least squares regression in identifying coefficient estimates. Consequently Cowles researchers developed new methods such as the indirect least squares, instrumental variable methods, full information maximum likelihood method, and limited information maximum likelihood method. All of these methods used theoretical, a priori restrictions. According to an article by Carl F. Christ the Cowels approach was grounded on the following assumptions: 1, simultaneous economic behavior; 2, linear or logarithmic equations and disturbances; 3, systematic, observable variables without error; 4, discrete variable changes as opposed to continuous; 5, a prior determination of exogeneity and endogeneity; 6, the existence of a reduced form; 7, independence of the explanatory variables; 8, a priori identified structural equations; 9, normally distributed disturbances with zero means, finite and constant covariances, a nonsingular covariance matrix, and serial independence; 10, a dynamically stable system of equations. ^[1]

Several Cowles associates have won Nobel prizes for research done while at the Cowles Commission. These include Tjalling Koopmans, Kenneth Arrow, Gerard Debreu, James Tobin, Franco Modigliani, Herbert Simon, Lawrence Klein, Trygve Haavelmo and Harry Markowitz. Nobel Prize medal. ... Tjalling Charles Koopmans (August 28, 1910 – February 26, 1985) was the joint winner, with Leonid Kantorovich, of the 1975 Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. ... Kenneth Arrow Kenneth Joseph Arrow (born August 23, 1921) is an American economist, winner of the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in 1972. ... Gerard Debreu was a naturalized US citizen from France Gerard Debreu (July 4, 1921 – December 31, 2004) was a French economist and mathematician (In July 1975, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States). ... For the convicted Republican political operative, see James Tobin (political operative). ... Franco Modigliani (June 18, 1918 – September 25, 2003) was an Italian-American economist at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 1985. ... Herbert Alexander Simon (June 15, 1916 – February 9, 2001) was an American political scientist specialized in the fields of cognitive psychology, computer science, public administration, economics, management, and philosophy of science and a professor, most notably, at Carnegie Mellon University. ... Lawrence Robert Klein (born September 14, 1920) is an American economist. ... Trygve Magnus Haavelmo (13 December 1911 – 26 July 1999), born in Skedsmo, Norway, was an influential economist with main research interests centered on the fields of econometrics and economics theory. ... Harry Max Markowitz (born August 24, 1927) is an influential economist at City University of New York and winner of the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel in 1990. ...

Notes

• ↑  Christ, Carl F. 1994. “The Cowles Commission Contributions to Econometrics at Chicago: 1939-1955” Journal of Economic Literature. Vol. 32.

External links

• Cowles Foundation at Yale
• Source HET