Robert Solow
Photo: Minneapolis Fed, 2002
Born	August 23, 1924 (1924-08-23) (age 83) New York
Residence	U.S.
Nationality	U.S.
Field	Economics
Institutions	MIT
Alma mater	Harvard University
Academic advisor	Wassily Leontief
Notable students	George Akerlof Ben Bernanke Robert J. Gordon Joseph Stiglitz
Known for	Neo-classical growth model
Notable prizes	John Bates Clark Medal (1961) Nobel Memorial Prize (1987)

Robert Merton "Bob" Solow (born August 23, 1924) is an American economist particularly known for his work on the theory of economic growth. He was awarded the John Bates Clark Medal (in 1961) and the 1987 Nobel Prize in Economics. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis covers the 9th District of the Federal Reserve, including Minnesota, Montana, North and South Dakota, northwestern Wisconsin, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. ... is the 235th day of the year (236th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the rap album, see 1924 (album). ... New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ... Motto: (Out Of Many, One) (traditional) In God We Trust (1956 to date) Anthem: The Star-Spangled Banner Capital Washington D.C. Largest city New York City None at federal level (English de facto) Government Federal constitutional republic  - President George Walker Bush (R)  - Vice President Dick Cheney (R) Independence from... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Motto: (Out Of Many, One) (traditional) In God We Trust (1956 to date) Anthem: The Star-Spangled Banner Capital Washington D.C. Largest city New York City None at federal level (English de facto) Government Federal constitutional republic  - President George Walker Bush (R)  - Vice President Dick Cheney (R) Independence from... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Face-to-face trading interactions on the New York Stock Exchange trading floor. ... “MIT” redirects here. ... Harvard University (incorporated as The President and Fellows of Harvard College) is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA and a member of the Ivy League. ... Wassily Leontief (August 5, 1905, Munich, Germany – February 5, 1999, New York)[1], was an economist notable for his research on how changes in one economic sector may have an effect on other sectors. ... George Arthur Akerlof (born June 17, 1940) is an American economist and Koshland Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. ... Ben Shalom Bernanke[1] (born December 13, 1953) (pronounced ber-NAN-kee, bÉ™r-nan-kÄ“ or ), is an American economist and current Chairman of the Board of Governors of the United States Federal Reserve. ... Robert J. Gordon is an economics professor at Northwestern University, he also holds the title of Stanley G. Harris Professor in the social sciences. He is an expert on: Measuring and explaining productivity growth The causes of unemployment Airline economics From 1995-1997 he served on a national commission to... Joseph Stiglitz (born February 9, 1943) is an American economist, author and winner of Nobel Prize for economics ( 2001). ... The Exogenous growth model, also known as the Neo-classical growth model or Solow growth model is a term used to sum up the contributions of various authors to a model of long-run economic growth within the framework of neoclassical economics. ... The biennial John Bates Clark Medal is awarded by the American Economic Association to that American economist under the age of forty who is adjudged to have made a significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge. Named after the American Neoclassical economist John Bates Clark (1847-1938), it is considered... The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, commonly called the Nobel Prize in Economics, is a prize awarded each year for outstanding intellectual contributions in the field of economics. ... is the 235th day of the year (236th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the rap album, see 1924 (album). ... Alan Greenspan, former chairman, United States Federal Reserve. ... World GDP/capita changed very little for most of human history before the industrial revolution. ... The biennial John Bates Clark Medal is awarded by the American Economic Association to that American economist under the age of forty who is adjudged to have made a significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge. Named after the American Neoclassical economist John Bates Clark (1847-1938), it is considered... Year 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link displays 1987 Gregorian calendar). ... The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, commonly called the Nobel Prize in Economics, is a prize awarded each year for outstanding intellectual contributions in the field of economics. ...

Biography

Robert Solow was born in Brooklyn, New York in a Jewish family on August 23, 1924, the oldest of three children. He was well educated in the neighborhood public schools of New York City and excelled academically early in life. In September 1940, Solow went to the Harvard College with a scholarship. At Harvard, his first studies were in sociology and anthropology as well as elementary economics. This article is about the borough of New York City. ... Harvard Yard Harvard College is the undergraduate section and oldest school of Harvard University, founded in 1636 by the Massachusetts Legislature. ...

By the end of 1942, Solow left the university and joined the U.S. Army. He served briefly in North Africa and Sicily, and later served in Italy during World War II until he was discharged in August 1945.

He returned to Harvard in 1945, and studied under Wassily Leontief. As his research assistant he produced the first set of capital-coefficients for the input-output model. Then he became interested in statistics and probability models. From 1949-50, he spent a fellowship year at Columbia University to study statistics more intensively. During that year he was also working on his Ph.D. thesis, an exploratory attempt to model changes in the size distribution of wage income using interacting Markov processes for employment-unemployment and wage rates. Wassily Leontief (August 5, 1905, Munich, Germany – February 5, 1999, New York)[1], was an economist notable for his research on how changes in one economic sector may have an effect on other sectors. ... Alma Mater Columbia University in the City of New York is a private university in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Markov property. ...

In 1949, just before going off to Columbia he was offered and accepted an Assistant Professorship in the Economics Department at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. At M.I.T. he taught courses in statistics and econometrics. Solow’s interest gradually changed to Macroeconomics. For almost 40 years, Solow and Paul Samuelson worked together on many landmark theories: von Neumann growth theory (1953), capital theory (1956), linear programming (1958) and the Phillips Curve (1960). The MIT Department of Economics is a department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, Massachusetts. ... Paul Anthony Samuelson (born May 15, 1915, in Gary, Indiana) is an American neoclassical economist known for his contributions to many fields of economics, beginning with his general statement of the comparative statics method in his 1947 book Foundations of Economic Analysis. ... In mathematics, linear programming (LP) problems involve the optimization of a linear objective function, subject to linear equality and inequality constraints. ... Phillips curve The Phillips curve is a historical inverse relation and tradeoff between the rate of unemployment and the rate of inflation in an economy. ...

Solow also held several government positions, including senior economist for the Council of Economic Advisers (1961–62) and member of the President’s Commission on Income Maintenance (1968–70). His studies focused mainly in the fields of employment and growth policies, and the theory of capital.

Bill Clinton awarding Solow the National Medal of Science (1999)

In 1961 he won the American Economic Association's John Bates Clark Award, given to the best economist under age forty. In 1979 he was president of that association. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 524 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (769 × 880 pixel, file size: 160 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) President Clinton is awarding Robert Solow the National Medal of Science www. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 524 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (769 × 880 pixel, file size: 160 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) President Clinton is awarding Robert Solow the National Medal of Science www. ... William Jefferson Bill Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III[1] on August 19, 1946) was the 42nd President of the United States, serving from 1993 to 2001. ... National Medal of Science The National Medal of Science is an honor given by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral and social sciences, biology, chemistry, engineering, mathematics and physics. ...

In 1987, Robert Solow won the Nobel Prize for his analysis of economic growth. The Nobel Prizes (Swedish: ), as designated in Alfred Nobels will in 1895, are awarded for physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace. ...

In 1999, he received National Medal of Science. National Medal of Science The National Medal of Science is an honor given by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral and social sciences, biology, chemistry, engineering, mathematics and physics. ...

He is a trustee of the Economists for Peace and Security.

Economic Contributions

Solow's model of economic growth, often known as the Solow-Swan neo-classical growth model as the model was independently discovered by Trevor W. Swan and published in "The Economic Record" in 1956, allows the determinants of economic growth to be separated out into increases in inputs (labour and capital) and technical progress. Using his model, Solow calculated that about four-fifths of the growth in US output per worker was attributable to technical progress. World GDP/capita changed very little for most of human history before the industrial revolution. ... The Exogenous growth model, also known as the Neo-classical growth model or Solow growth model is a term used to sum up the contributions of various authors to a model of long-run economic growth within the framework of neoclassical economics. ... In classical economics and all micro-economics labour is a measure of the work done by human beings and is one of three factors of production, the others being land and capital. ... Capital has a number of related meanings in economics, finance and accounting. ...

Since Solow's initial work in the 1950s, many more sophisticated models of economic growth have been proposed, leading to varying conclusions about the causes of economic growth. In the 1980s efforts have focused on the role of technological progress in the economy, leading to the development of endogenous growth theory (or new growth theory). the first thing that was invented was the automatic DILDO. Education grew explosively because of a very strong demand for high school and college education. ... The 1980s refers to the years from 1980 to 1989. ... In economics, endogenous growth theory or new growth theory was developed in the 1980s as a response to criticism of the neo-classical growth model. ...

He is currently an emeritus Institute Professor in the MIT economics department, and previously taught at Columbia University. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology the title of Institute Professor is given to a small number of members of the faculty with extraordinary records of achievement. ... Mapúa Institute of Technology (MIT, MapúaTech or simply Mapúa) is a private, non-sectarian, Filipino tertiary institute located in Intramuros, Manila. ... Alma Mater Columbia University in the City of New York is a private university in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. ...

Quotations

• "Everything reminds Milton Friedman of the money supply. Everything reminds me of sex, but I try to keep it out of my papers."
• "You can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics."
• "Over the long term, places with strong, distinctive identities are more likely to prosper than places without them. Every place must identify its strongest most distinctive features and develop them or run the risk of being all things to all persons and nothing special to any...Livability is not a middle-class luxury. It is an economic imperative."
• "If it is very easy to substitute other factors for natural resources, then there is, in principle, no problem. The world can, in effect, get along without natural resources."

Milton Friedman (July 31, 1912 – November 16, 2006) was an American Nobel Laureate economist and public intellectual. ...

Selected Works

"A Contribution to the Theory of Economic Growth." Quarterly Journal of Economics 70 (February 1956): 65-94.

"Technical Change and the Aggregate Production Function." Review of Economics and Statistics 39 (August 1957): 312-20.

Linear Programming and Economic Analysis 1958. New York: McGraw-Hill. (With Robert Dorfman and Paul Samuelson.)

"The New Industrial State or Son of Affluence." The Public Interest (Fall 1967): 108. Capital Theory and the Rate of Return. 1963.

"The Economics of Resources or the Resources of Economics" The American Economic Review vol.64 (1974): 1-14.

See also

• Backstop resources
• Growth accounting
• Solow Growth Model
• List of economists
• Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel
• Great Commodities Depression

The theory of backstop resources is used by economic optimists to downplay fears about resource shortages, especially energy resources (see Peak oil). ... Growth accounting is a set of theories used in economics to explain economic growth. ... In economics, the Solow growth model is a dynamic model of economic growth. ... This is an alphabetical list of notable economists. ... The Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel (in Swedish Sveriges Riksbanks pris i ekonomisk vetenskap till Alfred Nobels minne), is a prize awarded each year for outstanding intellectual contributions in the field of economics. ... The Great Commodities Depression is the steep, general recession in commodity prices between 1980 and 2000, both in real and nominal terms. ...

External references

• Nobel Autobiography
• articles written by Solow for the New York Review of Books
• Robert M. Solow – Prize Lecture