John Hicks: A Bio Sketch

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John Hicks was an incredibly impactful academic. Born in England to a journalist father, Hicks contributed many concepts and works to the world of economics- eventually earning himself and fellow economist Kenneth Arrow the Nobel Prize in this arena. In 1939, Hicks published his book “Value and Capital”. His work was one of the first to delve into the ideas surrounding general equilibrium theory, and also outlined the distinction between the substitution effect and the income effect. 

Another major contribution of this economist is his invention of the IS-LM model, a graphical summary of the Keynesian understanding of macroeconomics; his analysis of the four markets (goods, labor, credit and money) was published in an economics journal of 1937. Hicks was also a notable professor, teaching at prestigious universities such as the London School of Economics, the University of Manchester, and Oxford University.

I was aware of John Hicks before this assignment, due to the various econ classes I’ve taken. However, my knowledge of him was very limited- I only recognized him due to his  IS-LM model. It is nice to get the opportunity to read more about him, considering he is seen as one of the most influential economists. As Hicks was involved with so many basic ideas of economics (such as interest rates, inflation, and Keynesian econ), I am positive his work will be relevant to our coursework. Specifically, I think that his ideas of the compensation test are pertinent to some of our topics (like college/its costs, etc.).

https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/John_Richard_Hicks             
www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Hicks.html

Comments

  1. Professor ArvanSeptember 17, 2019 at 4:56 AM

    Keynes himself didn't like IS-LM. The rest of us, who couldn't understand fully The General Theory, appreciated a version that was more manageable.

    ReplyDelete

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