Holbrook Working (February 5, 1895 – October 5, 1985) was an American professor of

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyzes ...

and statistics at Stanford University's Food Research Institute known for his contributions on hedging, on the theory of

futures Futures may mean: Finance *Futures contract, a tradable financial derivatives contract *Futures exchange, a financial market where futures contracts are traded * ''Futures'' (magazine), an American finance magazine Music * ''Futures'' (album), a ...

prices, on an early theory of

market maker A market maker or liquidity provider is a company or an individual that quotes both a buy and a sell price in a tradable asset held in inventory, hoping to make a profit on the ''bid–ask spread'', or ''turn.'' The benefit to the firm is that i ...

behavior, and on the

theory of storage The Theory of Storage describes features observed in commodity markets: When available supplies of the commodity in question are high, and the working inventories of commercial consumers of that commodity are accordingly held to a minimum, * Futur ...

(including the ''Working curve'' which plots the difference between short term and long term grain futures prices against current inventory).

Biography

He was born in Fort Collins, Colorado, on February 5, 1895. Working earned his Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...

in 1921. He taught at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

and the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

before he joined Stanford's Food Research Institute in 1925. His younger brother Elmer Working made a major contribution on the identification problem for demand curves in econometrics, with which Holbrook Working was also involved. Working disagreed with

Keynes John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes, ( ; 5 June 1883 – 21 April 1946), was an English economist whose ideas fundamentally changed the theory and practice of macroeconomics and the economic policies of governments. Originally trained in m ...

backwardation Normal backwardation, also sometimes called backwardation, is the market condition where the price of a commodity's forward or futures contract is trading below the ''expected'' spot price at contract maturity. The resulting futures or forward ...

theory of futures prices, which argued that short hedgers (farmers) drive down futures prices because of their demand for ''price insurance''. Working argued that there could be hedgers on both sides of the market and that hedging was essentially not a risk reduction technique, but "speculation in the basis" which allows informed traders and commodity dealers to profit from their knowledge of future changes in the difference between futures and spot prices. He was a founding member of the

Econometric Society The Econometric Society is an international society of academic economists interested in applying statistical tools to their field. It is an independent organization with no connections to societies of professional mathematicians or statisticians. ...

and was elected a Fellow of the American Agricultural Economics Association, the

American Statistical Association The American Statistical Association (ASA) is the main professional organization for statisticians and related professionals in the United States. It was founded in Boston, Massachusetts on November 27, 1839, and is the second oldest continuousl ...

, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.Stanford Historical Society
accessed 4/24/07. In 1981 he was awarded the

Wilks Memorial Award The Wilks Memorial Award is awarded by the American Statistical Association to recognize outstanding contributions to statistics. It was established in 1964 and is awarded yearly. It is named in memory of the statistician Samuel S. Wilks. The awa ...

by the American Statistical Association. He died on October 5, 1985, in

Santa Clara, California Santa Clara (; Spanish for " Saint Clare") is a city in Santa Clara County, California. The city's population was 127,647 at the 2020 census, making it the eighth-most populous city in the Bay Area. Located in the southern Bay Area, the cit ...

Notable papers

* * * * * * * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Working, Holbrook 1895 births 1985 deaths 20th-century American economists Cornell University faculty Fellows of the American Statistical Association Stanford University faculty Fellows of the Econometric Society

Biography

See also

Notable papers

References