Arthur Melvin "Art" Okun (November 28, 1928 – March 23, 1980) was an American economist. Okun is known in particular for

Okun's law In economics, Okun's law is an Empirical research, empirically observed relationship between unemployment and losses in a country's production. It is named after Arthur Melvin Okun, who first proposed the relationship in 1962. The "gap version" s ...

, an observed relationship that states that for every 1% increase in the

unemployment rate Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is the proportion of people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work d ...

, a country's

GDP Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the total market value of all the final goods and services produced and rendered in a specific time period by a country or countries. GDP is often used to measure the economic performance o ...

will be roughly an additional 2.5% lower than its potential GDP. He is also known as the creator of the

misery index Misery Index can refer to: Economics *Misery index (economics), adding the unemployment rate to the inflation rate Entertainment

*Misery Index (band), an American death metal band from Baltimore *Misery Index (album), ''Misery Index'' (alb ...

and the analogy of the

deadweight loss In economics, deadweight loss is the loss of societal economic welfare due to production/consumption of a good at a quantity where marginal benefit (to society) does not equal marginal cost (to society). In other words, there are either goods ...

of taxation with a leaky bucket.

Biography

Okun graduated from Columbia College in 1949 with the Albert Asher Green Memorial Prize for the highest GPA. He went on to obtain a Ph.D. in economics from Columbia in 1956 before teaching at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

. He served as the chairman of the

Council of Economic Advisers The Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) is a United States agency within the Executive Office of the President established in 1946, which advises the president of the United States on economic policy. The CEA provides much of the empirical resea ...

between 1968 and 1969. Afterwards, he became a fellow at the

Brookings Institution The Brookings Institution, often stylized as Brookings, is an American think tank that conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in economics (and tax policy), metropolitan policy, governance, foreign policy, global econo ...

in Washington, D.C. In 1968 he was elected as a

Fellow of the American Statistical Association Like many other academic professional societies, the American Statistical Association (ASA) uses the title of Fellow of the American Statistical Association as its highest honorary grade of membership. The designation of ASA Fellow has been a sign ...

. He died on March 23, 1980, of a heart attack.Arthur Okun Dies, Economic Adviser to Johnson
accessed 2020-08-14.

Works

* ''Equality and Efficiency: The Big Tradeoff'' (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1975) * ''Prices and Quantities: A Macroeconomic Analysis''
see here
(1981)

References

External links

Brookings Inst Bio and Obit
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Okun, Arthur Melvin 1928 births 1980 deaths 20th-century American economists Columbia College (New York) alumni Columbia University alumni Economists from New Jersey Fellows of the American Statistical Association Fellows of the Econometric Society People from Jersey City, New Jersey Neo-Keynesian economists Yale University faculty Yale Sterling Professors Chairs of the United States Council of Economic Advisers

Biography

Works

See also

References

External links