Birgit Grodal (24 June 1943 - 4 May 2004), was an

economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

at the

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen (, KU) is a public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in Scandinavia, after Uppsala University. ...

from 1968 until her death in 2004.See also.
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Early life

Birgit Grodal was born on 24 June 1943 in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

. She grew up in Frederiksberg. She was the middle child having both a younger and an older brother. Grodal was interested in mathematics from a young age and used to fill the pages of her psalm book with equations. She was married to Torben Grodal.

Education

Grodal gained her degree (1962) and her masters (1968) in mathematics and physics from the

. Also at the University of Copenhagen she earned her Ph.D. in mathematics under

Werner Fenchel Moritz Werner Fenchel (; 3 May 1905 – 24 January 1988) was a German-Danish mathematician known for his contributions to geometry and to optimization theory. Fenchel established the basic results of convex analysis and nonlinear opti ...

, her dissertation, ''A critical overview of the present theory on atomless economies'', won a gold medal, something which was used to support young scholars in the old Danish academic system.Pdf version.
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Research

Birgit Grodal worked on micro-economic theory,

mathematical economics Mathematical economics is the application of Mathematics, mathematical methods to represent theories and analyze problems in economics. Often, these Applied mathematics#Economics, applied methods are beyond simple geometry, and may include diff ...

, and

general equilibrium theory In economics, general equilibrium theory attempts to explain the behavior of supply, demand, and prices in a whole economy with several or many interacting markets, by seeking to prove that the interaction of demand and supply will result in an ov ...

Career

Birgit Grodal was elected president of the

European Economic Association The European Economic Association (EEA) is a learned society, professional academic body which links European economists. It was founded in the mid-1980s. Its first annual congress was in 1986 in Vienna and its first president was Jacques Drèze. ...

, but died before she was scheduled to attain her presidency. In 2010 the

Council agreed unanimously to institute a prize in her honor to a European-based female economist who has made a significant contribution to the Economics profession. She was also a member of the

Econometric Society The Econometric Society is an international society of academic economists interested in applying statistical tools in the practice of econometrics. It is an independent organization with no connections to societies of professional mathematicians o ...

starting in 1981 and served on the executive committee between 1997 and 2000.

Publications

Her major works include ''A Second Remark on the Core of an Atomless Economy''" published in ''

Econometrica ''Econometrica'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal of economics, publishing articles in many areas of economics, especially econometrics. It is published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the Econometric Society. The current editor-in-chief is ...

'' in 1972, and ''Existence of Approximate Cores with Incomplete Preferences'' published in ''Econometrica'' in 1976.

The Birgit Grodal Award

The Birgit Grodal Award is bestowed bi-annually (even years) in her memory, the winner receives €10,000.

Danmarks Nationalbank Danmarks Nationalbank (in Danish often simply ''Nationalbanken'') is the central bank of the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is a non-eurozone member of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB). Since its establishment in 1818, the objecti ...

agreed to sponsor the first three awards. The recipients of the Birgit Grodal Award are: * 2012:

Hélène Rey Hélène Rey (born 1970) is a French economist who serves as Professor at London Business School (LBS). Her work focuses on international trade, financial imbalances, financial crises and the international monetary system. Early life and educatio ...

* 2014: Rachel Griffith * 2016:

Lucrezia Reichlin Lucrezia Reichlin (born 14 August 1954) is an Italian economist who has been a professor at London Business School since 2008. As of early 2025, she was also a non-resident fellow at Bruegel. Reichlin's research focuses on forecasting, busines ...

* 2018: Ekaterina Zhuravskaya * 2020:

Eliana La Ferrara Eliana La Ferrara is an Italian economist and Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. Before receiving tenure at Harvard in 2022, she held the Fondazione Romeo ed Enrica Invernizzi Chair in Development Eco ...

* 2022:

Silvana Tenreyro María Silvana Tenreyro (born 6 September 1973) is a British-Argentine economist who is professor of economics at the London School of Economics and was an external member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee from July 2017 to July 2 ...

CEPR (Monday, August 8, 2022). 2020 Birgit Grodal Award awarded to CEPR Research Fellow Eliana La Ferrara. Retrieved August 8th, 2022.
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grodal, Birgit 1943 births 2004 deaths Danish economists Danish women economists Danish mathematicians Danish women mathematicians General equilibrium theorists Microeconomists University of Copenhagen alumni Academic staff of the University of Copenhagen 20th-century Danish women scientists Fellows of the Econometric Society Danish women academics