Jack Hirshleifer (August 26, 1925 – July 26, 2005) was an American

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

and long-time professor at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

. He received a B.S. in 1945 and a Ph.D. in 1950 from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

. He worked at the

RAND Corporation The RAND Corporation, doing business as RAND, is an American nonprofit global policy think tank, research institute, and public sector consulting firm. RAND engages in research and development (R&D) in several fields and industries. Since the ...

Santa Monica Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...

from 1949 to 1955. He then taught at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

from 1955 to 1960, and at UCLA until 2001. Hirshleifer was well known for his work on

uncertainty Uncertainty or incertitude refers to situations involving imperfect or unknown information. It applies to predictions of future events, to physical measurements that are already made, or to the unknown, and is particularly relevant for decision ...

and

information Information is an Abstraction, abstract concept that refers to something which has the power Communication, to inform. At the most fundamental level, it pertains to the Interpretation (philosophy), interpretation (perhaps Interpretation (log ...

in economics, the economic analysis of conflict, and bioeconomics. His undergraduate textbook, ''Price Theory and Applications'', went into seven editions. A 1958 article by Hirshleifer began the triumphant comeback of

Irving Fisher Irving Fisher (February 27, 1867 – April 29, 1947) was an American economist, statistician, inventor, eugenicist and progressive social campaigner. He was one of the earliest American neoclassical economists, though his later work on debt de ...

's theory of capital and interest, now deemed canonical. While at the

, Hirshleifer wrote a report which tore apart the Department of Water and Power's feasibility report for the Oroville Dam, noting among other things that the report failed to include the cost of building the dam. The dam ended up being built. (Cadillac Desert, Chapter 10).

Bibliography

* Hirshleifer, Jack (1970). ''Investment, Interest, and Capital'', Prentice/Hall International * Hirshleifer, Jack (June 1973). "Exchange Theory: The Missing Chapter." ''Western Economic Journal'' (Economic Inquiry) 11: 129–146 * Hirshleifer, Jack (1976). ''Price Theory and Applications'', Prentice/Hall International * Hirshleifer, Jack (January 1983). "From weakest-link to best-shot: The voluntary provision of public goods", ''Public Choice'', Vol. 41, Number 3, pp. 371–386. * Hirshleifer, Jack (1994). ''The Analytics of Uncertainty and Information''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press * Hirshleifer, Jack (2001). ''The dark side of the force: economic foundations of conflict theory''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

External links

Biography at New School web pageObituary
1925 births 2005 deaths Deaths from prostate cancer Harvard University alumni University of Chicago faculty University of California, Los Angeles faculty Information economists 21st-century American economists 20th-century American economists Fellows of the Econometric Society Distinguished fellows of the American Economic Association {{US-economist-stub