Leonard Jay Mirman (March 19, 1940 – September 6, 2017) was an American

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

and

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 ...

. He was the Paul G. McIntire Professor of Economics at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...

. Mirman was known for his contributions to economics of uncertainty. A native of

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, Mirman earned a

bachelor's A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ( ...

(1963) and a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

(1965) in

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

from

Brooklyn College Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn in New York City, United States. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls nearly 14,000 students on a campus in the Midwood and Flatbush sections of Brooklyn as of fall ...

and

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

, respectively. Then he enrolled at the

University of Rochester The University of Rochester is a private university, private research university in Rochester, New York, United States. It was founded in 1850 and moved into its current campus, next to the Genesee River in 1930. With approximately 30,000 full ...

, majoring in

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 ...

. He received his MA in June 1968, and his Ph.D. in 1970. While still a

graduate student Postgraduate education, graduate education, or graduate school consists of Academic degree, academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications usually pursued by higher education, post-secondary students who have ...

, Mirman started a paper with

William A. Brock William Allen "Buz" Brock (born October 23, 1941) is a mathematical economist and a professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison since 1975.https://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~wbrock/CvJan2006.pdf, William A Brock CV 2006, Retrieved 04 December 2010 ...

, who was then an assistant professor in the department, that augmented the

Ramsey–Cass–Koopmans model The Ramsey–Cass–Koopmans model (also known as the Ramsey growth model or the neoclassical growth model) is a foundational model in neoclassical economics that describes the dynamics of economic growth over time. It builds upon the pioneering wo ...

with

stochastic Stochastic (; ) is the property of being well-described by a random probability distribution. ''Stochasticity'' and ''randomness'' are technically distinct concepts: the former refers to a modeling approach, while the latter describes phenomena; i ...

technology progress. As business cycle fluctuations arise naturally in this setup, the Brock–Mirman model became the foundation of

real business cycle theory Real business-cycle theory (RBC theory) is a class of new classical macroeconomics models in which business-cycle fluctuations are accounted for by real, in contrast to nominal, shocks. RBC theory sees business cycle fluctuations as the effic ...

, which is at the heart of modern

macroeconomics Macroeconomics is a branch of economics that deals with the performance, structure, behavior, and decision-making of an economy as a whole. This includes regional, national, and global economies. Macroeconomists study topics such as output (econ ...

and

growth theory In economics, economic growth is an increase in the quantity and quality of the economic goods and services that a society produces. It can be measured as the increase in the inflation-adjusted output of an economy in a given year or over a p ...

References

External links

Website at University of Virginia
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mirman, Leonard Jay 1940 births 2017 deaths 21st-century American economists Brooklyn College alumni New York University alumni University of Rochester alumni University of Virginia faculty Fellows of the Econometric Society