Martin Reuben Gainsbrugh (January 29, 1907 – April 1977) was an American economist, practicing statistician, writer, and educator, He was vice-president and chief economist of

The Conference Board The Conference Board, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) non-profit business membership and research organization. It counts over 1,000 public and private corporations and other organizations as members, encompassing 60 countries. Th ...

, adjunct professor at the

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 ...

, and president of 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 continuous ...

in 1961.

Biography

Gainsbrugh received his M.A. in economics 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 ...

in 1928, and his Ph.D. from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

in 1932. Gainsbrugh started his career as economic analyst for Trade-Ways, industrial consultants in 1933. In 1937 he moved to The National Industrial Conference Board, where he spent the greater part of his career. He became Chief Economist and its vice-president, and retired in 1972. From 1944 to 1972 he was also adjunct professor of economics at the

, and worked as consultant for government and industry for decades.

Allan Birnbaum Allan Birnbaum (May 27, 1923 – July 1, 1976) was an American statistician who contributed to statistical inference, foundations of statistics, statistical genetics, statistical psychology, and history of statistics. Life and career Birnbaum was ...

. "Martin Reuben Gainsbrugh", in: ''The American Statistician'' 31.4 (1977). p. 178. In 1952 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 ...

. Gainsbrugh is described by Birnbaum (1977) as "a generalist who worked in depth in many areas of economics and statistics including unemployment statistics, price indexes,

consumer economics Microeconomics is a branch of economics that studies the behavior of individuals and firms in making decisions regarding the allocation of scarce resources and the interactions among these individuals and firms. Microeconomics focuses on the ...

, wealth estimates, wages behavior, profits, inflation, national income... no one who was more thoroughly familiar with the uses and limitations of the major statistical series published by the Federal Government."

Work

''High-Level Consumption'', 1935

The first detailed estimates of aggregate

consumer expenditures A consumer is a person or a group who intends to order, or use purchased goods, products, or services primarily for personal, social, family, household and similar needs, who is not directly related to entrepreneurial or business activities. ...

for goods and services in the United States over a period of time appeared in William H. Lough with the assistance of Martin Gainsbrugh, ''High-Level Consumption'', McGraw-Hill, New York, 1935. These pioneer estimates covered the years 1909, 1914, 1919, 1921, 1923, 1925, 1927, 1929, and 1931. The data for the later years were revised and extended by Harold Barger, ''Outlay and Income in the United States, 1921–1938'', National Bureau of Economic Research, New York, 1942. In the 1940s, J. Frederic Dewhurst and Associates (''America's Needs and Resources'', 1947) revised these various estimates and expanded those on recreational expense to take account of estimates by Julius Weinberger, "The Economic Aspects of Recreation", ''Harvard Business Review'', summer issue, 1937.

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

.
Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970
', Vol. 1. p. 306 In 1935, estimates of aggregate consumer expenditures in detail for 1909 and 1929 and selected years between were prepared by Martin Gainsbrugh and published in William H. Lough, ''HighLevel Consumption''... This book included a comparison with The Brookings Institution's aggregates for 1929, showing that the two estimates were very close for food expense, and reasonably close for attire and home maintenance; but the estimates by Lough and Gainsbrugh of expenditures for all other items were much higher than the Brookings' figures.

Selected publications

* Lough, William H., and Martin R. Gainsborough. ''High-Level Consumption.'' (1935). * Backman, Jules, and Martin Reuben Gainsbrugh (eds.). ''Behavior of Wages.'' National Industrial Conference Board, 1948. * Gainsbrugh, Martin Reuben, and Jules Backman. (eds.) ''Inflation and the Price Indexes.'' National Industrial Conference Board, 1966. * National Industrial Conference Board, Jules Backman, and Martin Reuben Gainsbrugh. (eds.) ''The Conference Board Presents Deflation Or Inflation?.'' Johnson Reprint, 1969. Articles, a selection: * Backman, Jules, and Martin R. Gainsbrugh. "Productivity and living standards." ''Industrial and Labor Relations Review'' (1949): 163–194. * Gainsbrugh, Martin R. "Allocation of Resources to Research and Development." ''Proceedings of a Conference on Research and Development and Its Impact on the Economy.'' NSF-58-36. Washington: National Science Foundation. 1958. * Gainsbrugh, Martin R. "Viewing Advertising as Investment.." ''Advertising Age'' (February 2, 1959): 69–70.

References

;Attribution

This article incorporates public domain material from a 1970 text by the United States Census Bureau. {{DEFAULTSORT:Gainsbrugh, Martin R. 1907 births 1977 deaths 20th-century American economists American statisticians University of Rochester alumni Columbia University alumni New York University faculty Fellows of the American Statistical Association