Marvin Hoffenberg (1914–2012) was an American economist and political scientist. He was an economist for the

United States Department of Labor The United States Department of Labor (DOL) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is responsible for the administration of federal laws governing occupational safety and health, wage and hour standards, unemp ...

, 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 ...

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

's Operations Research Office, and

The Aerospace Corporation The Aerospace Corporation is an American nonprofit corporation that operates a federally funded research and development center (FFRDC). The corporation provides technical guidance and advice on all aspects of space missions to military, civil ...

. He was a professor of political science 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 ...

(UCLA) from 1965 to 1986.

Early life

Marvin Hoffenberg was born on July 7, 1914, in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of ...

.'Marvin HOFFENBERG'
''The Los Angeles Times'', January 11, 2013 He graduated from

Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...

with a bachelor's degree in 1939. He went on to receive a master's degree from the same university in 1940, and completed the coursework for the PhD in 1941.

Career

Hoffenberg worked as an economist for the

from 1941 to 1952. During that time, he published research suggested U.S. employment depended on foreign exports. Later in life, he recounted that the Labor Department was his only option as Washington, D.C., was still segregated: "if you were Jewish, you could work for the Department of Labor and, if you were Catholic, you could work for the Department of Commerce."Sharon Bertsch McGrayne
''The Theory that Would Not Die: How Bayes' Rule Cracked the Enigma Code, Hunted Down Russian Submarines, & Emerged Triumphant from Two Centuries of Controversy''
New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 2011, p. 110 Hoffenberg became a consultant for the

Mutual Security Agency The Mutual Security Agency (1951–1953) was a US agency to strengthen European allies of World War II through military assistance and economic recovery. History The Mutual Security Agency was established by the passing of the Mutual Security ...

working on the

Marshall Plan The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was an American initiative enacted in 1948 to provide foreign aid to Western Europe. The United States transferred $13.3 billion (equivalent to $ in ) in economic recovery pr ...

in Paris in 1952. Back in the United States, he worked for the

from 1952 to 1956. During that time, he co-authored '' A Time Series Analysis of Interindustry Demands'' with

Kenneth Arrow Kenneth Joseph Arrow (August 23, 1921 – February 21, 2017) was an American economist, mathematician and political theorist. He received the John Bates Clark Medal in 1957, and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1972, along with ...

. Later, he worked as an economist for DeVegh & Co., the

Committee for Economic Development The Committee for Economic Development of The Conference Board (CED) is an American nonprofit and nonpartisan public policy think tank. The board of trustees consist primarily of senior corporate executives from a range of U.S. industries an ...

's Operations Research Office, and

. Hoffenberg joined the

(UCLA) as a research economist in 1965. He taught in the Department of Political Science from 1967 to 1970 as well as the

UCLA School of Public Health The UCLA Jonathan and Karin Fielding School of Public Health is the graduate school of public health at UCLA, and is located within the Center for Health Sciences building on UCLA's campus in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. ...

from 1967 to 1972. He continued to teach Political Science at UCLA until 1986.

Personal life

On July 20, 1947, he married Betty S. Hoffenberg. They were both Jewish. They had two sons. They resided in the

Pacific Palisades, California Pacific Palisades is a neighborhood in the Westside Los Angeles, Westside region of the city of Los Angeles, California, situated about west of downtown Los Angeles. Throughout January 2025, the majority of Pacific Palisades was severely affec ...

, near Los Angeles.

Death and legacy

He died on December 30, 2012. The Marvin Hoffenberg Chair in American Politics and Public Policy in the Department of Political Science at UCLA is named in his honor. It was formerly held by Timothy Groseclose and is now held by

Lynn Vavreck Lynn Vavreck (born 1968) is an American political scientist and columnist. She is the Marvin Hoffenberg Chair in American Politics and Public Policy at University of California, Los Angeles and a contributing columnist to ''The New York Times'' ...

. Additionally, since 2005, the Bollens-Ries-Hoffenberg Lecture is partly named for him.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoffenberg, Marvin 1914 births 2012 deaths Scientists from Buffalo, New York People from Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles Ohio State University College of Arts and Sciences alumni United States Department of Labor officials University of California, Los Angeles faculty RAND Corporation people Economists from New York (state) American political scientists Jewish American academics Jewish American scientists Economists from California 21st-century American Jews