Selma Evelyn Fine Goldsmith (1912–1962) was an American
economic statistician who accurately estimated the personal income distribution of Americans.
[.]
Life
Selma Fine was born in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...
on January 17, 1912,
and attended
Morris High School in
The Bronx
The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New ...
. She graduated in 1932 from
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to ...
and completed her doctorate in 1936 from
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
with a dissertation on 17th- and 18th-century British business cycles.
Fine began working for the
United States Department of Agriculture
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of com ...
and then for the National Resources Planning Board, where she began working on income tax data.
[ During this time she married Yale economist Raymond W. Goldsmith. They had three children.
Her major publications on income data were produced later, in the 1950s.]
Personal life
Fine was married to Raymond W. Goldsmith, Professor of Economics at Yale University.[
]
Recognition
Goldsmith won the Distinguished Service Award of the Department of Commerce
The United States Department of Commerce is an executive department of the U.S. federal government concerned with creating the conditions for economic growth and opportunity. Among its tasks are gathering economic and demographic data for bus ...
in 1955, and a Rockefeller public service award in 1956.Fellow
A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context.
In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements.
Within the context of higher education ...
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 ...
for "numerous definitive studies clarifying the complex relationships among the statistics relating to the distribution of family income, family expenditures, and the national income accounts".
Published works
* 1939. "The Use of Income Tax Data in the National Resources Committee Estimate of the Distribution of Income by Size," (with Enid Baird), ''Studies in Income and Wealth 3''.
* 1950. "Statistical Information on the Distribution of Income by Size," ''American Economic Review'' 40.
* 1951. "Appraisal of Basic Data Available for Constructing Income Size Distributions," ''Studies in Income and Wealth 13''.
* 1953. "Income Distribution in the United States by Size, 1944–50," (with George Jaszi), Supplement to the ''Survey of Current Business''.
* 1954. "Size Distribution of Income Since the Mid-Thirties," (with George Jaszi, Hyman Kaitz, and Maurice Liebenberg), ''Review of Economics and Statistics'' 34.
* 1954. "Inequality of Income Distribution—Discussion," ''American Economic Review'' 44.
* 1956. "Reply to Dr. Clyman," ''Review of Economics and Statistics'' 38.
* 1957. "Changes in the Size Distribution of Income," ''American Economic Review'' 47.
* 1958. "Size Distribution of Personal Income," ''Survey of Current Business'' 38.
* 1958. "The Relation of Census Income Distribution Statistics to Other Income Data, An Appraisal of the 1950 Census Income Data," ''Studies in Income and Wealth'' 23.
* 1960. "Size Distribution of Income and Wealth in the United States," in Arndt, Helmut (ed.), ''Die Konzentration in der Wirtschaft''.
* 1962. "Low-Income Families and Measures of Income Inequality," ''Review of Social Economy'' 20.[
]
References
Further reading
*Cicarelli, James, and Julianne Cicarelli. ''Distinguished Women Economists''. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2003.
*Conference on Research in Income and Wealth. "Appraisal of Basic Data Available for Constructing Income Size Distributions." In ''Studies in Income and Wealth, Volume 13'', 373–377. New York: National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc., 1951.
*Kapuria-Foreman, Vibha. "Selma Evelyn Fine Goldsmith." In ''A Biographical Dictionary of Women Economists'', edited by Robert W. Dimand, Mary Ann Dimand, and Evelyn L. Forget. Cheltenham, United Kingdom: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2000.
*National Bureau of Economic Research. ''Fifty Years of Economic Measurement: The Jubilee of the Conference on Research in Income and Wealth, Studies in Income and Wealth Volume 54'', edited by Ernst R. Berndt and Jack E. Triplett. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, for the National Bureau of Economic Research, 1990.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Goldsmith, Selma Evelyn Fine
1912 births
1962 deaths
Cornell University alumni
Harvard University alumni
American women economists
20th-century American economists
American statisticians
Women statisticians
Fellows of the American Statistical Association