Tjalling Charles Koopmans (August 28, 1910 – February 26, 1985) was a

Dutch-American Dutch Americans () are Americans of Dutch and Flemish descent whose ancestors came from the Low Countries in the distant past, or from the Netherlands as from 1830 when the Flemish became independent from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands ...

mathematician and economist. He was the joint winner with

Leonid Kantorovich Leonid Vitalyevich Kantorovich (, ; 19 January 19127 April 1986) was a Soviet mathematician and economist, known for his theory and development of techniques for the optimal allocation of resources. He is regarded as the founder of linear programm ...

of the 1975

Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, officially the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel (), commonly referred to as the Nobel Prize in Economics(), is an award in the field of economic sciences adminis ...

for his work on the theory of the optimum allocation of resources. Koopmans showed that on the basis of certain efficiency criteria, it is possible to make important deductions concerning optimum price systems.

Biography

Koopmans was born in

's-Graveland s-Graveland () is a village in the Dutch province of North Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Wijdemeren, and lies about 4 km northwest of Hilversum. The former municipality of 's-Graveland merged with Loosdrecht and Nederhorst den ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. He began his university education at the

Utrecht University Utrecht University (UU; , formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public university, public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2023, it had an enrollment of ...

at seventeen, specializing in mathematics. Three years later, in 1930, he switched to theoretical physics. In 1933, he met

Jan Tinbergen Jan Tinbergen ( , ; 12 April 1903 – 9 June 1994) was a Dutch economist who was awarded the first Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1969, which he shared with Ragnar Frisch for having developed and applied dynamic models for the ana ...

, the winner of the 1969 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics and moved to

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

to study

mathematical economics Mathematical economics is the application of Mathematics, mathematical methods to represent theories and analyze problems in economics. Often, these Applied mathematics#Economics, applied methods are beyond simple geometry, and may include diff ...

under him. In addition to mathematical economics, Koopmans extended his explorations to

econometrics Econometrics is an application of statistical methods to economic data in order to give empirical content to economic relationships. M. Hashem Pesaran (1987). "Econometrics", '' The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics'', v. 2, p. 8 p. 8 ...

and

statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a s ...

. In 1936, he graduated from

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; ) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. Established in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince of Orange as a Protestantism, Protestant institution, it holds the d ...

with a PhD, under the direction of

Hendrik Kramers Hendrik Anthony "Hans" Kramers (17 December 1894 – 24 April 1952) was a Dutch physicist who worked with Niels Bohr to understand how electromagnetic waves interact with matter and made important contributions to quantum mechanics and statistical ...

. The title of the thesis was "Linear regression analysis of economic time series". He also worked for the

Economic and Financial Organization An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the ...

of the

League of Nations The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...

. Koopmans moved to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

in 1940. There, he worked for a while for a government body in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, where he published on the economics of transportation focusing on optimal routing, then moved to

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

where he joined a research body, the

Cowles Commission for Research in Economics The Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics is an economic research institute at Yale University. History It was created as the Cowles Commission for Research in Economics at Colorado Springs in 1932 by businessman and economist Alfred Cow ...

, affiliated with 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 ...

. In 1946, he became a

naturalized citizen Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-national of a country acquires the nationality of that country after birth. The definition of naturalization by the International Organization for Migration of the ...

of the

, and in 1948, director of the Cowles Commission. Also in 1948, 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 ...

. In 1950, he became a corresponding member of the

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (, KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed in the Trippenhuis in Amsterdam. In addition to various advisory a ...

. Rising hostile opposition to the Cowles Commission by the department of economics at University of Chicago during the 1950s led Koopmans to convince the Cowles family to move it to

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

in 1955 (where it was renamed the

Cowles Foundation The Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics is an economic research institute at Yale University. History It was created as the Cowles Commission for Research in Economics at Colorado Springs in 1932 by businessman and economist Alfred Cow ...

). He continued to publish, on the

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 ...

of optimal growth and activity analysis. Koopmans's early works on the Hartree–Fock theory are associated with the

Koopmans' theorem Koopmans' theorem states that in closed-shell Hartree–Fock theory (HF), the first ionization energy of a molecular system is equal to the negative of the orbital energy of the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO). This theorem is named afte ...

, which is very well known in

quantum chemistry Quantum chemistry, also called molecular quantum mechanics, is a branch of physical chemistry focused on the application of quantum mechanics to chemical systems, particularly towards the quantum-mechanical calculation of electronic contributions ...

. Koopmans was awarded his Nobel memorial prize (jointly with Leonid Kantorovich) for his contributions to the field of resource allocation, specifically the theory of optimal use of resources. The work for which the prize was awarded focused on activity analysis, the study of interactions between the inputs and outputs of

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stat ...

, and their relationship to

economic efficiency In microeconomics, economic efficiency, depending on the context, is usually one of the following two related concepts: * Allocative or Pareto efficiency: any changes made to assist one person would harm another. * Productive efficiency: no addit ...

and

prices A price is the (usually not negative) quantity of payment or compensation expected, required, or given by one party to another in return for goods or services. In some situations, especially when the product is a service rather than a phys ...

. Finally, the importance of the article by Koopmans (1942) deriving the distribution of the serial correlation coefficient was recognized by

John von Neumann John von Neumann ( ; ; December 28, 1903 – February 8, 1957) was a Hungarian and American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist and engineer. Von Neumann had perhaps the widest coverage of any mathematician of his time, in ...

, and it later influenced the optimal tests for a

unit root In probability theory and statistics, a unit root is a feature of some stochastic processes (such as random walks) that can cause problems in statistical inference involving time series models. A linear stochastic process has a unit root if ...

John Denis Sargan John Denis Sargan, FBA (23 August 1924 – 13 April 1996) was a British econometrician who specialized in the analysis of economic time-series. Sargan was born in Doncaster, Yorkshire in 1924, and was educated at Doncaster Grammar School and ...

and

Alok Bhargava Alok Bhargava (born 13 July 1954) is an Indian econometrician. He studied mathematics at Delhi University and economics and econometrics at the London School of Economics. He is currently a full professor at the University of Maryland Schoo ...

(Sargan and Bhargava, 1983).

Family and name

Tjalling Charles Koopmans was a son of Sjoerd Koopmans and Wytske van der Zee; his

middle name In various cultures, a middle name is a portion of a personal name that is written between a person's given name and surname. A middle name is often abbreviated and is then called middle initial or just initial. A person may be given a middle ...

Charles was probably derived from his

patronymic A patronymic, or patronym, is a component of a personal name based on the given name of one's father, grandfather (more specifically an avonymic), or an earlier male ancestor. It is the male equivalent of a matronymic. Patronymics are used, b ...

"Sjoerds". One of Sjoerd Koopmans's sisters, Gatske Koopmans, and her husband Symon van der Meer were the paternal grandparents of Nobel Prize winner

Simon van der Meer Simon van der Meer (24 November 19254 March 2011) was a Dutch particle accelerator physicist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1984 with Carlo Rubbia for contributions to the CERN project which led to the discovery of the W and Z parti ...

. Tjalling Koopmans and Simon van der Meer were therefore

first cousins once removed A cousin is a relative who is the child of a parent's sibling; this is more specifically referred to as a first cousin. A parent of a first cousin is an aunt or uncle. More generally, in the kinship system used in the English-speaking world, c ...

. Tjalling had two brothers, one of whom was

theologian Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of ...

Rev. Dr

Jan Koopmans Jan Koopmans (May 26, 1905, in Sliedrecht – March 24, 1945, in Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a popu ...

, who in 1940, early during the

German occupation of the Netherlands Despite Dutch neutrality, Nazi Germany German invasion of the Netherlands, invaded the Netherlands on 10 May 1940 as part of ''Fall Gelb'' (Case Yellow). On 15 May 1940, one day after the Rotterdam Blitz, bombing of Rotterdam, the Dutch forces ...

, wrote the widely distributed pamphlet "''Bijna te laat''" ("''Almost too late''", 30,000 copies), warning about the future of the Jews under the Nazi regime. In 1945, towards the end of the war, he witnessed an execution of hostages in

from behind a window and was mortally wounded by a stray bullet. Koopmans married Truus Wanningen in October 1936. The couple had three children - a son, Henry, and two daughters, Anne and Helen.

Selected works

* * Cowles Foundation Paper No. 357. * *

References

External links

* * Scarf, Herbert E.
"Tjalling Charles Koopmans: August 28, 1910 – February 26, 1985"
''National Academy of Science''

* *
Biography of Tjalling Koopmans
from the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences
Tjalling Charles Koopmans Papers (MS 1439).
Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library. {{DEFAULTSORT:Koopmans, Tjalling 1910 births 1985 deaths People from Wijdemeren Dutch Nobel laureates Dutch economists Dutch emigrants to the United States Utrecht University alumni University of Amsterdam alumni Nobel laureates in Economics Fellows of the American Statistical Association Fellows of the Econometric Society Fellows of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics Presidents of the Econometric Society Mathematical economists American econometricians Time series econometricians General equilibrium theorists American operations researchers 20th-century American writers 20th-century American economists 20th-century American mathematicians Presidents of the American Economic Association Distinguished fellows of the American Economic Association Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Dutch mathematicians

Biography

Family and name

Selected works

Further reading

See also

References

External links