The Philosopher

Kenneth Arrow

The face

The background

Nationality:
American
Schools:
Neoclassical economics
Branchs:
Microeconomics, General equilibrium theory, Social choice theory, Endogenous-growth theory, Information economics, Mathematical economics, Welfare economics, political theory
Period:
Postwar

The synopsis

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. Arrow was a major figure in postwar neoclassical economic theory. His contributions to social choice theory, notably his "impossibility theorem", and his work on general equilibrium analysis are significant. His work in many other areas of economics, including endogenous growth theory and the economics of information, was also foundational. Arrow was born in New York City and earned degrees in mathematics from the City College of New York and Columbia University. He served as a weather officer in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II. His academic career included positions at the Cowles Commission, University of Chicago, Stanford University, and Harvard University. Four of his students went on to become Nobel laureates themselves. Arrow died at his home in Palo Alto, California, at the age of 95.

The works

The quotes

The major driver of economics is the equilibrium approach, which has taken various forms over the years. General equilibrium is the statement that all the different parts of the economy influence each other, even if it's remote, like mortgage-backed securities and their demands on automobiles.
Kenneth Arrow
My research, even before 1972, moved in directions beyond those cited for the Nobel Memorial Prize. Most of it, in one way or another, deals with information as an economic variable, both as to its production and as to its use.
Kenneth Arrow
In 1963 and later papers, I pointed out that the special market characteristics of medical care and medical insurance could be explained by reference to differences in information among the parties involved.
Kenneth Arrow
Any purchase is one for the future. If you buy a refrigerator, you are making a commitment to the future so that you have food to eat for the next ten years.
Kenneth Arrow
I was graduated in 1940 with a degree of Bachelor of Science in Social Science but a major in Mathematics, a paradoxical combination that was prognostic of my future interests.
Kenneth Arrow
My assignment was exclusively in the research field, and my first published paper, On the Optimal Use of Winds for Flight Planning, was the outgrowth of that work.
Kenneth Arrow
My undergraduate education, at the City College in New York, was made possible only by the existence of that excellent free institution and the financial sacrifices of my parents.
Kenneth Arrow
That economic decisions are made without certain knowledge of the consequences is pretty self-evident. But, although many economists were aware of this elementary fact, there was no systematic analysis of economic uncertainty until about 1950.
Kenneth Arrow
My graduate study was interrupted, like that of many others, by World War II.
Kenneth Arrow