Wassily Leontief
Wassily Leontief (* August 5, 1905 in Munich, † February 5, 1999 in New York; originally russian Василий Васильевич Леонтьев / Vassily Leontief ) was a Russian economist who was awarded the 1973 Prize for Economics in the Bank of Sweden in memory of Alfred Nobel.
Life
Leontief was born in 1905 in Munich and grew up in St. Petersburg, where his father was a professor of economics. In 1921 he began his studies of philosophy and sociology, and later economics at the University of Leningrad.
Later Leontief also studied economics and made his degree in 1924. In 1925 he traveled to Germany and was from 1927 to 1928 assistant at the Institute for World Economics in Kiel. He wrote his dissertation in Berlin with Werner Sombart, a German economist. This appeared in 1928 under the title The economy as a cycle. The central idea of his work was to map all flows of goods of a society in a model.
1931 emigrated Leontief to the United States. At Harvard University in Cambridge (Massachusetts ), he began his work on a general equilibrium theory. So far, only individual parts of the economy were highlighted by economists, such as the change of a particular use of capital to the extent of a particular production effect. In Leontief's equilibrium theory, however, has been investigated, resulting in the total economy is happening in such a case. He gripped the supply relationships between different industries in large input-output tables. In 1936, his first article appeared on the input-output analysis.
In 1941 he published his book The Structure of American Economy, 1919-1929, which became famous due to the new form of presentation economic relationships. His method provided an accurate description of the economic structure and even allowed predictions about the effects of economic policy interventions in this structure.
1946 Leontief was appointed professor.
Wassily Leontief died in 1999 in New York.
Abba P. Lerner as well as improved Leontief calculations Wilhelm Launhardts to terms-of- trade effect.
The birth dates of Leontief have long been unclear. He himself took part in his autobiography to have been born on August 5, 1906. However, in later years, he found out that he was born in 1905. His relatives were later able to obtain his birth certificate, which identifies as the birthplace Munich and date of birth as August 5, 1905. However, the Nobel Foundation continues to use the data that were known at the time of award.
Research
Leontief developed input- output analysis, for their development and application in major economic problems in 1973 he received the Nobel Prize. As part of its input-output studies, he discovered in 1953 that the U.S. mainly export goods that are produced labor-intensive. This contradicted the Heckscher- Ohlin theorem, it was concluded from the that the U.S. export as a capital rich country goods with a high capital content. This so-called Leontief paradox was resolved only in the sixties.
After the Leontief Leontief production function is named. He also formulated the paradise paradox.
Leontief Prize
In his honor, the eponymous economic sciences Tens price, the Leontief Prize, awarded since 2000.