Abba P. Lerner
Abba Ptachya Lerner (
October 28,
1903 -
October 27,
1982) was an
American economist.
Lerner was born on
October 28,
1903 in
Bessarabia. He grew up in a
Jewish family, which emigrated to
Great Britain, when Lerner was three years old. Lerner grew up in the
London East End. From the age of sixteen he worked as a machinist, a teacher in
Hebrew schools, and as a businessman. He entered the
London School of Economics in
1929. A six month stay at
Cambridge in 1934-1935 brought him into contact with
John Maynard Keynes. Abba married Fraucine Klining in 1936; they had one child, Albert, born in December of 1936.
In
1937 Lerner emigrated to the
United States.
*Just like
Oskar Lange, Lerner developed, a model of
market socialism, which differed form the pure
planned economy. It became known as the Third Way.
*Like
Wassily Leontief, Lerner improved the calculations made by
Wilhelm Launhardt on the effect of
terms of trade.
*Furthermore Lerner improved a formula of
Alfred Marshall, which is known since as the
Marshall-Lerner principle.
*The
Lerner-Samuelson theorem also goes back to Lerner.
*Lerner developed the concept of
distributive efficiency, which shows that economic equality will produce the greatest total happiness with a given amount of wealth.
*Lerner also contributed to the
Lange-Lerner-Taylor theorem.
*The
Lerner symmetry theorem states that an import tariff can have the same effects as an export tax.
*The
Lerner Index measures potential monopoly power as the negative inverse of
demand elasticity.
*
lhttp://www.economyprofessor.com/theorists/abbalerner.php*
http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/profiles/lerner.htm*
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Lerner.html
