Economist of the Day

John Hicks

Born: April 8^th, 1904

Died: May 20^th, 1989

Summary: An English Economist. He studied Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Balliol College, Oxford. He formalized the theories put forth by John Maynard Keynes in The General Theory of Interest, Employment, and Money. He also put forth the elasticity of substitution theory, which states that labor saving techniques do not necessarily reduce the labor force’s share of national income. He also co-created the Kaldor-Hicks efficiency with Nicholas Kaldor. The theory states that economic policy should only be pursued if it helps more than it hurts and those helped can somehow compensate those hurt completely and still be better off. In his book Value and Capital, he contributed to general equilibrium theory, which differs from partial equilibrium, since general equilibrium is about the aggregate, not individual markets. In said book, he wrote that many of the assumptions made about value theory could be reached without measuring the utility of a good or service. He also made contributions to consumer demand theory. 

Notable Works: Value and Capital, The Theory of Wages, The Social Framework: An Introduction to Economics, Capital and Growth, A Contribution to the Theory of the Trade Cycle, A Revision of Demand Theory