William Vickrey
| Post Keynesian economics | |
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| Born | 21 June 1914 Victoria, British Columbia, Canada |
| Died | 11 October 1996 (aged 82) Harrison, New York, USA |
| Nationality | Canada |
| Institution | Columbia University |
| Field | Public economics |
| Alma mater | Columbia University Yale University |
| Opposed | Chicago school of economics |
| Influences | Robert Murray Haig Harold Hotelling John Maynard Keynes |
| Influenced | Jacques Drèze Harvey J. Levin Lynn Turgeon |
| Contributions | Vickrey auction Revenue equivalence theorem Congestion pricing |
| Awards | Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics (1996) |
William Spencer Vickrey (21 June 1914 – 11 October 1996) was a Canadian professor of economics and Nobel Laureate. Vickrey was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics with James Mirrlees for their research into the economic theory of incentives under asymmetric information. The announcement of the prize was made just three days prior to his death; his Columbia University economics department colleague C. Lowell Harriss accepted the prize posthumously on his behalf.
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Biography [edit]
Early years [edit]
Vickrey was born in Victoria, British Columbia and attended high school at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. After obtaining his B.S. in mathematics at Yale University in 1935, he went on to complete his masters in 1937 and doctoral studies in 1948 at Columbia University where he would remain for most of his career.
Career [edit]
Vickrey's paper, Counterspeculation, auctions and competitive sealed tenders, was the first of its kind using the tools of game theory to explain the dynamics of auctions. In his paper, Vickrey derives several auction equilibria, and provides an early revenue equivalence result. The revenue equivalence theorem remains the centrepiece of modern auction theory. The Vickrey auction is named after him.
He also did important work in congestion pricing, the idea that roads and other services should be priced so that users see the costs that arise from the service being fully used when there is still demand. Congestion pricing gives a signal to users to adjust their behaviour or to investors to expand the service in order to remove the constraint. His theory was later partially put into action in London.
In public economics, Vickrey extended the marginal cost pricing approach of Harold Hotelling.
Vickrey's economic philosophy was influenced by John Maynard Keynes and Henry George. He was sharply critical of the Chicago school of economics and the political focus on achieving balanced budgets and fighting inflation in times of high unemployment.
Vickrey had many graduate students and proteges at Columbia University, including the economists Jacques Drèze, Lynn Turgeon, and Harvey J. Levin.
Personal life [edit]
Vickrey was married to Cecile Thompson in 1951. He died in Harrison, New York in 1996 from heart failure. He was a Quaker and a member of Scarsdale Friends Meeting.
See also [edit]
- Vickrey auction
- Road pricing
- London congestion charge
- Electricity market
- List of economists
- List of think tanks
- Georgism
References [edit]
Much of Vickrey's work is collected in:
- Arrow, Kenneth Joseph; Vickrey, William S.; Arnott, Richard J.; Atkinson, Anthony A.; Drèze, Jacques (1997). Public Economics: Selected Papers by William Vickrey. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-59763-3.
- Pavlina R. Tcherneva; Vickrey, William S.; Forstater, Mathew (2004). Full Employment and Price Stability: The Macroeconomic Vision of William S. Vickrey. Edward Elgar Publishing. ISBN 1-84376-409-1.
- Vickrey, William S.; Warner, Aaron W.; Forstater, Mathew; Rosen, Sumner M. (2000). Commitment to Full Employment: The Economics and Social Policy of William S. Vickrey. Armonk, N.Y: M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 0-7656-0633-X.
External links [edit]
- Vickrey, William (October 5, 1996), Fifteen Fatal Fallacies of Financial Fundamentalism: A Disquisition on Demand Side Economics. Paper was written one week before the author's death, three days before he received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics.
- Nobel Laureate Biography of William Vickrey
- IDEAS/RePEc
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- 1914 births
- 1996 deaths
- American economists
- American Quakers
- Canadian economists
- Canadian emigrants to the United States
- Nobel laureates in Economics
- Georgist economists
- Columbia University faculty
- Columbia University alumni
- Yale University alumni
- People from Victoria, British Columbia
- Canadian Nobel laureates
- Naturalized citizens of the United States
- People from Hastings-on-Hudson, New York
